As the co-ordinator of the Projeto Albatroz seabird observation programme, it was with great honour that I accepted a role as an Albatross Task Force Member and to work towards saving seabirds in Brazilian waters.
On Monday (11 September), my first AFT Field Instructor activities began. With the arrival of the other Taskforce member, António Miguel Miguéis, a plan of action was drawn to give him all the information, guidelines and methodology to follow developed by Projeto Albatroz.
It was a great surprise to see the vessel AKIRA V in the harbour. I had previously been onboard this vessel so I presented Miguel to the Captain and to the ship owner. Strategically, I let Miguel interact with the crew to determine his spontaneity.
Captain Celso has great knowledge of Projeto Albatroz's actions and work. I talked with him about the possibility of introducing tori lines on his vessel. He said that he didn't need to adopt the tori line because he usually fishes with another fishing technique, with the line in hand.
Talking with other members of the fleet, however, I could notice that Celso also uses the longline and that he in fact had used it and also captured one spectacled petrel in his last cruise.
Talking with Miguel, we drew up a strategy to convince the owner of the boat to adopt the tori line instead of the Capitan. We noticed that Celso didn't have any decision powers without the permission of the ship owner. In the end, Miguel finally did it!
He convinced the ship owner to start using tori lines in all his vessels and this was great achievement in our very first day of work!
By the end of the day, all the fleet came to visit the Projeto Albatroz headquarters, specifically the Fishermen's Room which we can use to pass our message to them on how to use mitigation measures to save seabirds during fisheries. I showed them a variety of photos and videos of the reality of the fate of many seabirds.