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Yesterday Nahuel and I were with testing new improvements to the Tamini Tabla design, giving some final touches to the towed device which stabilizes and maintains bird-scaring lines in place during rough weather on trawl vessels. We expect this to be the final version! We made some changes in the...

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...

Each year thousands of seabirds are accidentally killed while foraging behind fishing vessels in the world’s oceans. Thanks to a device known as a bird scaring line, which is flown behind vessels to protect the danger areas, seabird bycatch has been reduced in some fisheries by up to 90%. Ocean...

Last month I returned from my most recent trip, this time aboard on the FV Maria , the same longliner that I had worked with last winter. We spent 19 days at sea and conducted 15 longline sets. In order to minimize seabird interactions all these sets were performed with a tori line deployed and were...

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...

I’m leaving for sea tomorrow on a tuna boat, hoping to have a good trip and that what I learn will be of use for the conservation of the seabirds we are working to protect. This trip is an experiment to investigate the efficiency of an under-water setting capsule to reduce, and possibly...

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...

During my last trip I continued experimenting with the Uruguayan ATF tori lines that we are developing, trying to obtain a greater set of results so we can be certain of what solutions to recommend to industry. This brought up a personal milestone, achieving my 400th day at sea! I started as a sailor...

A couple of days ago both Nahuel Chavez and I set out on a coastal trawler from the port of Necochea. Our intention was to try out our new tori line that we have built for the few longline vessels that operate in Argentina, and also to test the latest model of the Tamini Tabla (first called the Surf...