The Albatross Task Force is collaborating with local Peruvian NGO ProDelphinus to work with small scale fisheries, specifically a longline fishery that targets hake and cusk eel. One observer, Harold Leonid Parra Rivera, reports here on his last trip from the port of Mancora:
Below: Mancora is home port to a variety of small scale fishing vessels
Four o’clock in the morning in Mancora, Peru is the time at which the longline vessels prepare to head out to sea. Whilst the crew of the Amazonas waited to board, I took the opportunity to put on some warmer clothes and get my camera ready to take some shots of the trip.
Twenty minutes later we were making way accompanied by a small group of Brown pelicans. We headed south at 5-7 knots passing Ñuro, Cabo Blanco and Órganos. Hours passed as we continued south, the crew preparing the longline gear before we stopped and anchored for a while to share a breakfast. Meanwhile I watched the seabirds approaching from afar, coming closer and closer to the vessel.
Below: A Brown pelican passes the vessel
The crew passed the time chatting and regaling tales of previous fishing trips, as they fileted small fish and baited the 2,640 hooks that made up the longline gear. The heads and guts of the bait fish were then thrown to the birds, pelicans arriving first followed by frigate birds, boobies and gulls. The frigate birds are the most agile and steal the offerings from the other species. Soon the feast is left behind as we continue to motor south.
We’d motored all day and the sun was already setting by the time all the hooks were baited and the gear ready for deployment.
Below: Small scale longline fishing gear
I drank a coffee as the captain steered us offshore, westward as a flock of Guanay cormorants flew south. The process of setting began 15 miles out to sea under strong winds and choppy waves. I kept a firm grip as the hooks were deployed over the side of the vessel. The process continued at 5 knots until midnight, at which point the captain anchored the vessel and we all got some rest.
An hour later the hauling process began, which took until sunrise. Pink and black cusk-eels are the target catch in this fishery with a variety of other small fish species caught as bycatch. No birds were close to the vessel, they must- have been resting during the night while we worked.
Below: Pink cusk eel caught out of the port of Mancora
By six o’clock the crew started to freeze the catch, wash down the vessel and fix the gear, stowing the line in preparation for baiting all the hooks again. The day revealed a few sea turtles swimming by, watching us as they swam past the boat. The birds arrived and fed on the discarded bait and I took the chance to try and take some good pictures.
After the setting and hauling process was repeated, we returned back to port where a small group of Franklin gulls welcomed us.
Tired but satisfied with the experience, I arrived back on dry land. Learning first-hand how the gear is configured, baited, set and hauled is important for our work. Describing the timings and details of the operation and the seabirds that accompany the vessel help us understand the interaction between the northern fleets in Peru with seabirds, sea lions and turtles.
It is a pleasure working with ProDelphinus and the Albatross Task Force, experiencing life at-sea and the amazing effort of the fishermen.