Here in Chile, the team’s efforts have changed focus over the last couple of months from our usual at sea activities. We have taken time during the seasonal closure of the longline fleet to focus on carrying out capacity building and educational workshops for scientific observers. We’ve also been producing reports and evaluating our activities from 2009.
The work we perform with the observers is in direct support of the National Fisheries Institute. They are in charge of collecting information and monitoring the state of marine resources along the Chilean coastline. Although many of the observers spend a great deal of time onboard, they are yet to receive instruction in the identification of seabirds and the importance of recording incidental mortality. This is one of our objectives for the coming year.
An additional aspect this year was performing post-mortem and dissection on a couple of albatross specimens collected in relatively good condition. These kinds of activities are interesting and are of huge help when we consider the development of awareness raising opportunities. We can use these activities to help spread the message about the serious threats to seabirds in our waters and the results we are achieving. As well as indicating the large effort still needed to succeed.
I personally found the dissection of enormous interest. Working with the National Fisheries Institute and Vaparaiso University, we carried out this process on a juvenile black-browed albatross and a Buller´s albatross. The main objective was to prepare the specimens for future study and develop a collection of genetic, biological and ecological information for this group of seabirds.
It is important to make the most of a bad situation when seabirds are killed accidentally. Considering the conservation status of the majority of the albatross family, it is unthinkable to collect live specimens for such a study. Therefore when these beautiful birds are killed, the least we can do is to make sure their loss is used to highlight the threats they face, through education and improve our understanding of their biology and ecology.