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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...

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...

Two years after the implementation of the NPOA-S in Argentina, the first workshop was held as a follow-up to the plan. In the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development over 40 specialists including researchers, academics and members of Non-government Organisations plus representatives from...

The Albatross Task Force (ATF) not only aims to educate fishermen about the work we do and implement the solutions into tangible rules within the fishing industry, but we also aim to educate the public and other researchers within the realm of seabird bycatch. Once a team has implemented the best...

When we were defining our annual work programme in Chile we were keen to maintain a link with the community, beyond that of the fishing industry. In fact, we have always strived to extend the information about seabird bycatch and albatross conservation to the public in general. As such we decided...

I have just returned from a very exciting and fun-filled few days in Sedgefield and Mossel Bay. For those of you not from South Africa, these towns are located along our east coast, and apparently Mossel Bay has the second best climate in the world! My colleague and I took a comfortable 5-hour drive...

Hello to all albatross fans! We don't just speak to fishermen at sea. Most fishermen spend long periods of time at-sea and as there are only a few ATF instructors around, we try to meet them in between their trips. Albatross Task Force South Africa has for the last three years been conducting...

We have been operating for a year now and have a made some progress on getting a handle on what is happening in the Namibian hake trawl fishery. I have not been out to sea recently, but am hoping to rectify this soon as the office becomes tedious compared to life at-sea! 2009 got off to a brilliant start...

For albatrosses there are no frontiers, and neither for the ATF During the Albatross Task Force's early history and until now we couldn't have a meeting to discuss the mitigation measures and the best strategies to reach the main goal which is save the seabirds. It was therefore amazing to hold...

Hi everybody. My name is John Paterson and I am the first Albatross Task Force Instructor to be based in Namibia. I have been tasked to work with the hake trawl fishery in Namibia and a second Instructor is to be recruited to work with the hake longline fishery. This is all new and exciting for...

I have been on dry land! The whole Albatross Task Force team in Chile - that's Dr Carlos Moreno, Rodrigo, Humberto, Oli and myself - have been working closely together. We don't often get this chance as we are based in different locations in Chile. We got together to meet the industrial...

I have been meeting people and filling up my brain with lots of info in readiness for my new task. I can say that I understand the fishing industries and their impacts on seabirds better. I have learned more about the important fishing areas in Chile, the different fishing techniques used for the different...

My God... let me tell you that this is not an easy job... it really is not, but it must be done with courage, persistence and with good heart. I persist with the local fishermen and captains in order to instruct them why they should adopt the tori lines and the other mitigation measures. It is hard...

Mid-October saw me giving two presentations to skippers and industry representatives about how to prevent albatross deaths in the South African hake trawl fishery. The venue was Cape Town and four fishing companies were represented. Seabirds are attracted to vessels to feed on discards from processed...

Some time back, I was asked if I was interested in attending a trawl mitigation workshop in New Zealand. My response: is the Pope a Catholic? With sponsorship from consultants Deepwater Group, I was winging my way to the Southern Seabirds Solution workshop in Nelson with Barrie Rose (I&J). We...

The last month was a dry land month for me. I was busy with four workshops we organised for fishermen and managers from the local fisheries - hake longline and trawl fishery, tuna and swordfish longline and shark longline fisheries. We also conducted a workshop for Compliance Officers. The workshops...

July was a great month. We've been doing lots of workshops and now the phones are ringing off the hook - everyone has to have a tori line! It has been crazy... our newly-constructed tori lines are leaving the shelf as quickly as they are being made! We've run workshops at some of the most...

As I told you before I am on land right now, getting ready for the next trip. We're also busy preparing a workshop for the tuna longliners all about bycatch - I'm meeting the chairman of the Tuna Longline Association on Thursday. Today the vessel which took me onboard last month came back from...

This week I am writing to you from the RSPB headquarters in the UK! I am here on a vacation and took the opportunity to meet the people here who are co-ordinating the task force and all of the PR effort on its behalf. My last week in South Africa was hectic but rewarding. The workshop with hake fisheries...

We have 75 confirmed attendees for the hake longline workshop this week, which includes boat owners, skippers, crew and representatives from Marine and Coastal Management. I’m looking forward to building a relationship with this group. Currently, this type of longline sinks very slowly, and the...