Priority 4: Training/Marine Academy Working Group Meeting Minutes

North Thames Fisheries Local Action Group (NTFLAG) Training and Marine Academy Working Group Meeting
Monday 22nd May 4-6pm| Meeting location Leigh Community Centre

Attendees: Amy Pryor (Thames Estuary Partnership), Anna Patel (NTFLAG), Kesella Scott-Somme (NTFLAG), Giles Tofield (Cultural Engine), Clive Monk (Eastern Seafish Training Association), Simon Bywater (Eastern Seafish Training Association), Emma Deary (DP World) and Claire Dumontier-Marriage (Local Resident).

Introduction

We have a main board, as we have five broad priority areas (these explained in more detail, see LDS for more information on this). The area the NTFLAG covers isThurrocktoShoeburyness. We are keen to use the fisheries action group to replicate some of the work using wider EMFF funding. Fishermen are a skilled workforce and those skills have the potential to be useful in all sorts of roles, so training could have a legacy for introduction into these highly skilled roles.We are also keen to get fishermen more involved in the local community, and to create more activity and opportunity in Leigh. We have present Clive Monk and Simon Bywaterfrom Eastern Seafish Training Association, who run courses, which are supported by Seafish, who run the courses fishermen legally need to take to work at sea, which are sea survival, health and safety, first aid, fire fighting and risk assessment courses. They also run enhanced courses for Skippers tickets, navigation and others.

Issues

  • Make sure we are providing what the fishermen want and need, do this via a meeting with them.
  • FLAG potentially wanted to fund a building for training, is there value in having a space for this? We want people to know that training happens regularly in the same space, but as Seafish already use a space and run courses do we need an alternative? Especially when there is a maximum of 16 on a course so the space might not be needed.
  • How often would we use this potential building?Felixstowefishing association always have people for the courses they run, but problem is these courses only need doing once, even if it is free to do it again, and most/all fishermen in Leigh have completed it.
  • We currently have very little DATA to work with.
  • Maritime activity centers already exist.
  • Those wanting to be involved don’t necessarily want to take ownership, so we need to bring it to them.
  • We want to put a survey together to find out what fishermen want from this priority, but need to bear in mind that many of them have difficulty reading and writing, so need to think about how we get this information from them.
  • It might be daunting for people to start with, having a consistent building a brand will hopefully help build a base/hub of people.
  • As some of these ideas target children and young people, will we be able to fund through the FLAG, as we may not be able to show direct fisheries benefit?

Ideas

  • Could Billingsgate be responsible for best practice and wecould bring people back there? Linking to business and on to the restaurants etc.
  • U3A? Older people who want to learn more, worth talking to them and see how they get older people to up skill, which we could apply to fishermen?
  • Richard approached Princes Trust and they don't want to do more training around fishermen, but are interested inNEET and training for them, could we develop something around this?
  • Fishermen’smission do welfare work for isolated fishermen, they're interested in doing training also, for fishermen on hard times, potential collaboration for a project.
  • Fishermen can sometimes have issues doing their admin work: could set up an apprentice/volunteer/partnership scheme to get students to help them.
  • Getting education around littering into school’s curriculum
  • Connecting with the Ocean literacy program run by the marine biological association (MBA) and marine conservation society (MCS), the idea of which is that aquatic water bodies can underpin every subject.
  • Getting fishermen to go into schools to talk to young children about their work and to older children and young adults about opportunities/realities of working in the field.
  • Fishermen have expressed interest in practical courses like blacksmithing and boat building, maybe developing this on the sea front where there is more space.
  • Could tie traditional boatbuilding/refurbishment of old boats in with modern crafts, culture and heritage, fishing for litter and the circular economy. By selling found objects, connecting with art galleries and documenting/using unusual items like telephone boxes that can be pulled up. Space for innovation here. (Goats).
  • Science training, and training for scientists, conservationists and NGOs.
  • Get fishermen to supply live fish to classrooms for them to care for.
  • Coastal awareness course run by fishermen for children/locals to understand local area, currents etc.
  • Could we use the FLAG building as a base for school children coming from London?
  • Get funding from local business to fund a Southend project around some of the ideas that don’t show obvious benefit for fishermen.

Actions

  • Talk to Thames College, and the building at Gravesend that already runs fishery courses, about running courses through them, or basing ourselves there.
  • Talk to local fish smokeries about doing smoking training.
  • Seaferrislink: Emma to send Amy contact.
  • Find out thesuperheads (which run several schools) to talk to r.e. school connections.
  • C2C know how many schools come out; try to get this data from them.
  • FLAG need to talk to fishermen about what they want, to the jobcenteraboutwhat’sneeded and to colleges about what they might think.
  • City of London might have education and training as a priority and could be a source of help/funding? Claire to find out.
  • Giles to find details of project where schools shared learning materials to connect with.
  • Talk to SAVS? They do some interesting projects we could link on.

Any Other Business

  • Signage was discussed but was deemed a better fit under marketing priority or through the council.
  • Green infrastructure along the key was mentioned with regards to access points (very difficult to get out if you fall in) to come under infrastructure?

Note: If anyone is interested in doing the food tasting for the Tideway event totally Thames. 23rd September at Kew Bridge. - expecting about 1,000 people, would be great if we could get a local chef and fishermen, we could pay expenses.