Launching the blog

"Gonedau" is a Fijian word describing, approximately, the clan within the Fijian village who hold the marine and fishing lore, or the fish-suppliers to the high chief. Another way of putting it is "masterfishermen" or "masterfishers" (your choice of words depends on where you come from, but that's another blog subject).

"Gonedau" is pronounced as though there is an "n" before the "g" and the "d" - something like "gone en dhow", with a nasal initial "g" and the accent on the last syllable.

Gonedau is also the name of an email discussion list about Pacific Island fisheries and other watery matters run by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), and it seemed a good idea to use it for the name of this weblog as well.

SPC publishes a lot of different newsletters, and we hold a lot of workshops and meetings. The trouble with newsletters is that you don't get much feedback - it's a one-way communication. And the trouble with meetings is they are expensive and you can't have them very often, although they are great for feedback.

So we're going to try a bit of blogging for a change. A weblog seems to be a good compromise between conveying information and getting feedback.

Trouble is, it depends on subscribers being used to using the web, and being connected to the internet. So in the beginning we don't expect many of our "main stakeholders" - Pacific Island fish and fisheries people - to be on the subscriber list at the start.

But we hope it will grow, and it may in itself become a reason for using the internet more often.

But now - a few words from our sponsor:

• The whole point of a blog is that you can comment on it. We welcome comments (of most kinds :-)
• This is not an official SPC publication. It is the personal view of the SPC's Director of Marine Resources, and those SPC staff who want to take part. Whatever is said on this blog does not necessarily reflect the official view of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
• SPC is a regional intergovernmental organisation serving the developing countries and territories of the island Pacific. Our main clients are government departments, but we also work with the private sector, with NGOs, with communities, and with educators and researchers.