Source: Fish and Information Services
The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture (MPA) anticipated that the Government aims to train skilled manpower in high seas fisheries in order to secure the capture of resources of great commercial value, such as tuna.
“High seas fishing industry needs to be encouraged because Brazil only achieves 2 percent of the set quota for tuna fishing in the Atlantic Ocean. And if the country does not catch this fish, its share of the quota is lost. It is a highly commercialized resource in the world and we can become exporters of this species,†said Minister Luiz Sérgio.
High seas fishing is performed with longlines and by skilled labor, which is unusual in Brazil.
Given the need for crew trained in deep sea fishing, fishing companies hire foreigners, a situation that the minister wants to change.
On 8 July, Sérgio signed an agreement in Natal to train deep-sea fishermen, through the National Industrial Apprenticeship Service (Senai) with a Japanese technical consulting agency.
“When employers hire boats, we have no labor so it comes from the Philippines or from Japan, the minister explained. The agreement signed by the Ministry, the government of Rio Grande do Norte and Senai will allow Japanese technicians to settle in the country for three years and transfer that technology to fishermen.â€
“It is professional fishing and we need to train workers to participate in that market, which is hard-fought in the world,†added Sérgio.
The main purpose of the government is to train about 400 workers to fish in areas which are between 200 and 400 meters deep, Jornal do Commercio reported.
“Fishing has a significant economic potential for employment and for protein generation. We have already increased the consumption from 7 to 9 kilograms per capita per year, but we are in a lower consumption level than the one recommended by health agencies,†MPA head added.