Canarian fisheries producer organisation ANACEF is adding an educational dimension to its drive to showcase the benefits of fish and the fisheries sector.
The organisation, whose members own and operate vessels in waters off the coast of Africa and in the North Atlantic, regularly organises activities and events to promote sustainable fishing practices and the nutritional value of fish. It is also behind the «We like fish» campaign to encourage people in the Canaries to eat fish and support the fishing industry.
In this latest initiative to highlight the importance of fish and fisheries, ANACEF is to ‘cast its net’ in three schools in Santa Cruz de Tenerife next year to persuade teenagers there that fishing is a rewarding profession that offers a host of opportunities at present.
The outreach campaign, called Work in Fishing, was formally launched at an event held in the Tenerife capital yesterday. At pains to challenge the widely held view that fisheries is a tough profession with little future, ANACEF bosses outlined the many opportunities available in a sector that covers not just actual work on boats at sea but a host of related jobs in areas such as marketing, management and logistics, as well as research and sustainability.
Among the initiatives to kindle interest in the secondary schools chosen for the campaign, ANACEF has created a board game in which students play the role of vessel owners and take strategic decisions, compete with each other for fishing grounds and resolve challenges posed by life at sea. The game is seen as a fun and practical way for the students to gain a behind the scenes look at the profession and the challenges of managing fisheries resources.
The ANACEF campaign will be music to the ears of the fishing sector generally, which has repeatedly voiced its fears at the lack of new blood and – during the recent visit to Spain by the European Union’s Fisheries Commissioner, Kostas Kadis – called for measures to increase its financial attraction for younger generations.
