Wanu supports family through fishing

By GLORIA BAUAI
Father of six, Mark Wanu from Morobe Patrol Post has been a fisherman for over a decade, supporting his family through fishing.
Wanu has two supermarkets in Lae as his main buyers.
“When the weather is good, I bring more than 500kg (of fish) to Lae and can make between K4,000 – K10,000,” he said.
He was able to send all his children to school and employ four permanent fishermen, apart from members of the village who accompany them on their fishing runs.
Wanu said there were challenges when sailing out to fish.
His village is on Bao Island, bordering the south coast of Morobe and north coast of Oro (Northern) which is about 460km from Lae.
He said keeping the catch cold in order to preserve it for market was the main challenge.
“Given this distance, ice is our main challenge,” he said.
“We normally get 160 blocks (of ice) from Lae and this will last less than two weeks; when we see our ice melting, we return to Lae quickly.
“So our time spent fishing and then to sell (normally between two – three weeks), entirely depends on our ice.”
Wanu bought a small diesel engine fishing boat for K138,000 in 2006 from the European Union through a loan arrangement.
The vessel which he named Wagemo came complete with a cool room.
But Wanu said having an ice plant set-up on the island would be more helpful in terms of preserving their catch, increasing volumes and revenue.
He said National Fisheries Authority had said it would establish an ice-plant on his island which he would manage to help his business and other fishermen.
Wanu previously used to work as an engineer and later quality control officer after his training at Madang Maritime College and Kavieng Fisheries College.
Wanu had no regrets becoming a fisherman; with his background in quality control – he controls the handling of his products all the way from line and net to buyer.