Fish identification course for fisheries law enforcement officers: Communicating scientific principles and methods where none existed

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Fish identification course for fisheries law
enforcement officers Communicating scientific
principles and methods where none existed
Ofer Gon, Gavin Gouws and Monica Mwale South
African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity,
Private Bag 1015, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa
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The Learners

• DEAT fisheries law enforcement officers
• Age group 23-39
• Education Matric certificate with little or no
  knowledge of biology

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Job description Why do the course?

• Enforcing fishing regulations (Marine Living
  Resource Act) through
• beach patrols
• Boat inspections
• Testifying in court cases of illegal fishers and
  poachers

Must be able to identify the fishes and defend
the identification in court
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Course objectives

• Learning the different parts (morphology) of the
  body of the fish
• Learning to take counts and measurements from a
  fish specimens and how they are used

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Fish Morphology
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Course objectives

• Understanding certain concepts, eg, scientific
  names, classification

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Course objectives

• Learning about and using identification keys
  Biological similarity

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Course programme
Day 1

• Tour of SAIAB and the fish collection
• Internet and library resources
• Fish morphology and its methodology
• Working with specimens - practical

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Course programme
Day 2

• The marine environment
• Fish systematics (names and classification)
• Identification keys and how they work
• Fish identification - practical

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Course programme
Days 3 4

• The coelacanth story
• Fish identification practical
• Practical test

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Questionnaire results
Class 1 (n10) Class 1 (n10) Class 2 (n8) Class 2 (n8) Class 3 (n8) Class 3 (n8) Class 4 (n9) Class 4 (n9) Total Total
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
Met expectations 8 1 7 1 8 7 2 88.2 11.8
Objectives achieved 9 1 8 8 9 97.1 2.9
Lectures, etc. relevant to course 9 1 8 8 8 1 94.3 5.7
Contents relevant 10 100
Understanding of concepts 9 8 8 8.5 0.5 98.5 1.5
Difficulty to understand material 2 6 8 6 3 32 68
Gaining knowledge on their own 10 8 8 9 100
Conducive atmosphere 9 7 1 8 7 2 91.2 8.8
Recommend course to colleagues 9 1 8 8 8 1 94.3 5.7
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Course highlights
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Course experience
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Teachers observations

• Learners had inadequate skills in maths could
  not calculate percentages without assistance and
  did not understand proportions
• They were weak in terms English language reading
  and comprehension, and general knowledge
• They had a difficulty with abstract thinking and
  little analytical skill (at least partly due to
  language)
• These weaknesses required much teacher learner
  interaction
• Nevertheless, they were generally highly
  motivated to increase their knowledge practical
  skills

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Conclusions

• By their own admission, the learners acquired a
  lot of new knowledge, but they will need more
  practical experience under supervision to become
  proficient and confident in fish identification
• Considering their educational background, the
  novelty of the subject and the duration of the
  course the learners performed well
• There is a need to develop a more user-friendly
  fish identification tool

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Acknowledgements
We thank management, and members of staff of
SAIAB and DEAT for their assistance and support
in running the fish identification courses.