At this time of the year when we go to sea, we get a bit apprehensive because of the changing weather patterns. As it happened, while we were preparing to leave for sea the wind suddenly turned to the south-west. So we had to wait and depart the next day.
We went to monitor an 'albatross-friendly fishery' as we are used to saying in Brazil. The longliner 'Falcom I' had already implemented and used tori lines, but on this trip the goal was to introduce the use of blue-dyed bait.
After sailing for one day, another longline vessel called us asking for help. They were at the start of their trip, but they needed lubricating oil for the engine. Luckily it was nothing too serious and we talked with the crew at a five metre distance from one boat to the other.
At 5.30 pm, both vessels set off in opposite directions and to my surprise and happiness the Captain of the 'Quebra Mar' vessel proudly showed everybody the bird-scaring line that he was using when he started setting the longline. This bird-scaring line was made in January of this year. He called me on the radio and said that he was very happy with this new measure to reduce seabird bycatch.
But life at sea is not just 'flowers'; we started to work and in a few hours a strong wind got up and the vessel started pitching and rolling a lot. At the same time the smiling faces turned into worried ones. In this situation it is very dangerous to work, so the only thing that we could do was wait patiently...
The good part was to experience another day full of seabirds around the vessel, brought by the wind. There was an amazing number of spectacled petrels, with about 250 following the boat. It is very interesting because last year I travelled in this same longline vessel, in the same period of the year, and the amount of seabirds seemed to be much higher than now. The presence of black-browed albatrosses was minimal this year. Talking with other skippers, they reported four extra tropical cyclones in the Santa Catarina coastal area last month, which may be responsible for creating an atmospheric wall to the albatrosses. So, I believe this is why they did not reach this fishing area.
We kept fishing using torilines, but the fishermen did not want to test the blue dye baits. I noticed that the older fishermen are more resistant to accepting new technologies. It is very complicated to change their fishing routine, especially the ones that have been fishing since 1977. It is very easy for fishermen to say that new technologies 'do not work' and when this happens I am very careful in what I say to try to convince them, without being rude or unfriendly.
At least, while we did not succeed in implementing the new mitigation measures on this cruise we did strengthen the existing one. They are faithful in their use of the bird-scaring lines, but even so I will still keep trying to convince them to adopt the blue dyed bait as well. The mission to save the albatrosses is in our hands, so let's keep trying!