I’m telling you about my first at-sea experience as ATF Instructor on a freshie trawler (the catch is stored fresh on ice) departing from Mar del Plata in October 2009. During the first trip, about 5 days of work, I understood how to apply the at-sea protocol in my new job. I was very nervous before because I had to go up to “espardel”, the place where the crew leave nets, which is about 7 metres high and it made me dizzy! Fortunately I could get past this to get the work done.
The vessel was good; my cabin was big and I had a comfortable trip. The crew were 20 strong, and some were interested in the conservation of seabirds. Two sailors helped me with my work and they also contributed good ideas during the trip.
I have recently started with the ATF and my last trip before this position was in October 2008 so I suffered the consequences, being sick for the first three days! I couldn’t eat, but after these initial days, I got my sea-legs back.
I observed the interactions with the trawl warp cables, but the main problem I found on this vessel was the interaction with the net sonda cable. This cable relays information from gadgets on the net back to the bridge, and drags in the water 50 metres or so behind the vessel. Because they are so far aft of the vessel, they can cause real problems for large albatrosses. They are relatively rare in the Argentine fleet but as most of the interactions that I recorded were with this cable it could be very relevant.
However, on this trip the fish discard was very low, so there was little interaction with seabirds overall. In these trips, we were operating in “El Rincón” an important fishing area that is located off Bahía San Blas in Buenos Aires province.
The experience was very satisfactory for me. I really enjoy my work and I could appreciate that there are many things to be done as we move forward. It was a starting point for my work with the ATF.
This last trip in November was a little adventurous, although it only lasted twelve days due to a dodgy generator causing a number of unexpected events onboard.
We started the trip moving around more than normal, in the search for good fishing grounds. The swordfish were being elusive and simply refused to appear. Half way through the trip one of the generators, which provides power to the winches and starts the main engine, broke down. However, the captain decided to carry on regardless and rely solely on the other generator.
As we tried fishing waters 250 nautical miles off the coast, the second generator gave up, leaving us without all major equipment, such as GPS, radar and radio! Worse still, was the fact that the water pumps relied on this generator and as the vessel had a number of holes in the hull, water was pouring in. The crew had to take turns bailing out manually for 24 hours while we waited for assistance in some pretty bad weather conditions.
When help came, they fixed one of the generators enabling us to return to shore under our own steam. The other vessel stayed close in case we needed further support.
Despite our misfortune, we still managed to set several lines during the trip and I carried out the tori line experiments we are testing in Uruguay. We had some entanglements between the gear and the tori line, which allowed us to observe where and how this was happening so that we can work on improving the design.
Although there were many seabirds accompanying the vessel throughout the trip, including a good number of the big albatrosses such as wandering and royal albatrosses, there was generally less as we set the gear.
We had no incidents of bycatch and despite the difficulties of the trip; having tested the tori lines in all weather conditions pleased us a lot, as did the high level of cooperation between the captain and crew. On balance we believe that the trip was really positive for us, as each trip we learn something new and we feel that the crews are increasingly collaborative and open.
My last sea trip for last year was actually my second on a beautiful vessel called the African Queen. So appropriately named, as I was treated like a Queen! Even before I got boarded the vessel, there were rumours and murmurings that the skipper and the crew had something very special and exciting to show me. The hype and excitement grew as I got onboard. The crew were so happy to see me again and were just dying to tell me their secret, but the skipper hadn’t arrived so they dared not say anything yet.
When the skipper did finally arrive some of the crew just couldn’t keep it in any longer and their secret bubbled out! The skipper had come up with an idea to help save the seabirds and then he had actually built his idea and even tested it on their previous fishing trip! Now they were actually going to get the chance to show me what they had made and how well it worked.
Before we even left the harbour the grand invention, affectionately named the “Rory” line after the skipper, Roy Diedricks, whose idea it was, was brought to the bridge for me to see for my approval. The “Rory” line is a simple but innovative design, using an old piece of wood with old sections of streamers from old tori lines (recycling!) nailed into it and hanging down.
The “Rory” line was then attached using ropes to the side of the vessel towards the stern, sticking out horizontally from the vessel. Since most of the offal from the fish processing comes out on the port side, this was the side of main seabird activity and concern, and therefore the side to which the “Rory” line was attached.
In the morning of our first fishing day the “Rory” line was put out and stayed out until the very end of our trip. After the third trawl on the first day, the one deck hand named “Pikie” came to me to say that he had held back three baskets of offal to put out after processing for us to do a mini experiment so I could see just how well the “Rory” line worked.
Then one by one the baskets of offal went out, first with the “Rory” line streamers hanging down towards the water, then with them lifted up and finally with them hanging down again. It was very exciting to see the effect it had on all the seabirds. Even the little ones like the pintado petrels and white-chinned petrels were ‘jumping’ out of the way of the line. The bigger albatrosses really didn’t like it and often jumped out of the way well before it got to them.
The “Rory” line was always used in conjunction with the regulation tori lines and the two together proved to work very well. The “Rory” line could do with some small modifications to work even more effectively, but BirdLife South Africa’s Seabird division would really like to applaud Roy and all the crew of the African Queen for their efforts and ingenuity in designing and testing the “Rory” line.
Summer has arrived and with it the departure of many of our foraging albatrosses and petrels to their breeding islands in the southern Oceans around New Zealand, the storm-ravaged islands in the Roaring 40’s and South Georgia. These birds have been replaced by several species of seabirds that have come down from the northern hemisphere to enjoy our warm summer weather and the nutrient rich Benguella current.
I have just returned from a very successful eight-day trip. During this trip, I continued with our ongoing research project testing Tori Lines. Bird numbers were low, with the majority being pomarine skuas and Sabine’s gulls.
There were still several albatrosses around, mainly juvenile white-capped and Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses. There were a few magnificent adult Atlantic yellow-nosed Albatrosses in breeding plumage, one of the prettiest albatrosses with their black bills with bright yellow stripe, grey head and neck and black smudged “eye liner”. These head markings are offset by the starkly contrasting black and white plumage on the body; altogether an impressive bird. Watching them glide effortlessly past the vessel a few metres from my vantage point is always a pleasure.
The trip started with fine windless weather and then progressed into a couple of days of pretty foul weather with five metre waves and strong winds. The vessel was only 33 m long and 13 m wide with a very stubby bow so waves breaking over the bow sprayed right to the back, wetting me and my notes every time we crashed into one. The ship, although short and stubby, was also very high so we bobbed around like a plastic duck in a bathtub.
After the sea had calmed down somewhat to a three-metre swell, we were doing an afternoon trawl when after about an hour or so there was a sudden silence, the tori lines went slack and started to drift towards the back of the vessel. All forward motion had ceased. We had broken down 290 nautical miles out of port!
After drifting for a while, rocked around by the swell, the captain managed to get power onto the winches so the net could be retrieved. After much head scratching and many consultations with the company’s shore based engineers the captain and his two assistants eventually managed to fix the problem after about seven hours. At one stage, serious consideration was given to towing us back to port. Fortunately, this did not happen as a 290 nautical mile tow into three metre swells at four knots would have been unpleasant!
Once the vessel was fixed we carried on fishing for the remaining day of the trip. The crew was very interested in the work I was doing and they all commented on how well the tori lines seemed to work. On return to port, I gave the skipper a complete set of tori lines that he said he would use during trawling. Once again it has become obvious that the fishermen do not want to kill birds and are keen to help save the albatross.