Report of the International Training Course for Fishery Extension Officers in Extension Methodology and Responsible Fishing

Abstract

The primary aim of fisheries extension service is to assist groups of small-scale fishermen to develop their fishery activities, to raise their socio-economic status and their living conditions. One way of doing this is to strengthen the extension service systems these being designed to organize fishery activities in the communities. Due to the decline of fishery resources the extension services must focus on creating awareness in the fisher folk to be responsible in their use of the fishery resources by using fishing gear that are not harmful to the marine environment. The fishing communities of the grassroots organizations must be strengthened to play an important role in taking care of, and re-habilitating their fishery resources. In order to strengthen the extension service systems, the fishery extension officers must be trained to have adequate skills in communication, dissemination and to demonstrate the necessary information to their target fishermen. Producing simple media and Audio-Visual media is sometimes necessary for the extension officer in order to simplify their message for their audience. The fishery extension officers also should have skills and knowledge to conduct extension programs, which will be started after identifying the problems, planning the program, implementing and evaluation in terms of achievement of the program and management.