The year started with a big decrease in the numbers of longline fishing vessels active in the swordfish fishery in Chile. Currently there are now five vessels at-sea and two industrial freezer ships waiting to leave port. That gives us a total of just seven vessels.
As each vessel prepared to leave port, I spent time with the captains to discuss the information in the last workshops and to present them with some extra educational materials plus the new Chilean Albatross Task Force (ATF) T-shirt!
As the first five boats out started to return one by one, I visited each of them to see how the fishing had been during the first trip of the year. Catches have been decent, considering it was the first trip of the year and none of them reported much non-target catch such as tuna, shark or other frequently-caught species in this fishery.
The fishing zones were mainly between 27° S and 35° S and along the longitude of 080° W and 083° W. All commented that there were very few seabirds around at this time of the year and joked that 'there weren't many fish, let alone birds!'
The smaller vessels started to head out for their second trip and I asked that if they don't carry an observer could they bring back any details of seabird bycatch and any samples so that we can identify them correctly.
Also, with the recent enforcement of mandatory streamer lines on all vessels, captains and officers were keen to discuss the correct design and construction with me. I demonstrated where to attach the bird scaring lines on each vessel and took them through the steps of building them so that they don't interfere with the fishing operations.
I am hoping that this year we will see a dramatic decline in seabird bycatch thanks to the use of bird scaring lines. The main issue is convincing them to use them all the time and use them correctly.
I will keep working closely with the captains and crew, who certainly have the will and interest to cooperate with the Albatross Task Force.