Firstly I would like to say that I am very pleased to be part of such important team as the Albatross Task Force and very proud to be chosen among so many candidates. I felt very happy and enthusiastic to start my task in Itajaí port!
I had the opportunity to go on the Brazilian Research Vessel Soloncy Moura to improve my skills in a practical way and concluded this phase of my training.
We left Itajaí harbor on January 18, 6.30 pm and we started the voyage on a very calm ocean with a south-east breeze which indicated that it would probably rain during the night and the sea conditions would change. We travelled in a southerly direction towards the Santa Marta Cape. According to the experienced skipper Dalmo, former skipper of the FV João Paulo III longline fishery vessel, the distance between Itajaí and the fishing ground was about 186 nautical miles.
The main objective of the research cruise was to test J and circle hooks, provided by the Sea Turtle Project in Brazil (Projeto Tamar).
The next morning, the sea was showing signs that the conditions had changed - it wasn't as calm as the previous night. During our journey to the fishing ground, although we had a pair of tori lines (bird scaring lines) that had already been tested, we decided to try a new model. This model had a main line consisting of 2 millimetre nylon cable which was lighter and easier to handle when compared with the other cables used by the other tori line on board.
We also tested the length of the tori line main cable to verify its effectiveness in reducing seabird bycatch. The crew of the vessel helped us to build the tori line and it was very nice to talk to them about seabird conservation.
However, generally at this time of the year there is a low occurrence of seabirds crossing the fishing ground off the Brazilian south coast. This is because this period is the reproduction and nesting season of several seabird species all over the Southern Hemisphere. Even so, I saw an abundance of spectacled petrels, always accompanying the vessel during the cruise, and occasionally some yellow-nosed albatrosses (juveniles and adults) and several other petrels and shearwater species (great shearwater, Cory's shearwater, Cape Verde shearwater, white-chinned petrel, etc).
We carried out five fishing sets with weather forecast not so good, but not so bad either. The fishing ground consisted of the southern portion of the Santa Marta Cape out to the edge of the slope and the area close to Itajaí. Sharks were the most frequently captured fish, of which the main species was the blue shark, including many females in various stages of reproduction. There were two sets using the tori line, in spite of the low seabird incidence in the fishing area.
Thankfully we had no seabirds or sea turtle bycatch; however, the fishing wasn't very productive because at this time of year the commercial longline fleet prefers to operate in the Trindade Island region (Espirito Santo coast) or near the 200 MN EEZ, off the Rio Grande Elevation.
My return to Itajaí was on 25 January at 3 am. Certainly, this voyage was very useful because I now have the training that will help me for trips with the commercial longline fleet planned later in the year. I really can't wait to start to work at sea again to admire such incredible seabirds!