My name is Kaspar Shimooshili; I have studied a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources specializing in Fisheries and Aquatic Science at the University of Namibia. I am the second Albatross Task Force Instructor in Namibia tasked to work with the hake longline fishery.
Previously, I have worked for the Municipality of Walvis Bay on a short contract basis as an Environmental Officer.
This is an exciting job for me as I have an opportunity to learn more on the different species of birds and raise my conservation knowledge in marine field. For the past four years, I have been at the University of Namibia studying for my BSc which included modules on Conservation Biology, Environmental Science, Physical Oceanography, Biological and Chemical Oceanography.
From the experience I gained from the program and my previous job, I believe I have sufficient background to be an effective member of the Albatross Task Force team and am able to help facilitate it to accomplish its mission and goals in Namibia.
This is my first year to live in Walvis Bay, as I am originally from a hot and land-locked town in the north west of Namibia called Outapi. It is a genuine experience of a new life for me in Walvis Bay in terms of weather and social life. Walvis Bay is a beautiful town with well-managed unique dunes surrounding it.
This coastal town is where the desert meets the sea. Walvis Bay and the surrounding area is divided into different conservation zones including the Walvis Bay Nature Reserve, the Namib Naukluft Park and a RAMSAR site covering the lagoon. This site is seasonally important to different bird’s species such as flamingos, pelicans, oystercatchers, migrating waders and many seabirds.
I feel happy to be an Instructor for Albatross Task Force in Namibia. I heard about the ATF from an ex-classmate, and that they were looking for a suitable person so I forwarded my application to the Namibia Nature Foundation. I joined the Albatross Task Force in August 2008 for a trial sea trip with John Paterson (ATF Project Leader in Namibia). This was my first time to really look at and learn to identify the different albatrosses and petrels at sea.
This trip started on 28 August with a bottom trawler, Fisher Bank, belonging to Hangana fishing company. It was my second time at sea and I saw many different seabirds flying and foraging all around the vessel. Among these were yellow-nosed albatross, white-chinned petrels and skuas. Other seabirds that I identified, although less in number, included cape gannets, pintado petrels, Wilson's storm-petrels, black-browed albatrosses, shy albatrosses and two wandering albatrosses.
It was easy for me to adapt to the sea environment and to my tasks in this exciting environment with abruptly changing weather conditions. All crewmembers were friendly with me. However, I found out that there is a need for awareness to some of the crewmembers and other fishery observer on the importance of the sea birds. Good associations with existing observers and fisherman can help us to reduce the by-catch of albatrosses and petrels, and improve the conservation status of threatened seabirds.
Our work during the current fishing season has been to focus on supporting the monitoring programme for the swordfish fishery, which the Chilean fisheries investigation institute (IFOP) manages. This monitoring includes sea-trips carried out by scientific observers on 100% of the longline fishing vessels.
However, there is also another longline fleet, which includes vessels classed as 'artisanal' as the total length does not exceed 18 m, which does not fall under the IFOP study. Our support has mainly consisted in the provision of necessary data capture for seabird interactions that the observers should be generating on a daily basis, defining the principle characteristics of mitigation measures like bird-scaring lines and assessing them using our experience aboard in the fleet.
To complement this support we have been working onboard to carry out mitigation trials and at-sea experiments to identify the causes of seabird mortality associated with the fishery and trial bird-scaring line designs that are used in other fisheries, such as the Alaskan design.
To study the causes of seabird mortality, we measured the sink rate of the branch lines (how quickly do the lines which hold the hook sink?) by using Time Depth Recorders (TDRs). We attach these devices to hook lines and they take precise measurements of the depth each second, giving us a very detailed picture of how fast the hooks sink as the vessel sets the line.
This was done by Jorge Ruiz aboard the FV Estefanía Carolina, an artisanal longline vessel of 18 m. The results have been very pleasing in many respects; firstly because there is an excellent will to use mitigation measures in the fleet and to let ATF observers onboard as there is a very reduced living space on these vessels. The results from the experimental trials showed that the sink rate is very decent, which may explain why the seabird mortality on these smaller vessels is much less than on the larger, industrial ships.
Even so, we found that the sink rate was very variable even during the same set, which is not what we expected. Also we identified some important details to be considered, such as the exact place that the hook is thrown into the water as the line is set. If hooks are thrown into the propeller wash (turbulent water created by the propeller behind the boat) the sinking line appears to be affected. Although we have to keep up the investigations to further define recommendable fishing gear designs, this information will help define information in the National Plan of Action for Seabirds in Chile which has been officially adopted for the fleet.
For the bird-scaring lines, we took Alaskan designs from Washington Sea Grant and trialled them onboard two Chilean vessels; the FV Arauco II (18 m) and the FV Portugal II (28 m). The results showed that although the bird-scaring lines could be used on these vessels, the design could be improved, mainly to increase the distance that they cover behind the vessel, which is where the seabirds are caught.
The design is basically too heavy because of the materials used so objects that provide tension need to be dragged on the end of the line, which tend to cause entanglements with the fishing gear. Our current work is therefore focussed on designing a towed device that reduces the probability of the bird-scaring line becoming entangled with the fishing gear, and to find lighter weight materials to use in the line design. This may avoid the need for a towed device.
My most recent trip lasted 24 days, many of which we suffered some bad weather. The fishing master was targeting big eye tuna and sharks. As for seabirds, we had 17 species around the vessels as we worked and a single black-browed albatross was hooked during the haul.
Lines were set on 11 days during the night, but on five occasions the sun had not set. Curiously the bycatch was during a night set, which is not usually when birds are caught.
The vessel used a bird-scaring line everyday apart from one, when there was very bad weather. We also know that this captain uses the bird-scaring line whenever possible, personally deploying it and bringing it in. The vessel uses tangones (booms) that extend out approximately 10 m either side of the vessel, and from these points the bird-scaring line is deployed.
This holds the line away from the fishing gear and prevents entanglements with the hooks, even in bad weather. The bird-scaring line is 75 m long, made of 3.5 mm monofilament fishing line with 3 m long red streamers every three metres. To provide tension they are using a traffic cone, filled with expanded polyurethane and connected with a swivel and a snap connector.
During the haul there were two incidents when black-browed albatrosses were caught on hooks that returned to the ship. These birds had the hooks removed and were released live by the crew.
It should be highlighted that on this vessel the gear they use includes a swivel tied in very close to the bait, approximately 70 cm from the hook. This is interesting as this distance is often much greater. The small distance between the weighted swivel and the hook helps to sink the hook faster, giving less time for the seabirds to snatch the bait at the sea surface.
Hi everyone,
It has been a very busy winter here in Cape Town with lots of rain and cold weather, but summer is coming, along with some changes.
We have moved to a new office close to the harbour - a major upgrade, and it makes life so much easier when the boats are round the corner. Thanks to Cape Bird Club for all their help.
On a personal level, the winter saw me attending the International Albatrosses and Petrels Conference held in Cape Town. The conference was excellent and beside the great talks, it was a good opportunity to meet a lot of our partners from all over the world and get reacquainted with some old friends as well.
Winter is also peak season for seabirds with huge numbers coming to forage in our waters. As a result, bycatch rates are usually very high.
With the new permit conditions limiting the allowed bird mortalities per longline vessel to 25 birds I was very interested to follow the action and see how it affects the fishing operation and bycatch levels. And with observers on most of the longliners we pretty much know what is going on all over this fleet.
It is very encouraging to see that compliance with mitigation regulations has improved big time, especially with tori lines now used at almost 100% of the sets!! It was also really pleasing to find out that the bycatch level is almost 10 times lower than for the same time last year. This is really great news for us.
In between all that I managed to go to sea on two different boats; the first was a trawler where I collected some data for Barry and Bronwyn. It was my first trawl trip - I usually work with longliners - and it was a very interesting trip.
The second was a very special trip. We were trying out new weighting leads which will increase the sinking rate while reducing risk of injury for the crew. By increasing the hook sinking rate we decrease the time the bait is available for the birds to steal it and get hooked.
Very rough weather conditions and poor fishing shortened this trip, but the crew loved the idea of these 'safe leads' and next week I'm going with them again to continue the experiment. I will tell you all about it when I'm back. We also built different kinds of tori lines and tried them out.
As most of the crew know me from last year's trip, it was a very joyful reunion and working together was great fun.