Fisheries Protection Officer

Job Title: Fisheries Protection Officer
Department: Natural Resources
Section: Fisheries Protection
Reports to: Operations Manager
Grade: Falkland Island Government Grade – D2
Job Code: 322FP1-3

Job Purpose

To provide an efficient fishery protection service to uphold regulations, ensure that FIG Conservation Policy is  implemented, and to support the provision of Harbour Control services.

Main Accountabilities

• Monitor compliance with relevant Fishery and Marine laws, investigating cases and preparing prosecution  cases as required to uphold the law for Falkland Islands (FI), and the Convention for the Conservation of  Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR); and respond to and investigate reports of illegal fishing  activities, taking enforcement action where necessary to ensure compliance with fisheries legislation. 
• Deployment and tasking of fishery protection vessels and aircraft to provide surveillance and monitoring.  
• Collate, enter, analyse, display and act upon information gathered from fishing vessels, agents and other  sources in order to produce accurate reports on incidents.  
• Manage, implement and update the fishery protection vessel patrol plan by conducting surveillance,  boarding fishing vessels and making best use of the vessel to uphold regulations and conservation policy  (patrols at sea of variable duration).  
• Liaise with the Operations Manager and Licensing Officer to ensure timely and appropriate actions regarding  the licensing process and any subsequent compliance issues. 
• Maintain and develop good liaison with all relevant stakeholders including marine protection vessels and  fishing vessels, agents and military representatives to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of duties.  
• Subject to being appropriately trained and experienced for the tasks, provide support to the Maritime  Authority as requested. 
• As appropriate, in accordance with a request from the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) Government, provide Fisheries Protection assistance and support to SGSSI Fisheries Protection operations. 
• Objectively gather facts, determine options and draw logical conclusions in accordance with Fisheries  guidelines.
• Encourage and develop a safety conscious culture within the team to deliver high impact fisheries  enforcement and minimise the health & safety risk to the team or any other individual.
• Produce required documentation, reports and casefiles to agreed quality standards to support operational  work, management decisions, public enquiries, court appeals etc, so that information and evidence is  accurately and effectively presented.  

• The job description is not an exclusive or exhaustive definition of your duties. You shall undertake such  additional or other duties as may reasonably be required by FIG commensurate with your role and grade

Additional Information

This position will be a combination of normal office-based hours with an on-call rota, and at-sea deployment on  the Fishery Patrol Vessel on a rotational basis. 

When based ashore, normal office hours are: 0800 – 1200; 1300 – 1630; Monday – Friday. Weekends will also  be worked as part of normal duty rosters for the control room and programmed inspection duties. 

When based ashore, an on-call rota system operates on a weekly basis. An on-call fee will be paid for each week  on call.  

Working as a Fisheries Protection Officer involves a great deal of physical activity. All successful applicants will  be required to pass a physical and medical assessment prior to appointment. These assessments are required  to ascertain whether individuals have any prior injuries or conditions that may pose an occupational safety and  health risk to them or colleagues in the future. The tests are designed to measure a future employee’s physical 

fitness level so that we can understand that person’s ability to operate in adverse working conditions.  Some of the physical activities a Fisheries Protection Officer may be expected to perform include: 

• Working effectively on vessels at sea and travelling significant distances by vehicle and aircraft, without  being unduly affected by motion sickness.  
• Driving 4WD vehicles over rough roads or operating a small vessel in open sea conditions.  

• Coping with and handling potentially volatile situations and disengaging from a high-risk encounter before  physical threat or assault occurs.