Blogs

Last month I returned from my most recent trip, this time aboard on the FV Maria , the same longliner that I had worked with last winter. We spent 19 days at sea and conducted 15 longline sets. In order to minimize seabird interactions all these sets were performed with a tori line deployed and were...

In my most recent trip to sea, we set off for a period of eleven days from the port of La Paloma, located on the east coast of Uruguay. We had already partaken in various trips on this vessel, and so the crew already knew us well and they were happy to collaborate with our work again. We now have a much...

This last trip to sea was onboard a vessel dedicated to catching swordfish and tuna. My goal was to continue experimenting with the tori lines we have been designing and testing in pelagic fisheries in Uruguay. We conducted seven fishing operations, three with a tori line and four without. Despite...

Unfortunately seabirds caught as byctach in pelagic longline fisheries are generally only brought onboard once they are already dead (they are hooked and drown during the set when lines sink into the water). In Uruguay birds killed at sea are returned to the laboratory for analysis. By doing so we can...

Continuing with the tori line experiments in the pelagic longline fishery, I headed back to sea but this time aboard the RS Aldebran, Uruguay’s research vessel. On this last trip we spent 20 days at sea, with a short break at the start due to a faulty hydraulic pump forcing us to return...

During my last trip I continued experimenting with the Uruguayan ATF tori lines that we are developing, trying to obtain a greater set of results so we can be certain of what solutions to recommend to industry. This brought up a personal milestone, achieving my 400th day at sea! I started as a sailor...

During the Southern Hemisphere summer, the Uruguayan swordfish fishery diminishes and several vessels reduce their number of sea trips. Only a single vessel remained active during January. This is a great opportunity for us to spread awareness about our work, taking to the fishing industry information...

This last trip in November was a little adventurous, although it only lasted twelve days due to a dodgy generator causing a number of unexpected events onboard. We started the trip moving around more than normal, in the search for good fishing grounds. The swordfish were being elusive and simply refused...

During this year our team has been trying out experiments to test the efficiency of tori lines . For a few months we were working on the design of the line that we were adapting to suit the fishery in Uruguay. As we already knew through our experiences onboard, the tori lines in can sometimes become...