Iqaluit (Sep 04/06) - There's a new school of fisheries observers forming in the territory.

Seven participants have completed a nine-week course through the Nunavut Fisheries Training Consortium. They are now preparing for four-month work placements on ships that travel in international waters.

As part of their training, they spent four weeks at the Marine Institute in St. John's, Newfoundland.

In the classroom, they learned how to collect scientific data, such as identifying species - including those threatened and endangered - coding them, measuring their length and determining their sex and age.

"They crammed about one year's worth of information into us in about four weeks," student Nuna Michael said, half joking.

Jimmy Natsiapik added, "I heard there was going to be some paperwork, but not this much."

In the lab, there was a table full of fish and other seafoods Some, like turbot and shrimp, were familiar to the Inuit students, others, like wolf fish, yellow-tailed flounder, redfish and American plaice weren't so familiar.

"There was a lot of fish we've never seen before," said Natsiapik.

Just back in Iqaluit, the members of the course were applying for passports so they could travel on boats to Greenland.

"It should be interesting. We should be learning a lot from the observer we're (paired) with," said Rankin Inlet's Norman Eechark. "It will be a good experience on a big ship."

David Takpaungai, of Cape Dorset, spent a good portion of his youth camping and fishing with his grandparents, so a career path with wildlife management or the Department of Fisheries and Oceans would be a good fit, he acknowledged.

"I've got to go on the boat first and see what it's like. If I like it, I'll stick with it," Takpaungai said.

Nuna Michael seemed eager to apply his knowledge to ensure the long-term health of fish stocks.

"You're like a cop at sea," he said.