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, then worked as an observer and keep adding to my total through the Task Force work.
The trip set out from Port Paloma which is situated on the east coast of Uruguay. The first couple of days I tested out the equipment and set up the new tori line support pole. On the second day we started fishing and so I commenced the trials, the fishing was good which helps keep moral high.
The plan was to fish for 20 days or so, but bad weather meant that the captain had to turn the vessel toward the port and head back in. The wind got up to Beaufort Scale 10 with the forecast looking grim for several more days. As the trip was cut short we only squeezed in four sets, for half of which I used the tori lines as the experiment stipulates.
Despite heavy abundance of albatrosses during this time, especially the Great albatrosses and Giant petrels plus Black-browed and masses of Cape petrels, there were no birds killed. On one occasion a Black-browed albatross became entangled with the gear as the crew hauled in the hooks. I was quickly able to free the hook, taking care with the sharp beak and keeping the bird calm so it didn’t damage itself whilst on deck.
The experimental work is tough; we spend 15 or 16 hours a day on deck to ensure we record everything correctly during the entire fishing operation. The results should be worth it though and I am now the storm has passed I am preparing the next trip to continue the experiment.