• We have chatted to FAO consultant Esther Boy about her experience as former CIHEAM Zaragoza student, her professional career in the fishing sector and her current efforts to combat illegal fishing

Zaragoza, 2 October 2024.- Esther Boy is a consultant for the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). A naval engineer by training, Esther participated in the first edition of the International Master in Fisheries Economics and Management (now International Master in Sustainable Fisheries Management) jointly organised by CIHEAM Zaragoza and other institutions.

Boy tells us that the master gave her a wider vision of the sector, complementing the knowledge she already had of technical and regulatory aspects and giving her insight into the real situation of fisheries control in other countries. “This training was incredibly useful because it built on what I already knew and gave me a much broader vision”.

Esther spent over 20 years working in fisheries inspections in Spain, reaching the position of head inspector of all the national inspection and surveillance services. Currently her work at the FAO is focused on supporting developing countries and helping them to fulfil their international responsibilities to combat illegal fishing, by improving their legislative capacity to implement effective monitoring, control and surveillance systems.

For this expert, in order to achieve the sustainability of the fishing sector it is vital to raise awareness among fishing communities, governments and consumers. In this sense, she recommends strategies that help the final consumer to make a responsible choice, based not only on the characteristics of the fish but also on its legal origin. These strategies would discourage illegal fishing and make it less profitable.

Esther ends by saying: “We should be aware that fishing activity is based on depletable natural resources, therefore it is important to deploy all necessary means to make it sustainable and thus guarantee the availability of this food resource in the future”.

See the full interview in the following video: