We were extremely excited to welcome Allen Tshautshau as the newest member of the Albatross Task Force team in South Africa in early July. He is an extremely enthusiastic and passionate conservationist and wasted no time in getting down to the grind stone. On only his second day on the job he arrived with his bags packed and ready to join me on his first trawl trip ever (his training trip). I was just as excited, as it is not often you have another companion out at sea with you!
This trip could not have been a better or more interesting training trip if we tried. It started (and pretty much remained) a trip filled with large swells and strong winds. This gave Allen a chance to test his sea legs – all was good so far! Unfortunately we were unable to work for just over a day due to winds in excess of 40 knots and over 6 metre swells!
With the weather subsiding, Allen put his bird ID to the test – luckily he had a good base having been on Marion Island as part of the research team for 14 months – so he picked up incredibly quickly. Having already been involved in research projects, the protocol of data collection was also easy for him for grasp.
During one of the trawls when Allen and I were out at the stern of vessel collecting our data, we were just chatting. I was telling him how rarely we have ever had to handle live birds on board these types of vessels, when all of a sudden one of the deck hands mentioned there was a bird hiding on the deck. Before we even had a chance to go and look at this bird, a black-browed albatross suddenly just plonked down out of the sky and landed on the deck! I could not believe my eyes – two birds at once!
As albatross need a stiff wind or a long run-up to take off, they cannot fly easily from the deck. We helped the crew heard this one to the stern of the vessel where it walked down the fishing ramp back into the sea totally unharmed.
Next we went to find the ‘little grey bird’ hiding on the deck and after much searching we were shown where to find it – it was a prion, most likely having landed on the deck in the bad weather the night before.
It was a little damp and shocked so we decided to keep it overnight in a box with rags in our cabin. The crew continuously asked how THEIR bird was doing – great to see how much they cared!
Below: The prion drying out in it's temporary home
Bright and early the next day it seemed to have dried out and fully recovered from its unexpected landing on the vessel. Allen released it gaining his first experience at dealing with birds out at sea. It was great to have the company and such a great team member out on this trip...
Welcome aboard Allen!
Below: Allen releasing the prion the next day