During eight days at-sea we only managed to half-fill the fish hold on this fishing vessel. This explains how the fishing has been recently. We can’t blame it on the weather because most of the days were fine. However, there were some few days when the sea was rough with strong winds, thus making the vessel unstable and unbearable particularly in the Agulhas region.
The vessel I sailed on had 38 crew members, including myself. It took us several hours to reach the fishing grounds, departing just after midnight. The skipper shared his own experiences and opinion on the use of the bird scaring (tori) line with me. It was a good feeling to hear him saying that he has no doubt that it has reduced seabird mortalities, but also made recommendations to reduce entanglements with the warp cables (the two cables that tow the net). All the skippers I have sailed with so far show interest and willingness to participate in saving seabirds.
The moment that made my trip was when I convinced one of the officers about mitigation by showing the albatrosses and bird scaring line videos.
As they say a picture can say a thousand words, because at the end a small group had gathered to watch the video. It was the best thing I have ever seen while sailing. This happened a day after I gave the crew some Save Our Seabirds awareness brochures and shortly afterwards I was bombarded by loads of questions. Knowing exactly how the video did wonders to the crew, I slept like a baby.
Below: Tori lines deployed in the South African trawl fishery. Photo by Bronwyn Maree