Every year BirdLife South Africa gathers a congregation of very knowledgeable scientists and birders to discuss issues around bird conservation. This annual gathering has since been coined ‘FLOCK’ and it is BirdLife South Africa’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). This year, however was pretty different with the largest number of attendants and a lot of relevant conservation lectures given to the audience. It also included seabird guiding offered by our very experienced and local professional bird guides. Lastly, this spectacle was held at sea for the first time on board the luxurious MSC Opera cruise ship. The theme for this year was all about seabird conservation and the Albatross Task Force South Africa was nominated as the beneficiary of profits made from booking sales.
Prior to the departure, an e-TV chopper hovered around and above us taking photos that were later broadcast on our local e-TV channel. As one can imagine, any medium satellite or otherwise, would have not missed such an opportunity to capture thousands of bird-lovers with binoculars and medium to super-sized camera lenses around their necks united in a united message for seabird conservation. The ATF and BirdLife South Africa has submitted a record attempt to the Guinness World records for organizing the largest gathering of birders in one area in Africa at one time.
We sailed from Cape Town to Walvis Bay in Namibia. We spent three days and nights at sea doing seabird guiding and offering public talks on issues around seabirds and their conservation. Most of the lectures were about the plight of the majestic albatross. It was just an amazing experience to have over 1000 birders from all the 9 provinces of South Africa. For many of those birders it was their first time to see an albatross and it was certainly top of the list for them. We were privileged to have on board the renowned professional birder, screenwriter, artist and author Peter Harrison, MBE. He gave lectures on the conservation of the albatross and all his lectures were attended by over 1000 thousand people and the lecture venues were filled to beyond capacity. People couldn’t stop raving about his lectures and most came to us wanting recorded audio lectures he‘s given during the cruise.
For the ATF instructors it was just a wonderful experience to be around these birders and also to formally put our seabird identification skills to practice and showcase our often understated love for these seabirds. As ATF instructors, the sea is our second home and our sphere of influence. Some of our instructors helped with seabird guiding at designated bird watching stations on various decks. One of the memories that still linger in my mind was to witness the absolute awe and elation demonstrated by 1000 birders when one of the bird guides spotted a Black-browed albatross Thalassarche Melanophrys. One could have thought they had just won 1 million US dollars. It thrilled me as an ATF instructor to bear witness to such sheer joy and admiration of the majestic and yet elusive albatross.
We landed in Cape Town on the fifth day after such an awesome sea expedition and people could not hold back their smiles and continued to appreciate the wonderful work we do in conserving seabirds in fisheries. These have in more ways than one humbled and motivated us to go an extra-mile in working towards a zero seabird mortality within fisheries.