Watson Sampaya is a member of OSPPA Brittany, which is part of the Fisheries Innovation Project supported by PetroTal.

Watson Sampaya (30), an artisanal fisherman from Bretaña, capital of the Puinahua district (Requena, Loreto), represented his town and his region in an internship in Coquimbo (Chile), as part of the Program. Spondylus of the National Innovation Program for Fisheries and Aquaculture (PNIPA).

Along with 29 other Peruvian trainees, Sampaya participated in the 15-day training program for productive agents in the fishing and aquaculture sector. In this training, the only fisherman representing Loreto learned new techniques and methods to improve the sustainable extraction of paiche in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve.

He emphasized that during the internship he learned about cases of social organizations that have achieved an important level of development and an autonomy that allows them to continue growing without the support of the State or the private sector. He considered that this experience could be replicated in Puinahua.

He also commented that in Chile he was able to learn techniques that he will share with his fellow fishermen to continue optimizing the extraction and use of paiche. 

Watson recounted the evolution of the artisanal fishery carried out by the Social Organization of Artisanal Fishermen and Processors (OSPPA) Arahuana Fish, of which he is a member, and detailed the great and positive changes they have experienced thanks to the implementation of the Fishing Innovation Project. This project has made paiche fishing in Brittany more sustainable and profitable thanks to synergies between public and private actors, such as PetroTal, a company led and operated by Peruvians; Despensa Amazónica, CITE Maynas, SERNANP, Energy, Environment and Sustainability, among others.

"Before I only extracted the fish and sold it in Brittany. Now we travel to Iquitos and prepare paiche cuts and food products such as hamburgers, chorizo, and nuggets"Sampaya also highlighted the support of PNIPA, which is part of the Ministry of Production.

One of the initiatives of the innovation project received PNIPA funding that was complemented with company resources to become a reality: the floating fishing platform in the Yarina oxbow lake, where fishermen remove scales and viscera.

Another innovative project that came to fruition with financial support from PetroTal and the participation of various stakeholders was the construction of a flake ice plant that runs on solar energy. "Now we want to take our products to supermarkets and other destinations, and for fishermen in Brittany to see this example and replicate it," said Sampaya. Currently, with PNIPA co-financing, a project is being developed to obtain caviar from carachama eggs, another species that is sustainably harvested in the Pacaya Samiria.