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Hi everybody! Last month I returned from my last trip at-sea here in southern Brazil, on board a pelagic longliner. The cruise was amazing, and in addition to the success in obtaining data on our mitigation measure research, I experienced incredible and magic moments. The fishing area was the continental...

The best practice suite of mitigation measures for pelagic longline fisheries is the combination of a bird-scaring line, appropriate line weighting and night setting. This combination protects the area where hooks are still close to the surface (bird-scaring line), sinks baited hooks rapidly out of the...

Working aboard a hake longliner in Namibia is a tough life for everyone aboard. The hours are long and gruelling. I would say longline crew are amongst the hardest working people in Namibia and always battling against difficult sea conditions. I have just spent the last two weeks on board to compare...

The FV Joao N Castro leaves port today and I will be going with her. Over the past couple of months I have been preparing for this important trip, which is the first of a series of at-sea experimental trials to test new line-weighting in the demersal (bottom) longline fishery here in Namibia. The...

An emerging mitigation measure – the Hook-pod is currently being tested in South Africa and have been well-received by local fishermen. Their first impression was a feeling of awe. I can recall one skipper at Cape Town harbour calling them ‘precious toys’. My response to him was that...

Hi everybody! I’m writing to share some news from my last trip in southern Brazil. I left port Rio Grande on board the FV Maria , a wooden longline vessel under the command of captain Beto, a new collaborator with Projeto Albatroz and the ATF in Brazil. Beto guided us out toward deeper waters...

There have been some remarkable highlights recently with the second Instructors Workshop held in Piriapolis, Uruguay being one of them. That was an inspiring week, but there were some tense moments beforehand as our visas were only granted three days before we had to fly out of Walvis Bay. Cutting...

The day was a Sunday and the weather was not so great. Gusty winds exceeding 5 on the Beaufort scale coupled with big swells of more than 4 metres in height pretty much dominated that afternoon. Intermittent gusts of wind made it difficult for standard fishing operations on the day but the persistence...

Hi everybody! I have good news from Brazil. The Brazilian Ministries of Fisheries and Environment signed a new law , that means any pelagic longline vessel fishing below the 20° S must now use tori lines during all setting operations and include a weight of at least 60 g placed no more than two...

Hello friends of the seabirds! I am back from field work to tell you about another adventure from Projeto Albatroz , this time on board the Gera IX vessel from port Itajaí, Brazil. Our journey begins at the Jorge Seif Fishing Company of Itajaí, from where we hauled anchor with fishing...

Wow, what an event it was. The event was so immaculately organised in such a beautiful country like Uruguay. I personally was elated to meet the entire Albatross Task Force (ATF) team for the first time. The event had such an awesome atmosphere with such fascinating people who possess so much knowledge...

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...