As I told you before I am on land right now, getting ready for the next trip. We're also busy preparing a workshop for the tuna longliners all about bycatch - I'm meeting the chairman of the Tuna Longline Association on Thursday.
Today the vessel which took me onboard last month came back from sea. The Chief Engineer who I appointed as the 'Bird Officer' called me and asked me to come and take one of the birds that were caught during the trip. It was a juvenile shy albatross - one of four caught during that trip.
I went to the boat which was off-loading at the harbour and had a long chat with him. Apparently they used the tori line I gave them and they improved it themselves after it broke twice. The Skipper showed me the new version and I must say it looks quite good. Interestingly, all the birds were caught on the day the tori line broke!
Unfortunately the 'Bird Officer' couldn't get all the birds as the crew threw them back into the water before he could get there. I'm sure that on the next trip that won't happen. I gave him a nice mug with a seabird logo on it as a thank-you present. He was delighted and I am very satisfied with that.
I can see a good relationship forming between this ship, which still takes birds but is trying not to, and us. We can learn a lot from them even if we are not physically on the vessel. I was invited to join them again but I am booked - but I will definitely join them soon.
I also finished writing an article about the Albatross Task Force for Torgos, the Israeli ornithology magazine. I hope it will bring more support for our work. That's all for now - speak to you soon.
This week I am back on dry land. The last trip was tiring as we ended up staying out at sea a week longer than we anticipated as in the first week the tuna catch was so low that the skipper decided they needed to stay out until they had caught enough fish.
The second week, in just one day, we caught two tons of tuna and then the skipper decided to stay even longer and the next two days yielded nothing! That's the way it goes out at sea.
Sadly, the 'missing fish' meant that the lines had to be set multiple times. Every line is baited with thousands of potential albatross traps. This boat already had its own streamer line, but the crew often found it became tangled with the longline. I worked with them to show them different ways of using the streamer.
The crew even started to design new streamers and suggested different materials that could be used! When I left this boat, I felt pretty confident that in future they will use the streamer line effectively.
Unfortunately, for lots of crews, the priority is getting the line out and the fish caught. There is a long road ahead to persuade all the longline boats to try to avoid catching seabirds - but we're working on it!
Next week I'll be back out at sea - a different boat, a different crew. I'll let you know how I get on...
This week I am writing to you from the RSPB headquarters in the UK! I am here on a vacation and took the opportunity to meet the people here who are co-ordinating the task force and all of the PR effort on its behalf.
My last week in South Africa was hectic but rewarding. The workshop with hake fisheries representatives was very successful. We even had some instant feedback on the success of the workshop, as the very next day we received phone calls requesting streamer lines and our information manual.
The manual combines techniques for identifying seabirds at sea and information about construction and use of tori (streamer) lines. We prefer, where possible, to meet with skippers and crew and personally show them how to use the streamer lines.
However, in this case, as both skippers had been present at the workshop and understood all of the different issues, we were happy to let them drop by and take the streamer line to try on their vessel.
In South Africa, there is no government funding for mitigation measures such as streamer lines. Therefore, each boat is responsible for constructing its own. BirdLife has provided a number of streamer lines free of charge to encourage more boats to use them.
I'm heading off for the rest of my vacation now and will catch up with you again when I'm back in Cape Town.