Twenty-eight students graduated from the FNU Fiji Maritime Academy in Nasese, Suva after the completion of the month-long deckhand fishing program last week.
They were part of the WWF-Pacific and Fiji Maritime Authority coordinated program with the support of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) – Bycatch and Integrated Ecosystem Management (BIEM) initiative.
The BIEM initiative is a key result of area five of the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership (PEUMP) program, which is funded by the European Union and the Government of Sweden and is executed by SPREP. Out of the 90 scholarships offered, 65 participants were chosen for the course.
The two courses that were part of the program were Basic Sea Safety and Deckhand Fishing. Officiating at the event, Fiji Maritime Academy chief executive officer Captain Rajitha Semage said Fiji had a demand for trade personnel in the fishing industry.