As my most recent trip on a trawl vessel started, we left the port of Mar del Plata into an enormous storm. However, I felt pretty good about everything and kept my thoughts to the task in hand.
The trip took us back to the same fishing area that I visited last time, but the target species had changed from common hake to mackerel. It was fun on the way out as we saw groups of whales as the ship steamed onwards. I spent my time preparing the tori lines to ensure we would be ready once fishing began.
At first the hauls were short and mainly set at night, to test the marks they were reading on the sounder. Then, once the crew were happy with their gear set-up I was able to standardise our mitigation measures and apply common protocols. When they change target species and fishing gear on these commercial vessels, they also change the speed at which they trawl. These things are subtle, but require attention.
The weather also changed and became generally good; there were two days of storms and in the midst of the rolling oceans we watched killer whales (orcas) hunting sea lions.
This vessel has a great observation platform, right at the top of the stern deck, so near to the seabirds that they pass close enough to reach out and touch. They didn’t show much interest in this trip though, as fishery discard was quite low and when it existed, it only lasted a few minutes. Because of this, the seabird interactions were relatively low. Seabirds are attracted to the discard in the hope of an easy meal, without discards there would be no seabird mortality. This is an important message for the future.
I improved the relationship with the crew and talked frequently with them about the issues surrounding seabird mortality in fisheries. They shared their thoughts and explained how they considered the main problem to be with the cable that tows an instrument that monitors the net at depth. They reported this cable was where most of the interaction occurred. This is one of the factors we monitor when on board. This ‘third wire’ enters the water a long way back from the vessel and can have serious impacts on seabirds.
In general it was a good trip, and another step in the process of introducing mitigation measures across this enormous fleet.