Last month we said goodbye to a special person, colleague, friend, albatross admirer, Samantha Petersen, who left the Albatross Task Force (ATF) after four years of managing BirdLife South Africa Marine Programme, most of the time being the only one on the team.
On a personal note, Sam was the one who introduced me to the wonderful life of albatrosses and helped me more than I can describe. Sam is going to lead the WWF Responsible Fishing Programme and we are still working very closely together. Good luck Sam, and thanks for everything.
The last couple of months found me busy establishing our first ATF database which will help us organise our work, both on land and at sea. Unfortunately, it meant spending quite some time on land but mid-August I left the office and headed to my favourite place, the sea, with its albatrosses and other marine life.
The Admiraal De Ruiter is a South African pelagic longliner targeting tuna and swordfish. Its crew were very helpful and accepted our tori line happily, as the old one which I gave them about a year ago was quite worn out.
Our trip began on a good note when on day 1 we didn't catch any birds. Day 2 found us about 150 miles south of the southernmost tip of Africa where big numbers of longliners are fishing at the moment. The rich waters attract lots of birds to the area and specials such as Northern and southern royal albatrosses and wandering albatrosses were seen regularly.
On the third day, we found eight dead birds on the line. It was very frustrating. As we set the line at night and used the tori the question was what had happened there? Why so many birds specifically on that set?
Luckily, I was prepared and to try and understand, I deployed special devices on the hook line called TDRs (Time and Depth Recorder), which help us understand how the line behaves in the water, how fast it sinks and what depth it stays at. It is of great importance both to understand the seabird and turtle bycath but also the legitimate catch and I usually give the results back to the fishermen who are very keen to see what their gear is doing under water.
As I checked what happened that day, I found that the line was sinking in quite a normal rate which should be covered by the tori line but four hours later, the hook 'decided' to check the surface and spent a long period of time there - where it was available for birds - before sinking back to deeper waters.
What exactly happened there I don't know. We still need to study it but my feeling is that this is the reason for the high number of birds killed that day.
We also caught three albatrosses while hauling and the crew received a practical lesson on how to release the birds and also a demonstration of how sharp their bills are (they were all impressed by the scar on my finger).
Coming back to Cape Town, I gave the crew Albatross Task Force caps and when I came back the next day I was happy to see everyone wearing them so proudly...
Until next time...
Meidad
Hello friends of seabirds.
At this time of the year it is very dangerous to sail here in the South Atlantic. To make you know how bad it is to navigate, when the FV Oceano Brasil reached the fishing area, and we started to fish, the wind changed its direction. So, we did the hauling facing a sea with Force 7 (Beaufort Scale) with huge waves.
During three days, the boat was drifting. During this time, we couldn't do anything else so I took the opportunity to talk with the fishermen about the seabirds conservation. I did some lectures about the geographic aspects, because most of the time the crew had some difficulties to understand the origin of these seabirds. I reinforced the names of Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and Falklands/Malvinas, places where the seabirds came from.
At the third day, finally the weather became better. At 8 pm, the skipper ordered the crew to prepare to set the baits. He consulted me about how best to use the bird-scaring tori line, so we did a test before the setting and we felt that it would be very difficult because of the wind.
In theory, we thought that it wouldn't have any seabird capture during that night, but next day, for my shock and the skipper's also, there was a significant capture.
At the next set, we used the blue-dyed bait (so the seabirds cannot see the bait) and installed the tori lines. The skipper decided to test the efficiency of the dyed bait, so we baited half the longline with blue-dyed bait and the other half the normal way. Despite this, there were still captures! But importantly, the birds were captured only on hooks with natural baits and in lower numbers.
In order to convince the skipper about the efficiency of using seabird mitigation methods, the best way was to look at how many fish were caught.
In a sequence of several settings with blue-dyed bait and tori lines we could observe a good temper in the skipper. This happened mainly because most of fish were caught on the hooks with the dyed baits. And the biggest one! The best result was that the amount of fish caught did not suffer because we were using seabird protection methods.
Later on, I spoke with the skipper, and according with this own words, he believes that the use of a tori line guarantees 95% of no seabird capture and the use of blue-dyed bait together, with tori lines, is a very efficient measure which can ensure a better fishing productivity.
After the skipper saw the good fishery capture, he ordered his crew to adopt a new routine: to bait the squids in blue dye and use the tori line. We came back very happy because of two reasons: we accomplished a good fishery and each crew member felt their own environmental and social responsibilities to our planet.
I have been meeting people and filling up my brain with lots of info in readiness for my new task. I can say that I understand the fishing industries and their impacts on seabirds better. I have learned more about the important fishing areas in Chile, the different fishing techniques used for the different fish species and the mitigation measures developed around the world to prevent albatross deaths.
I was very lucky to meet specialists and attend lectures at a key expert meeting that was held in June in Valvidia, Chile.
During these days, it was good to attend a special meeting with the rest of the new Chilean Albatross Team. This meeting was important for me to find out how I will be helping albatrosses in my first year.
I have also been lucky to meet other Albatross Task Force members who have been been working in Brazil - they shared their experiences with me.
One of my key jobs is to let the people of Chile know what that the Task Force work has begun. I have been working with Rodrigo Vega, another new Albatross Task Force member, to develop our ATF Chile logo and with Lucas Varga, a good designer from Buenos Aires, on our website.
We decided that a well designed website will be a great educational tool for the project. Directed especially to fishermen and local people, this website will contain essential and concise information in Spanish. The website is almost ready and will be distributed to the target groups and local people.
Onboard the longline fishing vessel 'Verde Vale XI'
This cruise, despite the climatic conditions, allowed us to test new configurations of the tori line, making clear the difficulties and peculiarities of each fishing art with distinct regional characteristics.
Through the skippers I have met throughout different regions, specially from the Espírito Santo state, I have had had good opportunity to research and study the special conditions of this particular fleet. This mix of knowledge and different techniques really defines the spirit and soul of the Brazilian fishermen.
However, now they are all anxious for a hot bath and a beer, and so am I.
We are again anchored. Several days of really bad weather are preventing us from doing our work. The turbulent sea prevents us from going out on the deck. On the few days we worked, for any set accomplished, we captured seabirds, and we are planning to do some modification of the tori line.
Until now it was 14 days at the sea, with only three sets - the bad weather punishes the small vessels making their life an adventure, and all the time they must overcome all the challenges. The skippers hopes that the weather will get better soon, because if not, he will suffer damages, as the vessel does not have a cold chamber, counting on stored ice to conserve the fish and the baits.
Several other small vessels are in the same situation and I could see, by the voice of the skippers talking on the radio, his general concern. I hope that weather gets better very very soon.