Titu Beach Workshop

A dedicated event solely for the fishing community in titu beach, Ambon was organised.  Attendees included the head of the fishing community of the area as well as the leader of the area. Here, more in depth aspects of the fisher aid were described to facilitate a discussion on what they believe are the key barriers of entry to amking and using it.  Insight into resources, skillsets, supply lines were discussed at large, together with more cultural and social aspects.  To help coordinate this, the University of Pattimura entrusted the help of it’s naval architecture students, directed by their lecturer and project partner Dr Wolter Hetharia.  Fishers were subdivided into smaller groups and were questioned by these students to capture the overall sentiment better. 

The overall feedback was very positive with many finding the concept of a fishing aid on a buoyancy aid as an added bonus.  The majority of fishers acknowledged that such a design could save a life but confided in the group why they may struggle to build it.  Some felt that they did not have the skills while others feared that they would make a mistake.  A discussion to explore what would make them feel more confident to pursue a build highlighted the importance of hosting similar practical workshops.  There is no doubt that the fishers had a positive outlook to the fisher aid since more than 70% of them said that they would wear it. More work needs to be done in this field to get more fishers access to the information and empower them to build the design.

The safety at sea workshop included live demonstrations, fit outs and testing of the lifejacket. It was also possible to cover other important safety aspects such as stability assessments of boats. An informal survey was carried out to demonstrate how small modifications to their vessel could enable safer operation.