Wow - I actually don't have words, mostly images. It was harrowing! Never have I pushed myself to such limits before.
The extreme emotional and physical boundaries of being were reached over the past three weeks. I came to cracking point many times - 'rough' described all aspects of this trip! The sea, the food, the bunk and the smell. The swell reached 5 m on good days and the winds blew up to 40 knots on bad days.
Even though I had my own cabin, this was right up in the bow of the boat, where the swell could be felt most! Food was cooked in lard and it was difficult to wash with the constant pitch and roll of the boat.
The smell was concocted by the processing crew in the slaughter-house. It consisted of shark flesh, urine and faeces and was ever-present. I suffered nausea pretty much 70% of the time, but felt incredibly welcome by all on the vessel, who gave their all to assist me.
This fishery is a longline fishery that fishes off the coast of Namibia. Most people would think that it targeted swordfish and tuna, as do its neighbours, the South Africans, but here, sharks were the 'catch of the day'. Hundreds of shortfin mako and blue sharks were caught, slaughtered and frozen every day.
The only good news that came out of this trip (along with the two interviews I conducted with skippers) was that this fishery rarely catches any birds. According to them, they caught on average one every six months. However, coincidentally, I managed to come along on a trip that did catch an adult shy albatross.
Now this hardly made any sense to me. How does a typical longline fishery, using a standard longline system, not catch seabirds that I observed to be ever-present? Numbers around were not great, but one of the 30-50 albatrosses around the boat is likely to be hooked, especially since these vessels shot their lines at dusk.
I then realized that skippers rarely spend the entire day on watch, while hauling takes place. Of course there's a raucous shout when a bird is hauled up, but this is not loud enough to wake the skipper.
As I spend time reviewing images, data and thoughts, this question will be answered and I hope to have an answer for you next time. Thank you for supporting me in my work to help save the albatross.