When we were defining our annual work programme in Chile we were keen to maintain a link with the community, beyond that of the fishing industry. In fact, we have always strived to extend the information about seabird bycatch and albatross conservation to the public in general.
As such we decided to end the year, having completed the last at-sea trips of 2011, by sharing our experiences with two important components of society. The first of these two activities was with students from the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (in the city of Concepción), with an emphasis on the future marine biologists (see image below).
The second activity involved the social groups that are linked to environmental protection in Talcahuano. This was special in many ways as we gave the talks in an encampment at Caleta el Morro, a site that was created by the people who lost their homes to the great earthquake and tsunami that hit Chile on the 27th February 2010.
Despite the terrible experience that this community lived through, we found an audience that was extremely interested in the topics we presented and who actively shared opinions on the concepts of bycatch (see image below). The community enjoyed hearing about our work to reduce the effects of fisheries on albatross and petrels and they clearly consider albatrosses and petrels to be part of Chilean natural heritage.
Meanwhile, Luis Cabezas the ATF project leader in Chile was interviewed by local newspapers to explain further the work of the ATF along the Chilean coast. This represents an important platform to reach the homes of the community in the regions where we are active.
The interest in the novelty of our work with mitigation measures has been such that the local newspaper ‘El diario de Concepción’ published a caricature in the humour section of the paper inspired by the work the ATF is conducting at sea in Chile (bird-scaring line in Spanish directly translates as ‘scarecrow’ - see image below).
Curiously, this caricature was well received by the community and apart from being a humorous component of the paper, also reinforced the work of the ATF in a friendly manner helping spread awareness in the community. In fact, personally I found that people really understood and engaged with the ATF project which makes me feel really happy and gives me the sensation that we are doing a good job.
This has definitely been a great year; we started our work in the central-southern zone of Chile and found strong alliances and friends, especially Patricio Ortiz from CODEFF (BirdLife Partner in Chile) and his family as well as the entire community, including all the people who live in close contact with the ocean, the universities and passionate social groups.
ATF Chile is proud to have conducted these activities with the communities that have been hit so strongly by the forces of nature, but who are showing great fortitude to move onwards and rebuild their lives. We dedicate all our achievements to them, especially as they showed such interest and emotion to help protect what is to them and us an irreplaceable natural heritage – the seabirds.