Blogs

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...

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...

For this blog I am posting on behalf of my friend and colleague Rodrigo Forselledo: Rodrigo wrote the following: As Sebastian is enjoying a short period in the UK, I have taken on his ATF duties in Uruguay. On my first pelagic longline trip I started testing the new design of the bird-scaring...

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...

In the north of Peru we are working with observers to monitor the interactions in the demersal (bottom) longline fishery. This report was written by Eliana Alfaro Córdova, who has been helping Prodelphinus and the Albatross Task Force by accompanying the fishers in the north on their daily fishing...

The streamer line, also known as a bird-scaring or tori line is a mitigation measure that reduces seabird bycatch in longline fisheries. It is recommended that they be used in combination with night setting and line weighting. The efficiency of streamer lines has been demonstrated by our team in the...

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...

I have recently returned after twelve days at-sea off the southeast coast of Brazil, where we were fishing for tuna in an area bordering our neighbours and friends from Uruguay. The zone is favoured for the convergence of cold and warm water fronts, which form further north reaching well into Brazilian...

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...