The day was a Sunday and the weather was not so great. Gusty winds exceeding 5 on the Beaufort scale coupled with big swells of more than 4 metres in height pretty much dominated that afternoon. Intermittent gusts of wind made it difficult for standard fishing operations on the day but the persistence and determination of the fishing master (i.e the skipper) diffused into each member of the crew and they pressed on regardless of bad weather conditions, unaware of the ‘greater reward’ they would find at the end of the day.
Fishing was good throughout the day, although half of the catch was either undersized or not good quality. This was about to change as they started hauling the last three sections of the line, which was comprised solely of our BirdLife/Fishtek Safe Leads. These are special fishing weights designed to prevent injuries to fishing crew in longline fisheries. Standard weights can fire back at the vessel under tremendous velocity and have been known to seriously injure and even kill crew members. Safe Leads prevent this sling-shot action as weights slide along the line under high tension and therefore dissipate the strain on the line.
The last portion of the line was about to cause a twist of fate for the day. Shortly, after hauling the first two sections of the experimental lines I had set up under ATF experimental configurations, there were signs of the gear becoming heavier from the sound of boat engine revving harder. From that point onward I knew that either the swell was too high or something huge was caught on that line.
My curiosity was later confirmed when I suddenly saw the crew start ganging up around the little hauling hatch through which the fish is pulled onto the deck. Suddenly, a black giant ‘big eye tuna’ popped up on the surface of the water, a massive 120 kg was caught on one of the lines incorporating our 150 gram Safe Leads.
We later realized that during bad weather conditions the heavier Safe Lead was catching more tuna which brought jubilation to both the skipper and the crew. You can imagine how ecstatic I was. I couldn’t hold myself. There I was armed with my sea-going gear jumping on the deck with the crew. As for the crew, they started singing Portuguese praise songs as majority of them are from Mozambique to thank the heavens for finally rewarding them with such a huge fish. This tuna was very fat, black and was still alive when pulled onto the deck. It took at least 4 members of the crew to lift it onto the deck.
Little did we know that this huge big eye tuna will later be voted number 1 and worth ~ US$ 7,000 on auction in Indonesia. On our way back to shore nobody wanted to sleep but all they talked about was this huge tuna that they caught using our 150 gram safe lead. I joined the party and we spent the whole night talking about this tuna. As for our skipper he couldn’t hold his emotions about it either, he came to the mess room and loudly said something that sounded more like Portuguese or maybe Spanish to me and I figured it wasn’t the latter because the Portuguese-speaking crew applauded him with unrestrained laughter. On land, we found the factory guys waiting for us on the jetty like a group of journalists who got a tip-off from some reputable source and indeed the source was our reputable skipper whom through the help of modern technology managed to send the headline story to them.
Everyone was overjoyed but I was so ecstatic that I even forgot to eat breakfast that day....
Bravo and Many thanks to the ATF team for their support and commitment to the conservation of seabirds. Your unending determination for the protection of albatrosses and petrels and to seabirds in general brings joy and a sense of living......