A scientist has found a unique way to help communicate her research on bycatch and fish behaviour by using a comic book to bring her findings to life. Sally Kidson reports.
"I really wanted to make it in a format that skippers and fishers would read, not just a dry academic paper that is just going to sit somewhere," Dr Sunkita Howard says.
Dr Howard says her artistic approach initially raised eyebrows, with some of her supervisors questioning if the report was serious science. However, she was adamant her reports should be useful to skippers and fishers and wanted to ensure important parts of her work would stand out and not get lost.
"I don't think the skippers I've worked with would appreciate the value or usefulness of my research findings unless I make it accessible to them."
The resulting comic, Bluenose Bycatch Final Report, is the culmination of a five-year project looking at ways to reduce bluenose bycatch in the alfonsino fishery. The work was co-funded by Sealord, Westfleet, Sanford and a grant from the Seafood Innovation Fund.
A standout memory from her last trip on the Tokatu was finding the second mate reading her comic. This sparked a conversation which showed he understood her research's findings and its relevance, she says.
"He was excited about it, and I was stoked because my work relies on fisher input."
The comic is not just pretty artwork, though. The B-side of each page contains material supporting Dr Howard's findings, with links to data sets, graphs or video footage.
Dr Howard has a long interest in using art to communicate science. She decided to use a comicafter trialling different ways to share her bycatch research, none of which were fully successful.
She wrote technical reports but, when she asked for feedback, discovered most people hadn't read them. She also tried video reports - but discovered most didn't watch to the end of the video.
"I'm no David Attenborough… Also, the points I'm making about fish behaviour can be hard to see when there are 10,000 fish all moving at once in a video. Once you've had a simplified example it is easier to recognise."
Her research involved analysing hours of video footage and studying fish behaviour around trawl gear to develop a device to reduce bluenose bycatch. The project was slated for three years but took five - with a lot of the useful information coming in the last year. The past 12 months have been self-funded.
"We've just been running on pure love for quite a while now."
During the project, Dr Howard found herself without other scientists as mentors, so she turned to skippers, which she believes was one of her work's strengths.
"My mentors have been the skippers. It's been such a privilege; it has been really amazing.
"At every step of the process I've tried to find out what skippers know and value and respond to that. Any success I've had has been thanks to their contributions.
"It would have been easy to go in the wrong direction if I hadn't had their input. So many times, skippers have had to bang me over the head with things to help me get to their perspective because it is so different to mine."
Dr Howard says the project was not successful in developing a device that prevented bluenose bycatch. However, bluenose bycatch is much less of a problem on the vessels she worked with - something she puts down to skippers making changes themselves and the project drawing attention to the need to reduce bycatch in those fisheries.
"I can't claim the reduction in bycatch - but I don't think it's a coincidence it has reduced. It has just come aboutin a different way than what I thought.
"We've been having meetings every six months and discussing my findings and the skippers have been sharing information with each other. At management level there's been a greater emphasis on the importance of not catching bluenose and I think that probably contributed to skippers figuring out their own innovations."
Dr Howard can't share details of her research until it is published, but believes some of her findings around fish behaviour in relation to the speed of the trawl net are "groundbreaking". And - if proven - could improve the quality of fish being caught.
One of her big takeaways is the need for scientists to work more closely with skippers to find ways and devices to reduce bycatch.
"I think a lot of fisheries science, especially bycatch mitigation technology development, fails because it doesn't involve skippers in a truly meaningful way. People build things for skippers while involving them only at a tokenistic level, then wonder why skippers don't use their bycatch reduction devices."
Ultimately, Dr Howard enjoyed sharing her ideas around fish behaviour with skippers and felt encouraged and supported by them.
"It does feel really audacious for a younger woman telling someone who has spent their whole career developing their knowledge and skillset to say, 'I've got an idea. Have you tried such and such?'"
Tokatu Skipper Rex Chapman says Dr Howard's comic will appeal to some skippers and crews.
"I myself prefer academic reports but these were available through links in the comic. I understand that Sunkita doing comics was an effort to get engagement. My previous first mate really liked the comics."
He found her ideas on fish behaviour in relation to trawl speed, and their reactions to oxygen levels and lights, very interesting.
"The more I learn about behaviour of different fish species, the better fisherman I can become.
"I found if you engage and have questions or theories on fish behaviour Sunkita will strive to look into these areas and has extensive knowledge which in turn explains why fish react in certain ways in regard to trawling and environments."
Sealord's Resource Manager Charles Heaphy really likes the way Dr Howard has communicated her findings, which is a natural fit with her love of art and science.
"I work with the scientists and the fishermen, and they've got completely different ways of communicating. We want to break down that barrier, and scientific writing is a massive barrier. It's really great to recognise that and try to work around it."
Dr Howard is now working on publishing her research in scientific journals, where it will be peer-reviewed. Working with the seafood industry to reduce bycatch is work she hopes to keep doing.
"I really feel this work is a calling and I enjoy it so much. I feel like it is meaningful and a contribution I can make to the world."
