Some time back, I was asked if I was interested in attending a trawl mitigation workshop in New Zealand. My response: is the Pope a Catholic?
With sponsorship from consultants Deepwater Group, I was winging my way to the Southern Seabirds Solution workshop in Nelson with Barrie Rose (I&J). We spent a morning birding in Singapore en route.
Nelson greeted us with blue skies on 26 September, and I gave a presentation on seabird interactions and mitigation in the South African hake trawl fishery. I expressed concern regarding the numbers of white-capped albatrosses drowned on our trawl warps before the introduction of tori lines.
It was great to meet up with Ben Sullivan again and to 'chew the fat' over the next steps for seabird programmes. Ben has a new 'toy' up his sleeve or up some snood... EXCITING stuff. Mum's the word (more to come). Good on ya, mate...
All pumped up after the workshop, Barrie and I headed south and did not one, but two high-sea trips off Kaikoura! We spotted at least 16 Salvin's albatrosses within arm's reach and 'wandering' albatrosses.
We may also have seen Gibson's albatrosses, as our guide, Gary Melville, pointed out a ringed 10-year old female (according to Gary, female Gibson's have a bluish tip to the lower mandible; the male a whitish tip). We saw rafts of Hutton's shearwaters and several other species, including a Westland petrel.
To top it all, a stranded adult leopard seal was at the jetty!
It was time to go home. It was just as well we were flying out of Auckland, as flights were grounded from Nelson to a wild, windy Wellington.
So, after an inspiring week, we left the Land of the Long White Cloud. No probs.