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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...

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...

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...

Recently I returned from my first trip working with the Albatross Task Force aboard the pelagic longline vessel “Maria Letícia”, from Torquato Pontes Fish Company. This boat sailed under captain Celso, a very experienced captain who specializes in catching tunas. Captain Celso...