Diversification of fishing ports into a range of marine-linked businesses has been a regular theme in World Fishing’s reporting over the last five years. But it is only when you meet a firebrand such as Mike Leece that you realise that converting port sheds or trying to promote new landside services is not enough to determine whether we can continue to harness the wealth of the seas. It is the positive attitude of people, especially the young, which brings change.
Mike has always had his feet in salt water. He was born on a wisp of an island, Walney, a sliver of sand with a cluster of houses, opposite Barrow-in-Furness off the northwest coast of England. His career started in the Barrow shipyard – “An apprentice draughtsman – in modern parlance, a technician apprentice,” he says. The yard was known worldwide as Vickers and later became the construction site for nuclear submarines. Mike worked on vessels including the British Admiral, launched in March 1965. “The biggest ship in Europe of its day,” he adds.
And 40 years later he is in another naval city, Plymouth, at NMA. “The original cost was £13m and with all the extensions has now cost £21m. It opened in May 1998.”
NMA
He says the passion of his staff (totalling some 85, full-time equivalent personnel) is aimed at helping young people and the general public grasp how much land and sea are part of the way we live and earn. NMA covers everything from the life cycle of sea horses to working as a diver in the oil and gas industry.
They are benevolent plunderers. “There is sub sea equipment from the oil and gas industry as part of the exhibition at the moment. We’ve got a Christmas tree, a saturation diving bell and a wellhead outside the aquarium for the public to see the range and scale of the challenges to be overcome in recovering hydrocarbons from the deep ocean.”
The 30-tonne unit was donated by Shell and refurbished by Subsea UK whose boss, David Pridden, is cited by NMA as saying it is part of a strategy to encourage more young people into marine science and engineering where there is a shortage of recruits. Other parts of the display show how sub sea technology works and include remotely operated vehicles and underwater cameras.
Visitors to NMA are running at 300,000 a year of which 70,000 are schoolchildren who come either just to look, or follow specific courses laid on for them as part of their school curriculum. NMA staff also train the children’s teachers to develop projects for classes on every aspect of the oceans. “We go out to several hundred schools and the staff are very enthusiastic about these visits, particularly when our educationalists bring together art, drama and science.”
It is a bit of a surprise to see an aquarium running painting and acting classes for students. Yet it makes perfect sense when one looks back at the great stories which have entertained landlubbers throughout history, from tales of monsters to films of old men battling the sea and its denizens. Antique fairs and classy auction rooms would be far poorer were it not for the handiwork of sailors and great artists across the ages.
“The first target group are the 9 to 16 year-olds. Later this year we’re opening a “nippers’ trail” for 3 to 5 year-olds. This is backed by the government’s arts and science foundation, NESTA,” he added.
NMA has already started rolling out an on-line educational service on the Web. This allows schools and other organisations to store their own programmes on the portal and interact with course material which NMA has developed. A close look shows this is not just ‘ideas’ thrown together for classroom discussion, but detailed and exam-linked projects which are designed for different ages and abilities across different subjects.
This approach is reinforced by a recent partnership with Sky News. NMA says it now offers up-to-the-minute footage on climate change, provided by Sky, which is displayed in a virtual Climate Lab. The latter is part of 20 exhibits in NMA’s ExplorOcean zone.
Work experience
There are work experience programmes, not just for youngsters, but also for older and mature students, perhaps fishermen building a portfolio of different skills to earn when not fishing. “There’s a whole range of work experience each year, whether that is from tourism, husbandry, education, even in our engineering and our IT departments.”
I asked whether they had schemes like those which World Fishing had reported on from France, e.g. in boat handling and for youngsters to take exams for day and night-time license to operate boats at sea.
“Some of the courses at the training centres under the auspices of Marine South West, enable organisations such as the Royal Yachting Association, to run courses in those centres to increase their utilisation. So, partnerships and collaboration is the theme there.”
As for courses in radio, electronic acoustic skills and other modern requirements of today’s fishermen, he says, “You can set them up. Basically, the facilities are there to respond to business needs. If there is a strong enough demand, then courses, which are not normally available at some of the colleges, can be put on to meet specific business needs.”
Fish ecology themes also make young people aware of the importance of good statistics and stock data, quotas, fish processing, traceability, consumer expectations etc. “This is part of the process we are going to increase. For example, we are just doing a deal with a local, quite famous restaurant, where they want to make their menu more sustainable. And we are providing them with the advice.”
In terms of diversification of Plymouth, this fish cuisine push was a reflection of how NMA was reactive. “There’s a number of restaurants which are saying ‘yes, this [sustainability] is obviously a major concern; how do we participate more in this? And let’s try and put on at least one special dish’. Others are going further and looking at more sustainable sources. We have now taken our own restaurant service in house (it was a concession before) and use local produce throughout. Plymouth is a big fishing port, we talk to the fishermen and in fact the food that our own ‘fish ambassadors’ eat is from the local fish market.” He says they call fish in the NMA tanks ‘ambassadors’ because that is the role they play for visitors learning about the sea. The term also helps explain to people why the NMA keeps fish in the first place.
Outside the box
They get a lot of support from politicians one of whom recently organised a consultation link with Kazakhstan in Central Asia for aquarium collaboration. NMA sees itself as part of a pan-European network with similar enterprises such as Oceanopolis in France and Vigo in Galicia.
Last October, 150 people from businesses in Plymouth attended a Marine South West conference in Torquay to hear about best practice in the marine world and to network with similar firms.
“Marine South West is a business-led, semi-governmental body, primarily funded through the regional development agency. Its principal business is to help industry in the southwest become more competitive. Its major initiatives are focused on skills training, covering all aspects of ship and boat building and repairing. That covers everything from physical building to electronics. It is also very focused on their supply chains as well; for example, equipment such as winches and windlasses.”
Mike told the meeting he hoped that, by 2010, the region's marine industry would be regarded as 'The most competitive, innovative and coherent across Europe. “We are currently delivering a £4m business plan, which came directly from your input at our last conference in 2003,” he told delegates.
Government seems to like this approach too. Keynote speaker and science minister Lord Sainsbury said, "I am pleased that Marine South West is to continue giving priority in its next business plan to technology and innovation and to skills and training." He also praised Marine South West's decision to open three marine skills centres in the region, including one in Plymouth, which would train some 1,500 people a year.
Part of Mike’s tactic is to maximise other resources and think out of the box. NMA played an important part in creating an artificial reef with HMS Scylla, the last warship to be built in Plymouth's Devonport Royal Naval Dockyard. It was carefully scuttled in Whitsand Bay, Cornwall.
A local group wanted to extend her life, but on the seabed as a dive site. NMA managed the project and administered the public funds used to buy the ship and prepare her for placement. It was a nice fit for NMA’s educational aspiration to highlight "man's interaction with the oceans". The dive site project is on course to generate around £1m/year through landside B&B for divers, dive boat hire, equipment purchase etc. It also means biologists have a controlled site to monitor sea life and part of the project uses cameras to beam live images to the aquarium.
Young faces
What drives him and his staff? “Passion about the oceans and their relevance and importance to future generations. Seeing the faces of the young people when the wonderment of the oceans becomes apparent to them and they see the natural world and importantly man’s interaction to the oceans,” he says.
The litmus test will be how many young people go on to maritime jobs. He believes the message is getting across. “One of the things we do under the auspices of Marine Southwest is to run the Schools’ Marine Challenge each year. This is aimed at 15 and 16 year-olds, They get to design and build an 85cm powerboat and a photovoltaic power boat, and then we have an annual race day. We have records which show children participating in those technology events have later pursued careers in the marine and maritime sector.”
Local school leavers such as Sophie Mace have been inspired. She began her career working on the National Marine Aquarium’s new £3.6m Science and Technology Centre ‘ExplorOcean’. "I wanted a career path that I could start straight from school. I could have chosen to take ‘A’ levels and go to university, but I wanted to earn, learn and be independent. I think I have found the perfect job for me. It’s interesting, varied and you get to work with lots of different people. I would urge other women to consider the industry – it’s not just for men.”
Mike makes it all look easy. His latest plan is to turn the 45m high grain silo on the docks at Plymouth from a brown-site elephant into a diving training tower. The bad news was he had just failed to get it designated as a ‘living monument’ – undaunted, that simply means he is off again, seeking other funding options.
“Aquaria are the cornerstone of regeneration,” he said. “They are great educational tools. They have been fantastic regeneration vehicles in lots of run-down marine and maritime cities throughout the world – Baltimore and Monterey Bay (built on the Hovden Canning factory) Hull, Brest, Boulogne… We have also developed the Marine Science Partnership, with comprises the University of Plymouth, the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, the Marine Biological Association and the Sir Alastair Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science. We provide the communication vehicle for the scientists.”
