First record of adult shy-type albatross in Brazil

Hi everybody! I’m writing to share some news from my last trip in southern Brazil. I left port Rio Grande on board the FV Maria, a wooden longline vessel under the command of captain Beto, a new collaborator with Projeto Albatroz and the ATF in Brazil.

Beto guided us out toward deeper waters off the southernmost port in Brazil, immediately adjacent to the Uruguayan border, and we started fishing in waters around 2,000 m deep, looking for sword fish and other large fish.

My main objectives on board was to continue evaluating the performance of the Brazilian tori line, and compare the catch rate of target species when using two configurations of line weighting. The new regulations require weights placed within 2 m of the hooks, which increases the sink rate of baited hooks and therefore decreases the time hooks are within reach of the seabirds. The configuration typically used by the Brazilian fishing industry sets the weights at around 6 m from the hooks.

Besides this important research on existing mitigation measures, I also collected data on the seabird aggregations associated with the vessel, trained the fishermen in the correct use of the tori line and discussed best practice measures for longline fisheries.

We spent 17 days at sea and carried out a total of ten longline sets. All the sets started at night or in the late evening so as to minimise the light available for seabirds to attach baited hooks. Seven of the ten sets were conducted with a tori line deployed.

Not a single seabird was captured while the tori line was used but a White-chinned petrel was caught when the gear was set without a tori line even though the captain was setting the hooks at night.

Despite the misfortune of having caught a bird, this event served to demonstrate to some fishermen that the tori line really is necessary at night, not just during the day. This serves as a good example of why we need a combination of mitigation measures to effectively reduce seabird bycatch, specifically night setting, a tori line, and adequate line weighting.

During this trip there was an amazing amount of Wandering, Southern Royal and Northern Royal albatrosses attending the vessel, and I took note of a large number of Wandering albatrosses with seabird identity rings.

I also observed what appeared to be a Tristan albatrosses, but differentiating this species from the Wandering albatross at sea is impossible. I also observed a Shy-type albatross for the first time, which was the first record of an adult in Brazilian waters. I am always fascinated to see such wonderful creatures so close, although it is a worry to see a large number of these globally threatened species in an area with such a huge concentration of longline vessels.