Love for the sea
GROWING up in the islands, Josaia Maiwai had always loved going out to sea. He would spend hours out at sea with friends and family members fishing or swimming.
Today, he would look back and admire how those trips allowed him to pick out a dream career to become a fisheries officer and be an advocate of the ocean.
The Muamua, Vanuabalavu native from Lau is an enforcement officer with the Ministry of Fisheries.
For the past seven years or so, his work revolved around the inspection of all foreign and local fishing vessels coming into Fiji waters and inspection of fishery products that are exported and imported.
After completing his secondary education at Holy Cross College, there was no looking back for the 31-year-old.
He joined the Fiji National University and graduated with a Diploma in Applied Fisheries Technology before landing a career with the ministry.
At a time when illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing becomes a worry in the country, Mr Maiwai and his other colleagues are working round-the-clock to ensure the issue is tackled.
A few weeks ago, he was part of
a bilateral exchange team that toured the Hawaii and Fiji waters for eight days onboard the US Naval boat - US Coast Guard Cutter Stratton.
“Given the limited resources and assets that we have, we are fortunate to have this bilateral agreement with the US,” Mr Maiwai said.
“The experience was great given the fact that I haven’t been on a US ship before.
“The patrol went according to plan, not much inspections were done when we came into Fiji waters and this was basically because of the bad weather we faced but a lot has transpired from this in terms of dialogue exchange, sharing of ideas and I think most importantly mapping out areas which we could improve issues in the future.”
As a Fijian and an enforcement officer, Mr Maiwai firmly believes the issue of illegal and unreported fishing needed to be identified and eradicated so as to save fish species for the sake of future Fijian generations.
He also believed everyone had an important role to play to tackle such illegal activities at sea and hoped Fijians would take the issue seriously and worked together for the betterment of every citizen.
After completing his secondary education at Holy Cross College, there was no looking back for the 31-year-old