There are only two commercial harbours in Namibia: Walvis Bay to the north and Luderitz in the south. Sandwich harbour, a former fishing port, is now a proclaimed Ramsar site (i.e. a site designated for international protection due to its wetland wildlife importance).
But, Walvis Bay is where we are focused. We are driving to Etale Fishing along wide roads with locals who have as equally wide smiles - to meet Charl Dreyer, their financial manager, before I board the hake trawl wet-fish vessel Resplendent.
The purpose of my trip is have to check out the situation regarding seabird interactions (deaths or casualties) with trawl warps (thick cables). The skipper Steven 'Steich' Milne from Aberdeen offers a firm hand shake and off we steam to northern waters. We also have an observer on board - a requirement for every Namibian vessel, irrespective of the fishery.
We departed from Walvis on 18 April and as the winter migrant birds are yet to arrive, I am expecting low seabird numbers. For the entire trip the south wind registers a Force 2/3. The isobars run in a north-south direction and we are trawling parallel to them and thus experience few cross winds with the warps (cables).
The most common species is the white-chinned petrel with maximum numbers of 800 in the vessel wake. Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses number 80 with low numbers of Indian yellow-nosed albatrosses.
There are very few black-browed or shy albatrosses, Cory's and sooty shearwaters and reasonable numbers of Cape gannets. One spectacled petrel made a cameo appearance and 60 miles out at sea, a laughing dove monitored my monitoring!
I am delighted with the extremely low numbers of seabird interactions with the warps due to wind conditions but, more importantly, that no target species and very few fish of any other species are being discarded via the scuppers (deck water drain-off holes).
On the bridge I query this with Steich and he informs me that Namibian regulations stipulate no discarding of fish species (offal which would attract hungry seabirds) with the exception of species that are unfit for human consumption. By implementing this regulation, Namibia has helped conservation.
Three days into fishing, we are boarded by inspectors from the patrol vessel Nathaniel Maxuilili who check the fishing gear and send us on our way again. The fishing season ended on 30 April and all vessels have to dock, which we do on the morning of the 28th.
On a personal note, I was thrilled with the great timing as it falls on a Saturday - so Steich and I can get to see some Premiership football!