A project of the Education and Outreach APO Focus Area

Project Overview

Fisheries Observers are vastly non-existent in the general public's eyes. With this project we hope to expose this increasingly important profession to the wider public, and in so doing, tell the tale of the Fisheries Observer. Eyes on the Seas (EOS) involves the creation of an educational and entertaining book - a collaborative effort, with contributions from Observers hailing from many areas of the world - comprising a collection of stories, factual and fictional anecdotes, poetry, artwork, and images. Contributions are imaginatively arranged into chapters intending to portray the various facets of the profession - demonstrating the functions that Observers serve in the responsible management and conservation of worldwide marine living resources, while at the same time exhibiting the creative spirit unique to this seafaring profession.

Project Updates

[Last Updated, April 2009] - Currently, there are over 40 people involved in some aspect of this project. We have a sense of how contributions will fit into chapters, grouped by like-themed contributions, and are now working on putting together a working manuscript. Profiles of all contributors will be featured in an appendix of the book. We feel that this should prove to be very interesting for readers, who will have the opportunity to appreciate the personal side of entries and get a good sense of the diversity and wealth of experience of EOS contributors.

Though we hope to be soon, we have yet to start working with a publisher. When we have a Draft Manuscript ready, we will ask several select individuals from among various stakeholder groups (who have a vested interest in the professional development of Fisheries Observers) to review Eyes on the Seas, providing feedback to us by a specified deadline. At the same time, we will be: recruiting for Foreword and Afterword authors, making proposals to desirable publishers, and inviting support (from governmental and non-governmental - private and public sources) in the production of this project. We are presently devising a set of criteria meant to delineate financial Support Levels by standard levels of exposure in the Eyes on the Seas publication (i.e. supporting individuals and organizations mentioned in Acknowledgements vs. logo depiction on the back cover of the book). By setting up a mechanism for standard levels of financial support, we hope to encourage wide endorsement while maintaining the independent nature of the project.

Though we are quite ambitious for when we would like to have Eyes on the Seas available for sale, it is still too early to tell when exactly this long-awaited date will be. Thank you all for your patience. Please, do check back here for periodic updates on the progress of the EOS project (also to be printed in the quarterly-published Mail Buoy newsletter), and you will of course be able to order your First Edition copies of Eyes on the Seas here as soon as they are available.

Profits from book-sales will be used for creating Observer scholarship opportunities and for facilitating future APO projects, all geared at fostering the professional advancement of Fisheries Observers.

Contact Information

If you wish to: be considered for participation as an Eyes on the Seas Draft Manuscript Reviewer; endorse, financially support, or contribute in any manor to its production; or have any questions or comments to share, please contact us at:

General Project Email: eyesontheseas@gmail.com
Keith Davis: lblegend@yahoo.com
Glenn Quelch: glenn.quelch@yahoo.co.uk
Anik Clemens: anikclemens@yahoo.com

Project Resources

Eyes on the Seas Project Plan (Phase 1): Follow this link to "Phase 1" of the Eyes on the Seas project plan. Some of the information in this document has changed since drafting (i.e. many of the dates listed under the production timeline have changed and we have since added another editor to our team, Anik Clemens). Nevertheless, this reference still provides a quite worthy overview of the Eyes on the Seas vision. We hope to have Eyes on the Seas Project Plan (Phase 2) available here soon.

Acknowledgements

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have already contributed their time and efforts into this project. Aside from the multitude of contributors from some of the furthest reaches of the globe who have taken the time out of their busy lives to share their creations, we would also like to acknowledge the folks who have helped by: spreading the word, facilitating submissions to be turned in from various contributors, translating poster advertisements and contributed works, and simply believing in the eventual outcome of this project. While ensuring the confidentiality of those who wish to remain anonymous, we plan to formally acknowledge (in the final publication of Eyes on the Seas) all of you who have helped in its production. Thank you!!!

Historical Overview (By Keith Davis):

This project is a long time in the making. The origins of Eyes on the Seas (EOS) can be traced all the way back to the first part of this decade, in the North Pacific, USA, when a small group of Observers there, led by the diligent efforts of Jeanette Alas, began to gather stories from fellow colleagues working in the region. In 2005, in an effort to keep the project alive after moving on to a different (though related) profession, Jeanette approached the APO, asking us if we would be willing to take it over. Coincidently, I had actually been considering contacting Jeanette regarding this project with hopes to contribute to it. When she first approached us, I was but a recent addition to the APO, though I immediately had vision for the project and I was more than happy to adopt responsibility for it.

Jeanette and others had made a great start, with already some very interesting works collected. Now, I hoped to expand the project beyond primarily North Pacific representation, pulling in contributions from other US regions and broadening out to exhibit a more international vantage of the profession. I imagined the best way to do this would be to present this project to the international community at the next Conference in the IFOMC (International Fisheries Observer and Monitoring Conference) series, and I submitted an abstract about the project to be presented at the 5th Conference, to be held in Victoria, British Columbia, CA in May 2007. "Guardians of the Sea", the title of the project when it was presented at the 5th Conference, gained a great deal of interest there, and the IFOMC-mandated Observer Professionalism Working Group (OPWG) agreed to help with its international expansion. Over the next several months, the OPWG assisted with: changing the project's title to Eyes on the Seas, creating a plan for the project, and creating advertisement posters, which members of the group sent out to Observers and others among their respective internationally-broadened networks. During this time, an OPWG fellow colleague, Glenn Quelch (of European observer programs), offered to team up with me to coordinate the project and co-edit the eventual publication.

By winter 2008, Glenn and I, now with poster advertisements and Plans translated into Spanish and Portuguese, started an expansive campaign out among our collectively growing worldwide network of Observer and observer program contacts, mapping out abstract and first draft submission deadlines. Almost immediately, many letters of interest and some contributions started trickling in, and we continued our primary campaign for submissions into the fall of 2008 (when we had our First Draft deadline set). We realized then that we were still working with many who had expressed interest and/or provided an abstract to us but who did not yet have a draft to us. With consideration to the parameters of the Observer profession and lifestyle - spending lots of time at sea and on the road - we decided to extend our deadline, and in the meantime continue our campaign for submissions till the winter of 2008/2009.

In January 2009, EOS existing contributor, Anik Clemens, offered to team up with Glenn and I. Anik thought she might be able to help us move the project along to the next stage of putting together a manuscript. We gladly accepted her offer, and Anik set into action immediately by helping us correspond with contributors to get everything we needed from them so we could begin to piece together a Draft Manuscript of Eyes on the Seas.

To read more about the most recent history in the production of Eyes on the Seas, navigate back up to Project Updates.