A Suva man, Robert Stone, has returned from the United States as the first Fiji citizen to obtain a degree in commercial fishing.
According to The Fiji Times on August 18, 1975, Mr Stone, 29, was the acting Principal Fisheries Officer with the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Forests.
He gained his degree with high distinction after two years at Rhode Island University.
Mr Stone held an earlier degree in marine biology from the University of Auckland.
“I have lived in Lami all my life and have been fishing all the time,” he said.
“I have never thought of anything else.”
His studied at the US’s only university with a commercial fishing degree program which covered the operation of diesel engines, hydraulics, navigation, seamanship, fishing economics, fish processing, naval architecture and fishing gear.
Students spent some time working on board New England fishing boats to gain first-hand experience.
During his summer vacation Mr Stone won a graduate award to build a 25ft fibre glass dory, which was used at the university.
He designed the boat and built it almost single-handed. As an international student, Mr Stone represented his university at a conference in Washington to discuss the training of fishermen.
He presented a training program for the South Pacific which he said might possibly be introduced in Fiji.
Mr Stone visited various centres in the US to get a first-hand look at the country’s tuna industry. He went to the tuna ports of San Diego, San Pedro, Seattle and Hawaii.
One of Mr Stone’s most important tasks in Fiji was to establish a tuna industry.
He said the course he completed was designed to give fishing skippers a better grasp of their job because of the diversity of subjects they were taught.
Mr Stone also worked to establish fishing as an alternative source of income for hurricane-affected areas such as Kadavu and Lau.
His work included exploratory deep-sea fishing projects outside Fiji’s reefs.
That would be line fishing for grouper and snapper and would enable fishermen to utilise deep-sea resources. Commercial production would begin if the exploratory project was successful, he added.
