I've just got married and as soon as my honeymoon was over, I headed off to sea – back to the stinky boats! This trip was on a commercial trawler. This vessel was the first vessel I have seen that has stopped routinely discarding fish waste during the setting of the trawl gear, which prevents the area where the net and gear enters the water filling up with opportunistic seabirds. This was great to see, because our data showed a decrease in the number of birds in the danger area, as well as a decrease in the number of interactions of birds with the trawl cables.
Unfortunately, one bird was killed during this trip and it occurred during the one and only time that the vessel discarded during setting. An adult black-browed albatross's wing got caught on the trawl cable, pulling the bird down into the water, resulting in the bird drowning and never resurfacing.
However, it was great to see that the fishermen rebuilt the bird-scaring line during the trip, to comply with their fishing permit specifications, without being prompted by me. Later this afternoon I will be boarding another commercial trawl vessel to begin an experiment for the South African Albatross Task Force. The design of this experiment originally comes from Leandro Tamini, one of our Albatross Task Force Members in Argentina. I will be trialling a towed device at the end of the bird-scaring line. This device looks very similar to a surfboard, with a flat surface and two fins at an angle on the underside, weighted just below the water. The angle of the fins is designed to pull the bird-scaring line slightly away from the trawl cable to prevent any entanglements.
We would like to offset the bird-scaring line to try and reduce these entanglements, which can occur during strong crosswinds and currents. This will make the bird-scaring line more efficient, saving more birds hopefully, and will make life easier for the fishermen involved in handling the bird-scaring line when the trawl gear is hauled up. So far, the industry has been very supportive and keen to help with the building and testing of this new device. Results of this experiment will be available at the end of 2009 as we will continue to collect data throughout this year. So, here's wishing me luck with the first experiment out at sea!