Albatross Task Force

Life as an ATF instructor - First week at sea

2021-08-05T11:26:00Z

Ndamona Mateus is part of our team of dedicated instructors based in Namibia. She recently spent just over a week on board a fishing vessel, her first trip out as an ATF instructor. Our ATF teams spend weeks at sea checking that fishers are using life-saving seabird bycatch mitigation measures and building invaluable relationships with the fishing community. Ndamona shares her first experience..

Ndamona on board the fishing vessel, hundreds of seabirds already gathering behind.

“Being at sea is an extraordinary experience, there are many tales about being at sea, but nobody knows until they have a first-hand experience. I have been to sea before several times on research vessels...But this was my first time working on a commercial fishing vessel. Here, it’s all about getting the job done, harvesting it is “man at work”. I was the only female on board. A crew of 26 including my colleague Titus Shaanika who was showing me the ropes of being an ATF instructor. We boarded the vessel on a Sunday evening 11-07-2021, and were welcome by individual crew members as we climbed on board. Titus introduced me to the captain and officers, he is well known for his work on this fishing vessel, this was his 3^rd trip with F/V Harvest Nicola. The captain gave me seasickness medications and immune boosters. As the ship sailed, a mayday drill was called for all of us on board at the muster station. Having completed sea safety training two weeks ago, I understood the value of drills.

Ndamona recording data (seabird bycatch, mitigation data and safety measures)

“The next day, as the fishermen deployed their fishing gear, Titus explained what to do, how to record seabird bycatch and mitigation data and the safety measures. “Let’s identify birds”, He said. There were plenty of birds! Even though I had participated in coastal birds count before and I knew the characteristics of them, these were different birds. I looked out and all I saw was loads of black and white birds. Though I had a guidebook it was still challenging for me, my colleague described the birds one by one, pointing out their unique characteristics and life history, it was incredibly helpful. My favourite bird was the shy albatross. It is so graceful as if it puts some effort into how its look before setting off for foraging. As the 1st hauling started, I was familiar with what to do, but it was, nevertheless, a lot to take in. During the 4th haul of the day, there appeared lots of small birds, "oh! I think we're going to have bad weather soon”, Titus said. “You see those small birds, they are called Wilson’s storm petrels they often appear when it’s about to get rough”, we then headed to the mess room for data entry, before we headed to bed around 21;00 as we started feeling the effect of rough seas.

Shy albatrosses gathering around the fishing vessel

“Titus was right. We had bad weather for 3 consecutive days (12th-14th, 07.2021). Limited work was done as it was too risky. On every vessel, safety always comes first. It was difficult for anyone to stay on their feet and work as the vessel rocked and rolled. The food was great, but the biliousness negatively affected my appetite. The immune boosters and seasick pills were indispensable, but homesickness set in quickly. The bad weather eventually ended, and we could resume our ATF responsibilities.

“On day 5 (15-07-2021), mini rainbows where forming over splashes from the vessels wake, it was a beautiful sight, we tried to capture them as Titus showed me a few tricks of photographing birds. He emphasized the importance of taking quality pictures as it helps with record-keeping and reporting. On day six (16-07-2021), the routine was standard and the work went smoothly. The pleasant weather, meant staying up on the stern for much longer familiarising myself with the birds, sun basking and enjoying the fresh air. Something you get to appreciate more on a relatively small fishing vessel as the hallways below deck are concentrated with a strong smell of fish and kitchen steams, a smell that takes some time to get used to…

“The crew often enjoy free time on the front deck between sets. We take advantage of this and talk to them about Tori lines and ATF work. Talking to them is always informative and hilarious, I learned a lot from them besides seabird bycatch. On Monday morning 19-07-2021, we were all excited to be headed home after a good drag. We reached Walvis Bay at 21H00 after sailing for 8-hours from the fishing grounds just west of Walvis Bay.

Having had such an enriching experience, I am glad to be ready to undertake my many solo seabird bycatch mitigation missions.

Ndamona and Titus recording data

Make sure to follow #AlbatrossTaskForce on Facebook, Twitter and #AlbatrossStories Instagram If you want to support the work of the Albatross Task Force you can become a friend of the albatross, helping projects such as educating fishers on the importance of bird scaring lines which deter Sitka and many others from the dangers of fish hooks.

22,000 seabirds saved in Namibia every year thanks to the Albatross Task Force and fishing industry

2021-01-05T17:19:00Z

Guest blog by Alan Munro, International Marine Policy Project Officer.

Everyone loves a good news story! And boy do we have one…hold on tight.

After over a decade of work with the country’s fishing industry and fisheries managers, the Albatross Task Force (ATF) in Namibia are celebrating a major conservation success. A new paper hot off the press shows that seabird deaths in the Namibian demersal longline fishery have been reduced by 98%. That equates to 22,000 birds saved! Yes, you read that right. What a win.

This achievement is thanks to effective government regulation and dedicated grassroots engagement with the industry by our dedicated team of seabird bycatch instructors, including Titus Shaanika (read our interview with Titus) and team leader Samantha Matjila. The Task Force engage directly with the fishing industry and demonstrate the simple measures that can prevent birds being caught on longline fishing hooks or killed by collisions with the thick steel cables that haul trawl nets through the water.

Assessing the scale of the problem

Photo (left): Courting Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross © Ben Dilley. Photo (right): White-chinned petrel © Alistair J King

One of the Task Force’s first jobs was to establish the scale of the seabird bycatch issue in Namibia. The results were rather shocking: Namibia’s hake fisheries were found to be among the world’s deadliest fisheries for seabirds: an estimated 30,000 birds were being killed each year. What was even more concerning was that this included threatened species like the Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross and white-chinned petrels.

Mitigation become law

The Task Force quickly set to work and started meeting with the fishing industry to show them so called ‘seabird mitigation measures’ like bird-scaring lines – simple lines with colourful streamers towed behind the vessel that act as ‘scarecrows’ and keep birds away from baited hooks or dangerous trawl cables. After many thousands of hours at sea and in ports building support for these measures and the importance of protecting seabirds, in 2015 the team were successful in advocating for fishery regulations requiring the use of mitigation measures by law.

Photo: Bird-scaring lines deployed behind a longline vessel.

These news laws meant that bird-scaring lines were used across the fleet, and the new study demonstrates just how effective the potent combination of grassroots engagement and solid regulations has been.

Samantha Matjila, the Namibia ATF Team Leader with the Namibia Nature Foundation, reflected:

“It’s truly wonderful to see bycatch drop by such a huge amount in Namibia. Our waters are crucial for many globally threatened seabirds – to think that our collaborative efforts with all the vessels and the fishery managers have resulted in more than 22,000 birds being saved every year is something special. With the right levels of government investment and support, we hope that low levels of bycatch can be sustained long into the future, and that Namibia can serve as a marine conservation inspiration at a time when it is sorely needed!”

Women’s empowerment

The Namibian team have also been able to connect bycatch reduction to female empowerment by partnering with local women’s group Meme Itumbapo. The group have been building bird-scaring lines to sell to the fleet for over 6 years now and have recently signed an agreement to partner with one of the major fisheries supply companies in Walvis Bay to continue their work.

What’s the next step?

Since albatrosses are very long-lived birds (some species breed right up into their 60s!), we need to ensure that the approaches developed by the Task Force are hard-wired into long-term management of the fishery. Titus Shaanika, Senior ATF Instructor in Namibia, notes:

“The industry has done a remarkable job to reduce seabird bycatch so substantially over such a short period. The big challenge now is to keep up those hard-earned reductions, and to wear them as a badge of honour – we can and we must do more of this across the world if we want turn the tide on biodiversity loss.”

Speaking of badges of honour, the hake fishery recently secured MSC Certification, and bird bycatch was an important consideration in the assessment. The fishery picked up some conditions of certification – including the need to improve compliance with bird-scaring line use in the trawl fleet, and to ensure that robust data collection on bycatch continues, showing that the fishery is not having impacts on vulnerable seabird populations.

Photo: Samantha and Titus onboard freezer trawler

These results are certainly timely for us here in the UK with our own National Plan of Action for reducing seabird bycatch under development. A close cousin of the albatross - fulmars – are being caught in longline fisheries operating off the north coast of Scotland. Rory Crawford, Bycatch Programme Manager for the BirdLife International Marine Programme, highlighted the opportunity to follow the lead shown in Namibia:

“There is lots to be learned here in the UK from the success story in Namibia. The ingredients of at-sea engagement, mitigation measure testing, strong regulations and very high observer coverage – 100% in some fleets – in Namibia could easily be translated to our waters if the will and resources can be found. So, what are we waiting for?”

Building on our success

The Namibian team is the second of five ATF teams across the world to have achieved a more than 90% seabird bycatch reduction, following our success in South Africa in 2014. In the next two years the aim is to demonstrate similar reductions in Argentina and Chile, and to have furthered this major contribution to the improved conservation status of some of the world’s most remarkable – yet threatened – birds.

Obituary: Ismael Linicius Kavela

2020-07-31T11:40:00Z

A strong promoter of marine conservation and Albatross Task Force ally in Namibia has passed away

Champion of sustainable fishing practices and seabird conservation, former government fisheries observer and Albatross Task Force collaborator, Ismael Linicius Kavela passed away last month in his home town of Omaruru, at the age of 42.

Ice, as he was affectionately called by the team, had been working as a a consultant seabird bycatch mitigation instructor for the ATF since 2017. He collected vast amounts of valuable bycatch data and was instrumental in raising awareness of seabird-friendly fishing techniques onboard hake demersal longline and trawl vessels in Namibia.

Ismael's work over the past three years has made an important contribution towards driving seabird bycatch reductions in what has been coined one of the worst fisheries for seabirds in the world and colleagues describe him as being a humorous and peace-loving individual. He was an experienced seafarer and played a pivotal role in promoting the uptake of bycatch mitigation measures among crews in the Namibian hake fishery.

His dedication and good-nature will be missed by many and his passing is a great loss to the marine conservation community. Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.

Nina da Rocha - Albatross Task Force Project Officer

Celebrating the first World Albatross Day!

2020-06-15T13:46:00Z

Join us and people around the world in celebrating the first ever World Albatross Day and find out what the RSPB and its partners are doing to keep these amazing birds safe...

As you may or may not already know, the RSPB does quite a lot of albatross work! It was in fact one of the RSPB's very own seabird biologists (Michelle Risi studying albatrosses on Gough Island) that first came up with the idea of launching a #WorldAlbatrossDay and presented the idea to the Agreement of the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels last year.

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Since we love these handsomely huge, wonderfully wise and adorably affectionate birds - we decided to kick of the inaugural #WorldAlbatrossDay in 2020 with a bang!

In the lead up to WAD2020 we have therefore ben uploading a series of short talks by albatross experts from around the world onto our Albatross Task Force YouTube channel - giving you the opportunity to learn more about these incredible birds, what makes them special, what threats they face and what we are doing to help keep them safe.

Join us for a live Q&A

As a particularly special treat, we are giving you the chance to join some of the astonishing people working on the ground to save albatrosses in a live Zoom Q&A session on World Albatross Day!

Date: 19th June
Time: 12 pm BST
Zoom link: https://birdlife.zoom.us/j/94712623619

Please note that the Q&A session will be recorded and uploaded onto the Albatross Task Force YouTube channel.

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to the Albatross Task Force YouTube channel, learn all you can about albatrosses and come prepared with some questions for our Q&A on Friday 19 June!

Lockdown life...

2020-05-29T15:56:00Z

Have you been wondering what our international team of dedicated seabird bycatch instructors have been up to during the past couple of months? Read on to find out how they have been keeping busy from the comfort of their homes since the global COVID-19 pandemic came along and turned our world upside down!

Whether it be somewhere along the coast of Chile, in a neighbourhood with a view of Table Mountain in Cape Town or in the most southern state of Brazil – all of our ATF teams have been impacted by the restrictions put in place by governments around the world to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Although fishing operations have continued in most of the ports we work in – as fishing is considered an essential service – our teams’ access to ports, vessels and fishing crews has been severely hampered by the social distancing measures and mandatory lockdowns enforced by local authorities in their respective countries. The activities most affected by COVID 19 therefore include going out to sea to monitor seabird bycatch, performing routine port visits and delivering face-to-face training to industry representatives, fisheries observers and inspectors.

Fishers onboard trawl vessel in Argentina, where fishing operations are up and running again after a short period of inactivity earlier this year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

But, even though they are currently not able to spend time on boats, our ATF instructors have been keeping busy and making progress nonetheless! By spending time planning and preparing for future project activities now, we are making sure that we will be ready to hit the ground running once the lockdown gets lifted and it is deemed safe for our teams to return to work. As we have all been learning over the last couple of months, it is challenging to adapt to and plan for a situation that constantly seems to be changing. We for instance had plans to deliver a small-scale training event to fisheries inspectors in one of our key ports in Namibia next week – but have had to postpone as local authorities have decided to tighten restrictions once more.

In many countries, what started out as a relatively short quarantine period has turned into a new way of life with no end yet in sight. But being confined to our homes has also allowed us to focus efforts on things that had been put away for a rainy day and been on our to-do lists for far too long. So, despite not spending time saving seabirds out at sea, it has been a productive few months!

“Having the space and time to play around with data and writing is a rare luxury” – reports Andrea Angel, ATF team leader in South Africa.

Whilst working from home has its perks, it also requires staying in touch with colleagues more regularly and learning about new ways to communicate and share our work with others. And, for many of the members of the ATF team, we have had to become school assistants, day-carers and experts in online teaching at the same time!

We are also learning to put these skills to a test by developing online training material for outreach with fishers and observers – a first for the ATF! Continuing engagement with industry through whatever means possible is of vital importance now, as seabird bycatch mitigation may well take a back seat if we do not keep momentum up in a time when fishers have many other things to worry about.

Then there is of course also the World Albatross Day preparations! We are currently busy planning lots of exciting activities to celebrate this inaugural day with you on June 19^th to raise awareness of these incredible birds and the conservation crisis they are facing.

ATF team leader Dimas Gianuca and instructor Gabriel Canani display World Albatross Day banner on Cassino Beach in southernmost Brazil.

In light of the current situation, our ATF team in Brazil has had to resort to displaying their World Albatross Day banner on their local beach in Rio Grande, as they have not been able to go to sea or gain access to ports for months.

With WAD2020 just 3 weeks away – it’s time to start getting excited!

Make sure to follow the Albatross Task Force on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news and updates about what we have planned for the day.

Nina da Rocha - Albatross Task Force Project Officer

Winning the hearts and minds of fishers at-sea

2020-04-22T13:33:00Z

Last month we learned about about what life is like for members of the Albatross Task Force in Brazil. This month, we are hopping across to the other side of the Atlantic, to speak to one of dedicated team members in Cape Town, South Africa.

My name is Reason Nyengera and as an Albatross Task Force instructor my main job is to work directly with fishermen on the deck of their vessels and engage with them on the issue of seabird bycatch. This is a very exciting task and gives me first-hand experience of the challenges the South African fishery is facing in trying to reduce the conflict between humans and marine wildlife. My aim is to win the hearts and minds of the fishers and explain the problem to them, as well as troubleshooting various mitigation measures at-sea.

The fishers are generally a bit sceptical initially, thinking that I might disrupt their fishing operations rather than trying to help them fish in a more sustainable way. I have primarily been working with five fleets in our local waters: the deep-sea hake trawl fishery, the large pelagic longline fishery (made up of both domestic and joint-venture fleets, targeting tuna and swordfish), the demersal hake longline fishery and the tuna pole fleet.

Bycatch can take several forms, depending on the fishing gear used. In trawl fisheries, as the birds engage in a feeding frenzy behind the vessel, they can be fatally struck by the cables towing the net and dragged under water. In longline fisheries, albatrosses and other seabirds are attracted to baited hooks that target fish such as tuna and hake. As baited hooks take some time to sink to their fishing depth, scavenging seabirds attack the bait, get caught on them and drown.

My goal is to find and help implement mutually beneficial solutions to the problem of seabird bycatch. It is important to note that fishermen generally don’t want to kill seabirds and they have a wealth of practical knowledge about the ocean and fishing techniques. By working with them, we can help create a safe environment for these magnificent birds, using simple techniques to avoid bycatch and advocating for governments to implement seabird bycatch mitigation regulations.

For example, setting longlines at night can significantly reduce seabird bycatch since most seabird species don’t actively forage in the dark. Adding weights to longlines makes baited hooks sink faster, thus reducing the window of opportunity for foraging seabirds to attack them and get caught. Bird-scaring lines are another mitigation measure, designed to cover the area in which baited hooks are available to seabirds and scare them away from this danger zone. Thanks to the work of the Albatross Task Force team, these best practice methods have now been adopted and made mandatory in the South African demersal and pelagic longline fishery permit requirements.

Fishers on a South African demersal longline vessel setting lines at night

Having reached these milestones, I continue engaging with the fishing industry to promote and create awareness of the use of seabird bycatch mitigation measures. Since bird-scaring lines have primarily been designed for use on large vessels, there is an urgent need to adapt them to smaller vessels which have different gear configurations. You can read more about our work to address this issue in my previous blog.

The good news is that our new bird-scaring line design has been successfully included in the 2020-2021 fisheries permit conditions, a legally binding document issued to all fishing vessels by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and a significant leap forward for the protection of our seabirds from preventable bycatch!

Our next challenge is developing additional methods to help minimise bycatch in the demersal longline fleet. I am currently conducting experiments on the exposure rates of baited hooks using fine-scale time-depth loggers. This information is critical for us to understand which parts of the gear sink slow enough for seabirds to be able to access the bait and become hooked! The map below shows the locations of trips we have been on with the South African demersal longline fleet in the past three years.

Keep up with the ATF blog to hear more about the work that I and my colleagues in other ATF teams are doing all around the world to help save our seabirds!

By Reason Nyengera - ATF Instructor, South Africa

To support the work of the Albatross Task Force please become a Friend of the Albatross today.

Starting the new decade off with a bang

2020-02-04T11:29:00Z

It is true that things have been a bit quiet on the ATF blog front lately – but that is not because stuff hasn’t been happening! Indeed 2020 is set to be an important year and decade in the world of albatross conservation and our teams have been getting stuck right into it all!

Those of you following our #AlbatrossStories on social media may have picked up on the exciting news: in June we will be celebrating the first ever World Albatross Day! From virtually uninhabited UK Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic, to cities across Argentina, South Africa and Japan – albatrosses will be celebrated, and a spotlight put on the issues that continue to threaten their survival.

World Albatross Day will reach all corners of the world… even the RSPB’s most remote team on Gough Island are flying the flag for WAD! And the dedicated men and women of the Albatross Task Force will of course be joining in on the fun too!

RSPB team on Gough show their support for World Albatross Day

Our ATF team in Chile was the first one to get fully onboard with World Albatross Day (pun intended) and kicked the year off by taking a banner out to sea to raise awareness of the conservation crisis albatrosses face amongst those working on boats in Chilean waters. As I write this, our ATF instructor Reason is on a demersal longliner off the coast of South Africa taking another banner out to sea, aiming to do the same thing in his corner of the world.

ATF team in Chile are the first to take World Albatross Day banner out to sea

Cristian Suazo, ATF team leader in Chile, says: “Gaining recognition among fishers of the need to conserve albatrosses is undoubtedly a powerful sign that the tide of our collective attitude and commitment is changing.” Click here to read more about the work of our ATF team in Chile.

Thinking about the incredible journeys individual albatrosses may make in their lifetime - travelling from the Southern Ocean to the shores of South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand - there is no doubt that we must work across national borders if we are to save these incredible birds from extinction. The World Albatross Day initiative is being led by the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) – an intergovernmental organisation that seeks to protect albatrosses by coordinating and undertaking international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations. The UK has been a signatory of this agreement since 2001.

World Albatross Day poster by Owen Davey

At the RSPB we are working with a wide range of partners to protect threatened albatrosses both on land and at sea: by reducing the impacts of invasive alien species on UK Overseas Territories where they nest and working with fishers and governments all over the world to reduce the number of birds that are accidentally killed in fisheries.

You can read more about the RSPB’s support for World Albatross Day here.

Stay tuned for more information on how you can get involved!

By Nina da Rocha – Albatross Task Force Project Officer

Blues, rock and albatross

2019-12-06T14:41:00Z

I have a habit. When I am out at sea, I always listen to music...

My name is Gabriel Sampaio, I am a marine biologist and an ATF instructor in Brazil. I recently got back from a 2 week long trip on-board the Maria - a 24 metre long pelagic longline fishing vessel operating in southern Brazil. This was actually the first vessel I ever did an ATF trip on and being on-board the Maria again made me think back to that very first trip in December 2018.

To the left: ATF Instructor Gabirel Sampaio and fisher onboard the pelagic longline vessel Maria in southern Brazil.

I was out at sea testing the effectiveness of the Hook Pod, a mitigation device that shields baited hooks on longlines until they have sunk to a depth at which birds can no longer get to them. Upon reaching >10m depth, a pressure release mechanism causes the device to open, allowing target fish such as tuna and swordfish to be caught (for more information click here). We were 300 miles (540 km) off the coast, in waters 4000 meters deep. I had never been so far out at sea before but I was excited about the possibility of encountering unusual or rare seabird species!

After 20 hours of getting all the equipment ready for the experimental Hook Pod trial with the crew, the fishing operations could finally begin and I started to monitor seabird abundance around the vessel. There was a large group of spectacled petrels, a few young Yellow-nosed albatross and a juvenile Royal albatross following the boat during the haul.

Few experiences are as touching as the sighting of a giant albatross, which can reach wingspans of over 3 metres! Even the juveniles are remarkably large. As the birds gracefully circled around the Maria, using the wind to effortlessly glide through the air, while waiting for their next meal to be served (on the baited fish hooks), I climbed to the bow of the boat to get a closer look at the young albatross flying next to us. Following its elegant, carefree flight I was amazed at the precision of its movements and the ease with which it took advantage of the wind. I could hear Riding with the King by Eric Clapton and B.B. King playing through my headphones. The Royal albatross seemed to be listening to the song with me…After all I was actually next to the king, or at least a prince, of seabirds!

As the song was coming to an end, I became distracted and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a huge sheepskin through my binoculars. At first, I thought it was a large dark petrel and didn’t pay much attention to it. But then, to my surprise, I realised it was a sooty albatross - one of only two dark-plumaged albatrosses in the Southern Ocean. This endangered species nests on sub-Antarctic islands and is really quite rare in Brazilian waters (with only a few records of sightings). I was thrilled as I had been trying to see this species for the past 5 years and even managed to get some photos of it during the 15 days we were fishing in the area.

Ironically, the song that started to play as I stopped paying attention to the young royal albatross was Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones. So, I thought, even albatrosses paint themselves black once in a while it seems!

A year has now gone by since that first trip on the Maria, and I am still spending my days testing Hook Pods in the pelagic longline fleet in Brazil and listening to the same songs. But no two trips are the same and every time you head out to sea it’s a new, incredible experience. So you never know what to expect! What you see at sea, you can only see at sea ... We are privileged to be able to live alongside these incredible creatures and share our knowledge about their conservation with the fishermen we meet along the way.

By Gabriel Sampaio / ATF instructor - Brazil

To support the work of the Albatross Task Force become a Friend of the Albatross today.

Threats to seabirds: what can we learn from Seven Worlds, One Planet?

2019-11-07T10:36:00Z

A lot of you may have seen that some of our favourite seabirds were featured in the first episode of the new Sir David Attenborough series, Seven Worlds, One Planet.

The colony of grey-headed albatross filmed for this program is situated on Bird Island, the colony we have been following for the best part of a year with #AlbatrossStories! And whilst many of us were enthralled in their charisma and beauty - a familiar sight for those of you following our social media stars Bobby and Skylander - this episode highlighted a much deeper and heart-breaking problem emerging in their world.

Grey-headed albatross, like many other albatross species, are suffering from rapid population declines. To halt these devastating declines, it is crucial we understand what is driving them. We are therefore working with scientists to find out where the juveniles go when they head out to sea. A recent study by scientists at BirdLife indicates that, on average, seabird species are impacted by at least three different threats during their lifetime. This is particularly prevalent in long-living species, who generally have low productivity and late maturity… albatross.

With estimates suggesting an albatross is killed on a fishing hook every five minutes, it is unsurprising that bycatch comes out as the main threats to these birds (affecting 95% of albatross species according to the study by Dias et al., 2019). Yet, many fishing vessels around the world still do not implement seabird bycatch mitigation techniques to prevent this. However, thanks to the fantastic and determined work of the Albatross Task Force team this is changing one fleet at a time! And many studies have indicated that implementing bycatch mitigation techniques onboard fishing vessels is effective and can virtually eliminate albatross bycatch, particularly when multiple methods are used together.

On land, alien invasive species cause significant disruption to many seabirds’ breeding success. With most albatross colonies being situated on remote, isolated and exposed islands, there has been little need for them to evolve effective defences against mammal predators. So much so that on Gough Island, where mice were accidently introduced, these small often considered non-threatening creatures are devastating the large and critically endangered Tristan Albatross.

As David Attenborough highlighted in Seven Worlds, One Planet, climate change has been an increasing danger and challenge for many of our planets’ wildlife. This challenge is one many species have not been exposed to previously and is “posing a problem they can’t solve”. I think I speak for everyone when I say we waited on bated breath as that little chick crawled helplessly up the unforgiving muddy walls of its nest. Although difficult for us to watch the parent will just stand by, providing no aid. Why would they evolve a secondary method of identifying their young when their chick is always in the nest?

With all the challenges facing our beloved albatross, it is easy to become overwhelmed and demoralised. Although addressing climate change is no easy task, we know that bycatch mitigation and island restoration projects can drastically improve the chances of these birds’ survival. With growing support and awareness of this magnificent and diverse group of seabirds and what we can all do to help save them, the future doesn’t look so dark after all.

By Samuel Wrobel (Albatross Task Force comms volunteer)

Become a Friend of the Albatross today to help us save these iconic birds.

Chile introduces vital regulation to save seabirds

2019-10-17T11:06:00Z

At the end of August, Chile introduced new regulations to reduce seabird bycatch in its trawl fleets. This is a vital and welcome step towards protecting albatross in the Pacific (such as the black-browed albatross from the Diego Ramirez archipelago in the picture below) and represents another milestone for the Albatross Task Force programme.

Photo Credit: Cristian G.Suazo

Much like the law introduced in Argentina last year, the new regulation in Chile makes it mandatory for trawl vessels to use bird-scaring lines. This includes both industrial and artisanal vessels from a number of important fleets, trawling for shrimp, hake and other species along the Chilean coast – a tremendously important foraging area for many endangered seabirds.

“This is great news for the conservation of seabirds in Chile but also for all the people who fight every day to protect nature and make our country more sustainable”
– Patricio Ortiz, ATF instructor in Chile.

The ATF team in Chile has been a key driver in achieving the mandatory use of mitigation measures in trawl fisheries in Chile. For years, our dedicated team of instructors have worked with the Undersecretariat of Fisheries (SUBPESCA), researchers, fishers and government observers in Chile to test bird-scaring lines and demonstrate their effectiveness at reducing seabird bycatch in trawl fleets. A key turning point in this process was the collaborative work that took place between the Chilean Institute of Fisheries Development (IFOP) and ATF teams from Chile and Argentina in 2018 (click here to read more about this transnational collaboration).

To the left: Volunteers from CODEFF (BirdLife partner in Chile) help construct bird-scaring lines for trawl vessels.

The introduction of regulations making the use of mitigation measures mandatory across all trawl fleets in Chile marks an important step in the right direction for the protection of seabirds in the Pacific. This will naturally benefit all those species that forage in the seas around Chile but breed elsewhere, such as the Antipodean albatross all the way from New Zealand.

Moving forward, it will be key to ensure high uptake and compliance with the use of mitigation measures on vessels in Chile. To facilitate this process, the ATF has been training local volunteers to build bird-scaring lines. The first batch is already being used by vessels to keep foraging seabirds safe at-sea!

By Nina da Rocha - Albatross Task Force Project Officer

Glide into the danger zone

2019-08-08T13:34:00Z

How tracking technology is improving our understanding of at-sea threats to seabirds

Over the last three to four decades, industrial fisheries have expanded into far-flung oceans in search of lucrative fish such as bluefin tuna. Larger fishing areas and more fishing vessels have increased the likelihood of fatal interactions between boats, hooks and birds. It is estimated that around 100,000 albatrosses are killed each year by longline fisheries alone. Many breeding populations, such as those on Bird Island, South Georgia, have more than halved over this period.

Albatrosses can live for over sixty years. Spending 95% of their time at sea means their lives have been somewhat a mystery to us. Gaps in our understanding of where birds go when at sea have prevented accurate assessments of the threats posed by fisheries. Today, advances in remote tracking technology, such as GPS, make it possible for scientists to gather detailed information about their movements and feeding habits.

In a recent study, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey, RSPB, BirdLife International, CSIRO in Australia and Dalhousie University in Canada, combined information on seabird locations from the past 20 years with fishing activity to determine where and when birds are most at risk from fishing vessels.

A wandering albatross with a geolocator attached to its leg band. The device weighs less than 5g and records the bird’s position during its long migration around the Southern Ocean.
© Richard Phillips

The data collected from miniature electronic tags (like the one in the picture above) were used to create monthly maps of seabird densities which were compared to maps of fishing activity to predict ‘hotspots’ of risk.

The results show that the birds are at highest risk during the southern hemisphere winter, and in the south Atlantic and southwest Indian Oceans. Moreover, the study helped determine that the pelagic longline fishing fleets of Japan and Taiwan, which target high-value tuna such as bluefin, represent by far the highest risk. Improved monitoring of these and other fleets is crucial for albatross numbers to recover.

“A suite of bycatch-reduction measures are available that can be extremely effective when used properly, for example in the toothfish fishery around South Georgia. However, South Georgia seabird populations continue to decline at alarming rates which indicates the failure of many fisheries elsewhere in the southern hemisphere to take full responsibility for impacts on seabirds and to become truly eco-friendly” explains co-author Professor Richard Phillips, Head of the Higher Predators and Conservation Group at British Antarctic Survey.

Maps showing annual predicted bycatch risk for four species of seabird from Bird Island, South Georgia (red = greatest risk).

Scientists hope this research will allow for greater regulation and accountability for fishing fleets. Having enough ship-based observers can be difficult for large fleets operating in the high seas, but electronic solutions exist, including tamper-proof video monitoring and satellite-surveillance to detect breaches. Fisheries managers must take action now to ensure bycatch mitigation is mandatory and that there is independent monitoring of compliance.

You can help by joining BirdLife International and other environmental organisations in calling for 100% observer coverage of tuna fleets. Sign here to help protect our seabirds: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/unmonitored-unacceptable?source=direct_link #UnmonitoredUnacceptable

By Tommy Clay, seabird ecologist at University of Liverpool.

Seabird-friendly fishers in the making

2019-07-24T09:18:00Z

When our Albatross Task Force instructors are not monitoring seabirds out at sea, they spend their time teaching fishers about seabird conservation and bycatch mitigation in key ports across South America and southern Africa.

In Brazil, our instructors are based in port towns in the south-eastern part of the country. This is an important foraging area for many albatrosses and petrels breeding in the south Atlantic. But, with lots of fishing going on in the area, it is a risky place to be a hungry seabird in search of your next meal. As the birds attempt to steal tasty bait off longlines, many become accidentally hooked and drown. To help protect these seabirds, many of which are already threatened with extinction, it is therefore crucial that fishers are taught how to prevent these needless deaths.

Over the past couple of months, our ATF instructor Augusto has been teaching fishers in-training at the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina in Brazil exactly how to do that. To start off with, the soon-to-be fishers are introduced to the biology and behaviour of albatrosses and petrels, as well as the threats they face at-sea. They are then taught about the different seabird bycatch mitigation measures that can be used to protect these birds and shown how to build their own bird-scaring lines.

Image to the right: Fishers in-training at the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina are shown how to build bird-scaring lines that keep seabirds a safe distance from baited longline hooks.

“We also talk about handling live seabirds that sometimes come aboard and may be in need of special care from the crew” explains Augusto.

Delivering training to a large group of fishers is often logistically difficult, since they spend so much of their time out at sea. Informing aspiring fishers about seabird bycatch mitigation before they head out to sea therefore presents an incredible opportunity for the ATF to get the conservation message across to the people that will be interacting with albatrosses and petrels on a daily basis for years to come. By working together, we are helping to save thousands of seabirds from a needless death!

With thanks to the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina and our parter Projeto Albatroz for making this collaboration possible.

By Nina da Rocha - Albatross Task Force Project Officer

Celebrating World Oceans Day in Namibia

2019-06-13T13:12:00Z

Last weekend saw the towns of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and Henties Bay come together to celebrate World Oceans Day 2019. And there really is a lot to celebrate this year in Namibia – with the ATF team having demonstrated massive bycatch reductions in one of the deadliest fisheries for albatross in the world, previously estimated to be killing 30,000 birds each year!

To the left: ATF team leader Samantha Matjila and the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources at the World Ocean Day celebrations at Kuisebmund stadium in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

The celebrations, hosted by the ATF and local authorities in Walvis Bay, were officially opened by a speech Bernard Esau (Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources) highlighting the importance of the oceans and the need for us all to work together towards protecting them. The Minister then proceeded to hand out an award to F/V Blohema for being the most seabird-friendly fishing vessel 2018/2019 and diligently deploying mitigation measures in compliance with existing regulations.

The group of women that the ATF works with to construct bird-scaring lines (that keep seabirds around vessels safe during fishing operations) also participated in the celebrations and were congratulated for their important contribution to marine conservation in Namibia.

In the two weeks leading up to World Ocean Day 2019 the ATF team visited 10 schools in Walvis Bay and Swakopmund to talk about the importance of marine conservation and the work the Albatross Task Force is doing to reduce seabird bycatch in Namibia.

“It was a truly fulfilling experience, with so many of the children showing a genuine interest in the what they were learning. Having them ask us what subjects they should study to become marine biologists made it all worthwhile! “ – Titus Shaanika (ATF instructor)

The team’s efforts to galvanise the youth in the area resulted in over 200 school children joining members of the ATF, the Ministry of Marine Fisheries and Marine Resources, Walvis Bay Municipality and local fishing companies on Independence Beach for a big beach clean-up on the morning of the 7^th of June. This army of oceans warriors covered over 1500 meters of coastline and collected over 40 bags of marine litter in just a couple of hours!

As part of the World Oceans Day celebrations, the ATF team also organised a football tournament. The Ocean Cup saw teams from various marine-themed institutions participate, including three different fishing companies, the University of Namibia, the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (in conjunction with the ATF) and the Namibia Maritime and Fisheries Institute (NAMFI).

To stay true to the World Oceans Day 2019 theme “Gender and Oceans”, each team was required to have at least two women on the field during the match. Upon defeating a fishing company and NAMFI, the team made up of ATF and Ministry staff made it to the finals and ended up taking home the cup after defeating the University of Namibia 1-0.

To the right: Ocean Cup champions (including ATF instructors and Ministry staff) celebrating their victory.

You can learn more about the ATF’s work and the World Ocean Day celebrations in Namibia by listening to this great interview with ATF Namibia team leader Samantha Matjila: https://bit.ly/2IFlQ8s

By: Titus Shaanika (ATF instructor - Namibia and Ocean Cup Champion 2019)

When one size does not fit all : A new bird-scaring line design for small longline vessels in South Africa

2019-05-22T13:55:00Z

Bird-scaring Lines (BSLs) have become the primary and most commonly prescribed seabird bycatch mitigation measure in longline fisheries worldwide. These are usually composed of a backbone section, colourful streamers and a drag section or towing device. They are extremely effective at reducing seabird bycatch since they scare foraging birds away from the “danger zone” in which baited hooks are close to the surface and easily accessible.

However, since BSLs have primarily been developed for and on large vessels, there is an urgent need to adapt them to the reality of small vessels and the fishing gear and conditions found on these. In South Africa our domestic longline fleets are largely under 35 m and while some skippers report successfully deploying BSLs on a regular basis, others have reported concerns relating to difficulties with deployments in bad weather conditions, entanglements with fishing gear, lack of high attachment points and unnecessarily cumbersome and bulky BSLs.

With a clear challenge in hand we set out to design a BSL better suited to our smaller domestic longline vessels. We needed to ensure that the new design would both work from a conservation perspective (by achieving a minimum aerial extent of 75m) but also be readily accepted by the fishing crews of the longline fleet! To achieve this our design needed to minimise the propensity for entanglements with fishing gear and be cheap to produce. Moreover, it needed to be easy to replicate, repair, store and use onboard vessels.

We consulted with colleagues in New Zealand, Uruguay and Brazil about their choice of materials before embarking on a new design. We soon discarded materials used successfully elsewhere, such as multi-coloured packaging ribbons, which tended to fray in our rough sea conditions. While some fishermen were happy with a mono-filament backbone, other’s complained that it lacked grip, and after ATF instructor Bokamoso spent a good few hours on-board a vessel untangling a knotted mess of monofilament and ribbons, we quickly moved on from that design.

Whether the rope used was plaited or woven also turned out to be an important characteristic, seeing as the former causes hooks to become caught and disrupt fishing operations. By joining bundles of two-metre-long PVC tubes we were able to achieve just the right amount of drag. But they say patience is a virtue or in our case perseverance! After much trial and error we arrived at a new design that fulfils all the requirements.

This end result is by no means “ours” as it would not have been possible to achieve behind a computer or by playing with ropes and ribbons on land. Instead, in true ATF style, it is the result of a collaborative effort with fishing masters and crew who on occasion gave us sympathetic looks of encouragement when a colourful bunch or streamers went flying off. And similarly, we were all hands on deck helping out when the BSL caused entanglements with the fishing gear and frustration levels rose. We owe a great thanks to skippers and crew who actively contributed with ideas on the use of materials which will facilitate the deployment and storage of BSLs, enhance crew safety and prevent entanglements with fishing gear. The success of the future uptake and commitment to deploying BSLs – when no observer is on board – depends on their sense of ownership and participation.

Next up is training our partnering team of people with disabilities to manufacture the new BSL design, before we can roll it out to industry – but that is another story for another blog!

By Reason Nyengera (Instructor ATF South Africa) and Andrea Angel (Team leader ATF South Africa)

With many thanks to Bokamoso Lebepe (former ATF instructor) and Makhudu Masotla (former ATF intern) for hours of hard work.

“Wandering” about those albatrosses Attenborough was talking about?

2019-04-26T14:36:00Z

I am guessing many of you will have been glued to your screens over the last few weeks, watching the new Our Planet series on Netflix – I certainly have!

The highlight for me was of course the gorgeous Wandering Albatross from South Georgia, featured in the Frozen Worlds and High Seas episodes. Their massive wingspans, impressive life history and sheer beauty are mesmerising even to those of us lucky enough to study and work with these birds daily.

Those of you following #AlbatrossStories on social media will already have had your fair share of cute pictures and mind-boggling facts about how far they can travel or how long they live. But there is another, much less heart-warming, side to their story too…

As David Attenborough mentions in the series, industrial fishing poses a serious threat to the survival of these birds. Whilst soaring over the vast oceans in search of food, their sense of smell leads them to fishing vessels, where they scavenge on baited hooks set by longline vessels. For many this will be their last meal.

One hundred thousand albatrosses become hooked and drown this way every year. In most cases their corpses are hauled aboard many hours later, discarded and forgotten about evermore.

This would also have been the case for the young female wanderer caught on a Brazilian longline vessel a few months ago, had our ATF instructor Gabriel Sampaio not been on-board and noticed the ring number on her leg. In fact, it turned out to be a wanderer from Bird Island our #AlbatrossStories photographer Derren Fox was well acquainted with already.

Although it was too late to save this particular bird, retrieving information on the life history of caught individuals can help protect generations to come by providing conservationists with priceless information on how far they travel and where they are at most risk of being caught. We for instance know that this female wanderer hatched in 2006 and had a little chick waiting for her to return to the nest when she was killed in Brazilian waters. Luckily, her mate was able to provide their chick with enough food for it to survive. Many others are less fortunate…

As heart-breaking as it may sound, this is the reality that the wanderers of our oceans are facing today. The great news is that we know what to do to change that and have shown that simple and inexpensive mitigation measures can reduce albatross bycatch by 99%!

Please help us save these magnificent creatures by becoming a Friend of the Albatross today!

By Nina da Rocha (Albatross Task Force Project Officer)