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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...

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...

During eight days at-sea we only managed to half-fill the fish hold on this fishing vessel. This explains how the fishing has been recently. We can’t blame it on the weather because most of the days were fine. However, there were some few days when the sea was rough with strong winds, thus making...

More than five long years had passed since I was last in the austral Atlantic Ocean. Some of those years, spent in the arid Brazilian capital, had made these fifteen days aboard a longline vessel a learning experience of the real meaning of living at, and from the sea. The daily routines, the isolation...

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...

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...

A few days ago I was in contact with a fishery observer who is at-sea aboard a longline vessel gathering biological data near Staten Island to the south of Argentina. This boat must now use mitigation measures; one of which is a bird-scaring line to reduce albatross mortality. The Federal Fisheries Council...

During the last month I was at-sea aboard a wet fish trawl vessel - a kind of trawler that keeps the catch fresh on ice instead of processing and blast-freezing like the industrial trawlers. We sailed out of the port in Mar del Plata where I live in the north east of Argentina. The crew were already...

Last week, the ATF in Argentina sent a package to Ushuaia, where the fishing vessel Antartic III from fishing company Estremar S.A. was waiting. In the package were two sets of specially designed tori lines that resulted from ATF tests aboard the vessel this year. The use of tori lines is now obligatory...

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...

There has been a distinct contrast in the background scenery to the work we have been conducting in Chile recently. Personally, I have been just as busy working at-sea on fishing vessels as I have generating awareness of our work through an ornithology congress and public talks. The first of these...

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...

I have just returned from another trip with Projeto Albatroz , this time with the 22 meter King of Tuna , where I enjoyed many new experiences at sea and also shared information with the crew about our wonderful seabirds. We left port Itajaí at 11:00 a.m with a full complement of nine crew...

This last trip to sea was onboard a vessel dedicated to catching swordfish and tuna. My goal was to continue experimenting with the tori lines we have been designing and testing in pelagic fisheries in Uruguay. We conducted seven fishing operations, three with a tori line and four without. Despite...

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...

I have recently done three consecutive at-sea trips in order to test mitigation measures that reduce seabird by catch, so I have a lot of stories to tell! The trips were aboard the 18 m long, wooden longliner Anarthur. The Anarthur’s skipper is called Darke, who works in collaboration with Projeto...

Unfortunately seabirds caught as byctach in pelagic longline fisheries are generally only brought onboard once they are already dead (they are hooked and drown during the set when lines sink into the water). In Uruguay birds killed at sea are returned to the laboratory for analysis. By doing so we can...

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...

Hello friends of the seabirds, This year has been amazing; rough seas, wonderful birds, good boat crews and a lot of positive energy within the Brazilian Albatross Task Force team. The challenges faced working onboard have been the most difficult we’ve faced so far, testing a combination...