FISHING INTO THE FUTURE LAUNCHES FISHING PORTHOLE WEBSITE

Fishermen-led charity, Fishing into the Future (FITF), is launching a new website this Friday. The Fishing Porthole website is a dedicated portal, spearheaded by the fishing industry, aimed at improving understanding and collaboration in fisheries management and science.

The Fishing Porthole offers a free and open access online resource to provide a one-stop-shop for learning, sharing, collaborating and supporting people in the industry with the tools to become better informed and connected within the fisheries sector.  The site presents new purpose-built resources, created in collaboration with a team of experts from universities, industry and government, on a growing range of topics such as public speaking, accessing funding, jargon busting, a map of who’s who of the UK fishing industry, fisheries science, fisheries management and economics.

David Stevens, Fishermen and FITF Chairman said “As fishermen, we are used to navigating fishing grounds, but less confident at finding our way round the internet. Too often, the important stuff is spread over various websites, buried through endless links, and it’s not an intuitive process to find out what we need.”  The collaborative site will host Fishing into the Futures bitesize learning resources, and also link to third-party materials to help streamline important, sought-after information into one simple-to-navigate platform.  David added “We also have a problem within the industry with misinformation and identifying credible science from fake news, or sometimes if you want to raise an issue about fisheries science or management, it can be unclear how to go about it and who to reach out to. This site will provide a foundation to improve the way we connect, communicate, and participate in fisheries – effectively breaking down some of the barriers and giving people in the industry a better opportunity to access the best knowledge and communicate with one another about science, management, and seafood business.”

The timely development of the website aligns with the UK government reaffirming its ambition to achieve world-class sustainable fisheries management in the Draft Joint Fisheries Statement, along with developing and strengthening arrangements for co-management. Fishing into the Future’s ethos is based around a co-management built on shared participation, effective dialogue and mutual understanding between the fishing industry, scientists, and fishermen managers, in particular, enabling more representative participation of people working in UK fisheries. The initial build of the Porthole Website already includes accessible information to develop knowledge and help people reach out and communicate with one another, with further resources under development to be shared at a later date.

FITF Executive Director, Emma Plotnek, said, “Before Covid we focused on in person interactions, but the last couple of years has led us to link up online, on a variety of different platforms. This website will support our continued in-person workshops and events and be accessible to a wider group of people working in fisheries.”

She added, ”We don’t think of this as our own creation – we have spoken to people in the industry, science and management and putting their bright ideas into action, it’s a resource by and for everyone working in UK fisheries. It’s still in its infancy and we are ambitious that it will flourish according to what is relevant.”

Explore the site

Some of the key topics included have been identified from discussions with the industry and the initial set of the Fishing Porthole resources have been developed with funding from DEFRA’s FaSS scheme and the Fishmongers’ Company, with plans to continue development to create an extensive portfolio of information and resources tailored to the needs and interests of people working in UK Fisheries.

The site has been developed to be used on desktop or mobile – making it accessible for browsing from the wheelhouse or outside of a physical office workspace.