Teaching young people about fisheries

To achieve this, 15 fishermen decided to cooperate with the local FLAG to design an education package as an extracurricular activity in schools to raise awareness about sustainable fishing and its cultural heritage. They were helped by the local university which provided the methodology and support to design the activities.

Three local schools joined the project and introduced these extracurricular activities to their pupils. These involved three courses including workshops facilitated by the fishermen and the FLAG. Each course was organized into three modules on different topics – aquaculture, ecology/environment and fishing history and heritage – and was complemented by field trips to fish farms and nearby rivers as well as different drawing, photography and essay contests related to the three themes. The children and young people learnt how to design and build a fishkeeping system (e.g. aquarium), how to identify different species of local fish and how to use fishing tools for leisure fishing (e.g. preparing a fishing rod, using live bait, casting techniques etc.). Throughout the courses, the importance of eating fresh, local fish was also highlighted, along with the benefits of including fish as part of a healthy diet. The initiative was supported by the local municipalities and 15 civil servants from public institutions involved in the FLAG helped with the logistics.

By the end of the project, 75 pupils and 9 teachers from the FLAG area had participated in the courses and, due to high demand from the local schools and others that would like to join the programme, the FLAG expects to continue with the activity in the current programming period.