Fisheries Junior Officer joins FAO
Mele Tauati, a Tongan national, joined the team at the FAO Sub-regional Office for the Pacific Islands as a Small-scale Fisheries Junior Professional Officer from February 2017. She joins FAO with 10 years of fisheries work and research experience from Tonga and Samoa.
“Taking up this position is a prestigious opportunity, so I am very grateful and honoured as a Pacific Islander to work for FAO here in the Pacific. It’s also a bonus to continue working towards sustainable fisheries in this region, which is an area I’m very passionate about. Currently staying and working in Samoa before joining this office was an advantage, which allowed me to focus more on the work straight away”, she says.
Ms Tauati began her working career in 2006 as a Fisheries Officer with Tonga’s Fisheries Division before being appointed a Senior Fisheries Officer in 2012. Much of her work in Tonga focused on the establishment, implementation and monitoring of community-based fisheries Special Management Areas, as well as coastal fisheries research and management. She also supervised Tonga’s Vessel Monitoring System and Offshore Fisheries Observer Programmes for a year.
In 2014, Ms Tauati moved to Samoa and took up a position with Samoa’s Fisheries Division as a Senior Fisheries Officer for Coastal Fisheries. For over two years, she contributed to Samoa’s coastal fisheries management and monitoring programmes.
Through her government-level positions in both countries, she worked closely with local communities, Ministries and NGOs in Tonga and Samoa on various fisheries programmes, and Pacific regional and international organizations.
With her new position, Ms Tauati joins the Multi-Disciplinary Technical Team of the FAO Sub-regional Office in Samoa.
“Along with gaining valuable work experience with FAO at regional and international levels, I certainly look forward to contributing to the valuable work of FAO in the fisheries sector”, she says.
Ms Tauati holds a B.Sc. in Marine Science from the University of the South Pacific (Fiji) and a M.Sc. in Tropical Marine Ecology and Fisheries Biology from James Cook University (Australia). She is a certified diver and a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society.