Hi albatross fans!
It's been a long time since the last time I wrote. Too much 'dry land' business which confined me to my mother city. However, we had a visit from Ben Sullivan, manager of the Global Seabird Programme. It was really great to finally meet the guy who runs the show. Lots of exciting future plans on the cards!
So after all this, I found myself longing for the big blue and finally got the chance to go out there. This time it was a short trip onboard a tuna boat which uses a different fishing method called pole-and-line. The idea is to steam towards the trawl and hake longline fishing grounds where tuna usually hang around, attracted to the discarded fish and offal.
When the fish is found, pieces of bait are thrown to attract the tuna to the surface and when they come in close they are taken with big baited rods and poles. The birds steal the chunks of bait which are supposed to attract the fish! This causes a big disturbance and frustrates the fishermen.
Since no one has ever investigated this, I thought that it could be a nice way to spend the weekend. We left Thursday night and reached the fishing grounds the next morning. It is almost winter time and thousands of seabirds are here, coming to spend the non breeding season in the rich cape waters.
I took the opportunity while we were steaming from one trawler to the other to check if they use tori lines, as they are required by law. The good news is that they all did! It is amazing to see how it works as the albatrosses just can't get through and have no contact with the deadly warps.
During the short trip we had four birds caught on the hooks during fishing operation: three Cape gannets and one white-capped albatross. They were hooked on the wing, feet, bill and one even swallowed the hook. Jeremy, the skipper, took care of the birds with great skill, releasing them very quickly and trying to avoid injuries. All the birds were alive but the consequences of their injuries are unknown.
There are about 200 tuna pole vessels in South Africa which makes you wonder what implications this has for our seabirds. I want to thank Jeremy and Charlie of the 'Terrynammy' for the hospitality. I'm sure we will keep in touch and try to get more data from this fishery.
I am off to sea next week, back on the longline, so keep well and SEA you later.
Meidad