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Among the activities that we conduct as ATF instructors, working with the crew aboard fishing vessels is the most difficult to accurately quantify. We can identify a seabird to species or sub-species level, record the exact times of fishing operations, statistically demonstrate the efficiency of mitigation...

The European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) is a group of companies, which provide grants to support the environment. This year our very own Albatross Task Force has been selected as a candidate to win over £20,000 of funding in the ‘nature’ category. The project was nominated...

Every year BirdLife South Africa gathers a congregation of very knowledgeable scientists and birders to discuss issues around bird conservation. This annual gathering has since been coined ‘FLOCK’ and it is BirdLife South Africa’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). This year, however was...

As the Albatross Task Force team leader for South Africa, I was recently asked to provide some fishery observer training slightly further from home than usual. Excitingly I was to travel to Korea and conduct a one-day training workshop with Korean fisheries observers and scientists from the South East...

Our work in the ATF generally brings us into close contact with the community, without which we would not be able to explain the phenomenon of seabird bycatch and our mission to reduce the impact on vulnerable species (see here for an example ). During these activities we always share our experiences...

Ross Wanless, South African regional co-ordinator for the Global Seabird Programme reports back from a seabird bycatch workshop in South Korea, with some promising developments: Asian longline fleets account for ~90% of the fishing effort that overlaps with albatrosses. This meant that getting an...

The Chilean National Plan of Action Seabirds states that bird-scaring lines must be used on all pelagic longline sets. However, despite good seabird conservation regulations for this fleet, many vessels still don’t use this mitigation measure. The Albatross Task Force has been working in collaboration...

The ATF in South Africa is working to disseminate seabird conservation information and to demonstrate best practice measures on board vessels to reduce seabird bycatch. Conducting research on board local and foreign fishing vessels is a large part of that process. Research findings are made available...

Last month I attended a roundtable discussion on interactions between marine megafauna and fisheries. This was part of the III Academic Symposium of Marine Biology , which took place in Tramandaí, southern Brazil. The symposium was sponsored by the Academic Board of a Biological Sciences course...

I’ve recently started working with the Task Force in Chile and I am delighted to have this opportunity as I know Chilean fisheries inside out and I believe that we really need to make a big effort to reduce seabird mortality, so it is great to be part of the ATF. I've been lucky enough to...

The definition of small-scale (sometimes referred to as artisanal) fisheries is not particularly clear and it differs from country to country. However, most fleets that are described as small-scale share some common characteristics: Small vessels, often of wooden or fibre-glass construction; ...

This month I thought it would be a good idea to follow on from one of my Brazilian colleague’s diaries which highlighted the poor attitude of some fishermen towards seabirds. His diary can be found here , as a reminder of the problem. I have only ever seen one or two birds with broken bills...

I was recently in the port city where I live, Mar del Plata, Argentina. The fisheries situation in our country has reached a critical point. It has been 90 days since many of the trawler vessels have been to sea due to crew demands for wage improvements, with no sign of a solution. The situation...

After more than 30 days of delays and set-backs, the FV Salomão VI finally left the port of Santos, where Kleber Baraldo has been working with the ATF team in Brazil, run by local NGO Projeto Albatroz . The wooden-hulled vessel was about 45 feet (14 metres) long and typical of the Itaipava...

Cory’s shearwater breed on islands in the Mediterranean and north-west Atlantic Ocean, after which they migrate down through the Atlantic and onto the western Indian Ocean. They are common summer visitors to southern Africa, especially off the western and southern coast, while more scarce off the...

Hi everybody. I thought twice before writing this diary, because we usually try to provide more positive information and show beautiful pictures of our work. However, our job is not always about happy endings; we also witness a lot of sad situations. In this instance I specifically refer to the albatrosses...

The Albatross Task Force is working with the longline industry in South Africa, where recently we came across a very rare seabird in our waters – a Tristan Albatross, which was accidentally caught as we were conducting a routine trip onboard one of our local vessels. What makes this all the more...

I recently returned from a routine Albatross Task Force at-sea trip onboard a conventional wet fish trawl vessel in Argentina (fish are stored on ice, but not frozen like on the larger freezer vessels). The trip lasted a total of 16 days and fishing was concentrated around 300 km east of the Valdéz...

Last month I returned from my most recent trip, this time aboard on the FV Maria , the same longliner that I had worked with last winter. We spent 19 days at sea and conducted 15 longline sets. In order to minimize seabird interactions all these sets were performed with a tori line deployed and were...

In my most recent trip to sea, we set off for a period of eleven days from the port of La Paloma, located on the east coast of Uruguay. We had already partaken in various trips on this vessel, and so the crew already knew us well and they were happy to collaborate with our work again. We now have a much...

Without doubt, the albatross are one of the groups of seabirds that need our greatest conservation effort. Commercial fisheries, through incidental capture, have generated a huge impact in many populations and almost all the species are currently in danger of extinction. As they spend the main part of...

For many of us the recurring theme of the enormous accumulation of waste caused by human activities is a great concern. Through the ebb and flow of our daily lives, we discard large volumes of both solid and liquid waste products. Indeed, the current rate of consumption of biosphere resources means...

Between the 24 th and 27 th January 2011, I had the opportunity to take part in a workshop organised by the Chilean Environment Ministry to evaluate conservation actions for the Pink-footed shearwater Puffinus creatopus under the mark of the Agreement for Environmental Cooperation between Chile...

Richard's Bay Over the last eight months I’ve been working off Richard's Bay, in the east coast of South Africa, collecting more data for the Albatross Task Force (ATF) research project which is seeking to determine how adding weight to the fishing line effects the catch rates of...

From the 30 th November to the 2 nd December 2010, the ATF in Argentina and the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata -CONICET organised the second intensive observer training course for Indentification and Recording of Seabird Interactions with Fisheries. The course was intended for fishery...