Yellow fin

Blue waters Yellow fin

CAPTAIN Navitalai Volavola, 39, master of Ika 9, fleet superinten dent and fishmaster all rolled into one, remembers fishing with his dad in the blue waters of Fiji’s Yasawa group of islands, and the sea has been a magnet for him ever since.

Fishing, he

says, is not just throwing out a line and waiting for a bite: “You must know how to approach a school of fish; what size hook to use be cause some fish are very sensi tive and their

responses are different; you must note the colour of the water, the wind condi tions, the sea temperature and even the type of bait you’re going to use.”

Determined to be either a farmer or fisherman, Captain Volavola attended Navuso Agricultural College, Nausori, outside Suva where he studied animal and crop husbandry. He then joined the Lakena Irrigation Scheme as a field assistant checking varieties of rice, but decided that if he was to get his hands wet, he’d rather be at sea, so he joined the Fiji Fisheries Department in 1971.

Seconded to the corporation in 1977, he resigned from the Fisheries Depart ment in 1978 to work for Ika. He spent a year in the United Kingdom where he studied for a Master Fisherman’s Diplo ma. “When our new boats start to oper ate, we will be tough competition for the Japanese,” he says.

With his crew of 28, Captain Volavola is away for three weeks of each month between November to July. “Ika’s cor poratisation will help push Fijians to wards promoting ourselves in the busi ness world,” he says. □

Volavola