I have decided this time to write my diary 'live' from sea. At the moment I am on my seventh day onboard the 'Saxon', a South African tuna and swordfish longliner which agreed to carry me onboard for the second time (first trip was last May). We are enjoying very moody weather which constantly changes.
I guess being not far from the Roaring Forties (37-38 south, about 180 miles off the south coast) does have its implications.
The good news is that after six fishing days, no birds were caught. The birds are around and on the first day, to my delight I have managed to spot six species of albatrosses in one day. There were black browed, Atlantic yellow nosed, shy and the three exciting ones - sooty (two), wandering (three) and northern royal (one). What an amazing kick-off for the trip!
As it is summer here, the variety of birds is phenomenal. Northern birds such as European storm-petrel, Cory's shearwater and long-tailed, Arctic and pomarine skuas mingle with 'local' southern birds such as black-bellied, white-bellied and Wilson's storm-petrels, flesh-footed shearwater, white-chinned petrel and the rare and elusive spectacled petrel (which is following us for the last two days). All these are attracted to the rich Cape waters.
So as you can imagine, the party is on and the list is big! But, of course there is work to be done and in a couple of minutes, I will go downstairs and deploy the TDR (Temperature and Depth Recorder) on the line to study the line sinking rate which affects the seabird bycatch.
It was very interesting to show Koos, the skipper, my results from the last trip. I could show him that the line was sinking in such a rate that if the bird-scaring line (tori line) will be efficient (i.e. will stop the birds from reaching the bait 150 m behind the boat), it will be almost too deep for petrels to take. So all you have to do is make sure the tori works.
It is really great to be able to share all this 'live'. These trips teach us so much and I will definitely share with you the results of this trip when I'm back.
Cheers,
Meidad and the crew of 'Saxon'