At this time of the year when we go to sea, we get a bit apprehensive because of the changing weather patterns. As it happened, while we were preparing to leave for sea the wind suddenly turned to the south-west. So we had to wait and depart the next day.
We went to monitor an 'albatross-friendly fishery' as we are used to saying in Brazil. The longliner 'Falcom I' had already implemented and used tori lines, but on this trip the goal was to introduce the use of blue-dyed bait.
After sailing for one day, another longline vessel called us asking for help. They were at the start of their trip, but they needed lubricating oil for the engine. Luckily it was nothing too serious and we talked with the crew at a five metre distance from one boat to the other.
At 5.30 pm, both vessels set off in opposite directions and to my surprise and happiness the Captain of the 'Quebra Mar' vessel proudly showed everybody the bird-scaring line that he was using when he started setting the longline. This bird-scaring line was made in January of this year. He called me on the radio and said that he was very happy with this new measure to reduce seabird bycatch.
But life at sea is not just 'flowers'; we started to work and in a few hours a strong wind got up and the vessel started pitching and rolling a lot. At the same time the smiling faces turned into worried ones. In this situation it is very dangerous to work, so the only thing that we could do was wait patiently...
The good part was to experience another day full of seabirds around the vessel, brought by the wind. There was an amazing number of spectacled petrels, with about 250 following the boat. It is very interesting because last year I travelled in this same longline vessel, in the same period of the year, and the amount of seabirds seemed to be much higher than now. The presence of black-browed albatrosses was minimal this year. Talking with other skippers, they reported four extra tropical cyclones in the Santa Catarina coastal area last month, which may be responsible for creating an atmospheric wall to the albatrosses. So, I believe this is why they did not reach this fishing area.
We kept fishing using torilines, but the fishermen did not want to test the blue dye baits. I noticed that the older fishermen are more resistant to accepting new technologies. It is very complicated to change their fishing routine, especially the ones that have been fishing since 1977. It is very easy for fishermen to say that new technologies 'do not work' and when this happens I am very careful in what I say to try to convince them, without being rude or unfriendly.
At least, while we did not succeed in implementing the new mitigation measures on this cruise we did strengthen the existing one. They are faithful in their use of the bird-scaring lines, but even so I will still keep trying to convince them to adopt the blue dyed bait as well. The mission to save the albatrosses is in our hands, so let's keep trying!
Hi everybody.
My name is John Paterson and I am the first Albatross Task Force Instructor to be based in Namibia. I have been tasked to work with the hake trawl fishery in Namibia and a second Instructor is to be recruited to work with the hake longline fishery.
This is all new and exciting for me as I come from a land-based conservation background where I worked as a park manager and conservation officer. For the past 11 years, I was park warden for the Skeleton Coast Park in Namibia. The move down from my last home at Moewe Bay to Walvis Bay was quite an epic with two dogs, Jacob the parrot and my wife, Barbara. We also had a whole bunch of other things as well!
Walvis is an amazing place on a huge lagoon that is a proclaimed a specially-protected Ramsar site - an important wetland for migrant birds. I really enjoy it here as I am a keen sea kayaker and this is just the best place for it. Inland of the town are huge sand dunes and the Namib desert; it's truly a place of contrast.
I am really proud and feel privileged to be part of the Albatross Task Force. The ATF team got going with a bang and a fizzle in Namibia. It all started in April where the project was launched at a public workshop on coastal and marine birds in Swakopmund.
Oli Yates came over from Chile and Meidad Goren came up from Cape Town to introduce the project at the workshop and get us going. I was soon plunged into the work with a trip to Cape Town for a training cruise with Barry Watkins and Bronwyn O'Connell aboard the I&J vessel Godetia. It was an amazing experience highlighted by my first ever encounter with a northern royal albatross - a new bird for me. Then it was back home to Namibia into a series of meetings with industry in Walvis Bay to introduce them to the project, arrange a workshop and arrange my basic sea safety course.
I then prepared a workshop for the fishing industry to give a detailed background to our project whilst I completed a five-day basic safety at sea awareness course. I got to try out a survival/immersion suit. I found this really weird as most vessels in Namibia do not have these suits on board! When we put them on and got into the heated pool, we floated about looking like a bunch of orange hippopotami!
Our workshop went ahead as scheduled and was a success despite a relatively poor turnout from the industry people. The people that attended were all really positive and keen to learn.
While there have been six trips done on long line vessels in Namibia over the last couple of years, no work has been done on trawlers. This fishery has been identified as a priority to gather data on. I am thus concentrating my efforts on the hake trawlers operating mainly out of Walvis Bay.
On 19 June, Hangana, one of the bigger fishing companies in Namibia, gave me a place aboard one of their vessels, the Fisherbank. This was an eye opening experience for me. I was blown away by the amount of birds around the fishing grounds. Two wandering albatrosses and three spectacled petrels were very welcome additions to my personal list of seabirds I've seen.
Sadly, one juvenile black-browed albatross and three white-chinned petrels were drowned during this trip. This highlights the need for us to be working here.
I was really made to feel welcome aboard the boat and all the crew and officers were very interested in my work. There is definitely an awareness of the problem and a desire to do something. This is fertile ground and hopefully we can nurture a fishing community that is really proactive towards seabird conservation.
I recently returned from my trip on the Astra 1 after 15 days at sea, but we were only able to fish for eight due to poor weather conditions.
The target species for this vessel was yellow-fin tuna and during fishing operations we had around 20 species of seabird joining us. Six seabirds were caught on this short trip: four black-browed albatrosses, one adult shy albatross and one white-chinned petrel, all of them caught during whilst setting.
The line was normally deployed during the night but on two occasions it was set during dusk, and although it was quite dark the seabird mortalities came from these lines.
This vessel had no bird-scaring line so I worked with the deck bosun and two sailors to prepare one with materials available aboard and put it to use. We tried this mock-up bird-scaring line before the set and unfortunately had to take the decision not to use it.
The materials, although inexpensive and easy to obtain, have to be adequate to allow the bird-scaring line to fly correctly, or there would rapidly be an entanglement with the fishing gear. In this vessel the materials were not adequate.
My experience on this vessel and on others tells me that with poor weather and/or when the vessel makes a change in direction during the set, there is often a problem with entanglements. What I think we need to do therefore, is encourage the captains to use these mitigation measures on a voluntary basis first, before looking to have regulations in place.
In many cases the fishers are very keen to help and collaborate but the bird-scaring line must not interfere with the fishing procedures. If this happens, it makes their work more complicated, and reduces the probability that they use these mitigation measures as part of their routine.
If the mitigation measures don't work well, they will simply not be used and therefore will not save the birds we are trying to protect.
Also, during the same trip we captured several birds during the haul on hooks that still held bait. Four species were caught this way (yellow-nosed albatross, black-browed albatross; great shearwater and sooty shearwater). All these individuals were released alive by the crew, and a few others escaped before being brought onboard.
I am back to land after 22 days at sea and lots of fishing. This cruise gave me the opportunity to share important information with the crew of FV Yamaia III about keeping as many seabirds as possible safe.
The fishing ground was between 23° to 26°S latitude and 37° to 44°W longitude (in front of Cabo Frio city, in Rio de Janeiro State), at depths of 2,131 to 4,070 metres. The fishing lines were set a in calm sea, typical for that area.
Fortunately no seabirds were captured, mainly because in that area there were not many birds about, as the weather conditions are not favourable for seabirds in this season.
The sea temperature was very high and there was no wind, which made seabirds uncommon. Even then, eventually, I observed some seabirds such as Wilson's storm petrels, white-chinned petrels, spectacled petrels, Atlantic petrels, soft-plumaged petrels, great shearwaters, yellow-nosed albatross, masked boobies, skuas, Cory's shearwaters, parasitic skuas and pomarine skuas. In most of cases I just saw one or two individuals.
During the trip to the fishing ground, we swapped the old bird scaring lines (tori line streamers) with some new ones. All the crew members participated in this activity because they believe in the good effect tori lines have in avoiding seabird bycatch.
I also developed an environmental education approach to inform the fishermen about the importance of adopting mitigation measures throughout the cruise. We discussed mitigation measures during the whole trip and the fishermen and myself exchanged opinions on what works.
The FV Yamaia already use some mitigations measures when they think it is necessary - for example when there are many seabirds around the boat. The common measure they use is to dye the baits (squid) blue to make them less visible, and when necessary they also use the tori lines and night setting (this one is already used partially in all longline sets - the sets started at 4 or 5 pm).
At the end of the cruise, after sharing lots information on seabird conservation with fishermen aiming for a productive fishery, I think there is a lot of work to do.
In my point of view, this is a long-term task, and not just about improving awareness of the seabird's situation around the world, but also about environmental education on responsible fishery and the rational use of marine resources.
I believe that through this kind of approach we will seek environmental sustainability in all the biodiversity aspects and we cannot forget that the human being is part of it and also a fundamental part to improving this process.
I'm sitting in the port of Coquimbo in Chile, just about to set off for a month aboard a longline vessel. The fishing crew will be looking for swordfish on this trip.
We've spent some time on trip preparations. We are going to try using time depth recorders. These small devices, no larger than an AA battery, will measure how fast the longline sinks. This is so important as hooks need to get out of the way of albatrosses looking for some fast food as the line gets set.
I'm also going to be recording how many seabirds I see around the vessel and monitor how the birds react around the fishing gear of this fishery.
We expect to steam toward the Islands of Juan Fernandez where the fishing grounds are located, probably a couple of days steaming from the port. The crew of the vessel seem very enthused and eager to help out, especially the captain, Mario.
Over the past couple of days I have also been checking the ship's bird-scaring line. They have been using it for some time now and one of my tasks is to assess how well it does its job. The material may be too heavy, which causes the line to stay low over the hooks. This doesn't prevent seabird deaths as well as a better designed line so I will be looking at improving the set-up during the trip.
An important aspect is the economic side of mitigation measures. On small vessels with few crew members, the time it takes to deploy and retrieve bird-scaring lines is time away from fishing duties. Therefore I will also be investigating the economics of mitigation use.
Well, I'd better set sail now. I'll let you know how I get on.