During the later half of June it was off to sea again on the Irvin & Johnson wet-fish trawler, the Stevia.
Once again I was looking at making the tori lines (bird scaring lines) work their best to prevent seabird deaths. Naturally, winter is the season when seabirds are most abundant in our waters. I was also looking at testing a PVC tube (two tubes two metres in length and 110 mm in diameter) to set the fishing line through attached to a warp (cable) and lowered to just below the water line.
The skipper, Colin Jansen, was as keen as mustard to try the device and with a few modifications we gave it a go. Unfortunately the vibration of the warp did not allow for rapid deployment and removal.
Fishing had been particularly good for several weeks and we were landing some good bags of which a large percentage was PQ (prime quality). Very little whole hake was discarded and the majority of interactions in the warp area were with adult black-browed albatrosses and Cape gannets. White-capped (shy group) albatrosses tended to forage further astern in the 30 metre area.
Four black-browed albatrosses, two Cape gannets and one subantarctic skua were dragged under by the warp, but none were drowned. Several of these incidences took place during the deployment of tori lines. My work involves comparing interactions with and without tori lines being flown but these near-drownings invariably take place when cross-winds are present and the warp/water interface is exposed.
Winter is a great time to be at sea if you are want to see a good range of birds. Patience is often rewarded with time at sea and, as Gary Player a famous South African golfer once said, 'the more I practice, the luckier I get', and so my lucky number came up on 28 June with an adult Chatham albatross, which breeds off New Zealand, foraging 15 metres or so behind the vessel.
This beautiful, dark grey-headed bird with a bright yellow bill was foraging on a jacopever, a bright pinkish/orange scorpionfish. If only I had a camera it would have made National Geographic material. This is my second sighting of this species in our waters and the fourth for the continent!