ProDelphinus observer Sergio explains how he got on during his most recent trip from Mancora, in northern Peru:
At 7 o'clock in the evening, on the way to Mancora a local friend Braulio introduced me Mr. Carlos "Cumbia" Castillo who would be my captain on this trip. He said to me he was doubtful about going fishing because bait was scarce, however, he had an informal solution: taking bait from another boat which wasn't going to head out to sea. And so it was. We agreed to meet at the square at 11 pm. I had enough time to rest before going out on this great experience.
After I quickly prepared my bag, I went to the square. It was midnight, and with all the crew accounted for, we began loading the longline gear in 9 crates and fuel for the engine on a raft. Because it was a dark night it was easier for Cumbia to collect the bait from the other boat. Everything started very well, now they had to prepare each of the 1,700 hooks with the bait (Brevoortia maculata "machete"). I observed how the bait was prepared: the fish were filleted, while the viscera and bones were discarded into the sea. This work is very important because fishing success depends upon it.
Everything prepared, we departed from the port at 03:30 in the morning under light rain. After approximately an hour and a half, we reached the fishing grounds where the longline would be set. Still dark, I saw shadows of birds flying over the boat. As the rain fell the crew set the hooks one by one, all 9 crates.
They do this carefully so that the gear does not get entangled. Once they finished we took a short break. We waited almost half an hour as we sailed back to the beginning of the line when, in the distance, we saw the surface buoy that marks longline. We followed it and began hauling in the gear.
The haul started with good news: on the first few hooks, the first Peruvian hake (Merluccius gayi peruanus) were big. It was then that I spotted the first seabirds arriving; Pelicans (Peruvian Pelican (Pelecanus thagus), brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)), boobies (Blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii), Peruvian booby (Sula variegate)) and grey-hooded gulls (Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus). All fairly common, so no real excitement.
The fishermen hauled pejes (Caulolatilus sp.), red conger (Brotula clarkae), scorpion fish (Scorpaena russola), and some eels (Muraena sp.) also called “snakes” because they are not good for fishing and damage hooks.
After a moment, I saw a seabird that was different from the others - it was black with a white chest, yellowish beak, and pink feet, flying closer to the boat. It was a pink-footed shearwater (Puffinus creatopus). It arrived accompanied by two sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) which took advantage of the fish discards the fishermen left.
Below: A Waved albatross flying by, contrasted in size and shape by the smaller Pink-footed shearwater and Sooty shearwater.
At 7:35 in the morning, I was lucky to see a big and majestic seabird with a yellow beak, white head and black body: a waved albatross (Phoebastria irrorata) in the distance, which was also competing with the other seabirds like magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnifiecens) for fishing discards. The moment lasted less than a blink of an eye but it seemed much longer. They are such beautiful seabirds.
The fishers told me they not only share their work with seabirds, but also with sea lions which sometimes are very annoying as they eat the fish directly off the line. On this trip I only saw one sea lion and it didn't disturb us at all.
After hauling in all the gear we returned to the port of Los Órganos where Cumbia and his crew decided to offload the days’ catch. We arrived at 10:45 in the morning with a good fish catch, good data and a great experience.
I said goodbye to the fishermen, hoping to return and continue taking more data.