Fishing inspectors bridge language gaps with gestures and apps

Fishing inspectors in Finland often rely on gestures and phone translation apps to explain permits and fishing rules to anglers they cannot communicate with, Yle reports.

In a survey of 64 inspectors across Finland, 63 per cent said they encountered anglers with whom they shared no common language at least a few times a year. More than a third said it happened repeatedly. English is used in many encounters, but roughly one in three interactions with foreign-language anglers takes place without a shared language.

Oskari Miettinen, a fisheries inspector in Southwest Finland, recalled meeting an Arabic-speaking angler fishing in a prohibited zone at the Halinen fish ladder on the Aura River in Turku. Unable to speak with him, Miettinen took the angler to a sign showing a map of the restricted area and used hand gestures to explain the rules.

Inspectors say questions often concern permits, prohibited areas and minimum fish sizes. Miettinen and Anne Mäkelä, a special adviser at the Central Union of Fisheries, say foreign-language anglers are no more likely than others to have problems with their permits. In Southwest Finland, Miettinen estimates that one in every 50 permit checks raises an issue.

The Central Union of Fisheries is preparing a multilingual guide for inspectors. Survey responses identified Russian, Ukrainian, Estonian, Thai and Arabic as languages in which anglers need information about Finnish rules. The guides are expected to be available to inspectors next year.

Ukrainian angler Alexander Domin said he considers Finland’s fishing opportunities the best and its permits reasonably priced.