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…

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…

ATF instructors’ work is amazing and something to keep smiling about.  Apart from testing seabird bycatch mitigation measures, ATF instructors have other forms of entertainment that keeps them refreshed at all times.

A normal day starts with breakfast wonderfully prepared by the wonderful ship’s cook. This breakfast is often served with a fresh fruit carefully selected from the bountiful gardens under the African…

More than five long years had passed since I was last in the austral Atlantic Ocean. Some of those years, spent in the arid Brazilian capital, had made these fifteen days aboard a longline vessel a learning experience of the real meaning of living at, and from the sea.

The daily routines, the isolation, the struggle against time and bad weather, the ocean and its singularities, fishing adversities and the interactions…

Albatross Task Force instructors have many responsibilities that include but are not-limited to working with fisheries. Of course, our main objective is seabird conservation and we do that by finding ways to work together with the fishers to reduce bycatch levels in the industry. This objective is facilitated through our educational and awareness workshops and continuous at-sea monitoring programmes.

Our responsibilities…

Ross Wanless, South African regional co-ordinator for the Global Seabird Programme reports back from a seabird bycatch workshop in South Korea, with some promising developments:

Asian longline fleets account for ~90% of the fishing effort that overlaps with albatrosses. This meant that getting an Albatross Task Force instructor to work in their fleets has long been a priority for the Global Seabird Programme.

So, when Cleo…

In the impoverished community of Ocean View lies a team of dedicated and inspiring people... A group of disabled men and woman from the Ocean View Association for Persons with Disabilities (OVAPD) proves that anybody with commitment can make a real difference to conservation, while learning new skills and bringing in a small income for the OVAPD centre.

BirdLife South Africa has been lucky to work alongside the OVAPD…

For this blog I am posting on behalf of my friend and colleague Rodrigo Forselledo:

Rodrigo wrote the following:

As Sebastian is enjoying a short period in the UK, I have taken on his ATF duties in Uruguay. On my first pelagic longline trip I started testing the new design of the bird-scaring line which we have developed to shift from one side of the vessel to the other as Martin mentioned in his recent blog. Testing…

The Chilean National Plan of Action  Seabirds states that bird-scaring lines must be used on all pelagic longline sets. However, despite good seabird conservation regulations for this fleet, many vessels still don’t use this mitigation measure.

The Albatross Task Force has been working in collaboration with the Chilean Fishery Development Institute (Instituto Fomento Pesquero, IFOP) since 2007 to test mitigation…

Yesterday Nahuel and I were with testing new improvements to the Tamini Tabla design, giving some final touches to the towed device which stabilizes and maintains bird-scaring lines in place during rough weather on trawl vessels.  We expect this to be the final version!

We made some changes in the structural design to improve weight distribution so that the towed device behaves more consistently in the water under all…

The moment I’d been waiting for finally arrived. After being confined to the office due the cancellation of my last trip, I could not wait to set a foot on the Irvin & Johnson (I&J) fishing vessel the Forest Lily.

Bronwyn, the South African Albatross Task Force project leader accompanied me to the docks.  She showed me around since it was my first time on this vessel, and by just looking at it I knew that…

I have just completed my second trip aboard the Maria Marine trawl vessel. It did not take long to reach the fishing grounds, since this vessel usually operates close to the Cape Town coast, South Africa. The weather was near perfect for observation, with mostly sunny days and an average sea-state of three on the Beaufort scale.

As for the crew, they were very accommodating since they knew me from the last trip. So,…

The ATF in South Africa is working to disseminate seabird conservation information and to demonstrate best practice measures on board vessels to reduce seabird bycatch. Conducting research on board local and foreign fishing vessels is a large part of that process. Research findings are made available to the fishing industry, general public and in relevant national and international meetings.

One mitigation experiment…

Last month I attended a roundtable discussion on interactions between marine megafauna and fisheries. This was part of the III Academic Symposium of Marine Biology, which took place in Tramandaí, southern Brazil.

The symposium was sponsored by the Academic Board of a Biological Sciences course (Marine Biology and Coastal and Marine and Management) conducted by two important universities, the Federal University…

In the north of Peru we are working with observers to monitor the interactions in the demersal (bottom) longline fishery. This report was written by Eliana Alfaro Córdova, who has been helping Prodelphinus and the Albatross Task Force by accompanying the fishers in the north on their daily fishing excursions. Eliana explains her recent trip in this blog:

Its two o'clock in the morning and the alarm clock sounds…

The streamer line, also known as a bird-scaring or tori line is a mitigation measure that reduces seabird bycatch in longline fisheries. It is recommended that they be used in combination with night setting and line weighting. The efficiency of streamer lines has been demonstrated by our team in the Uruguayan pelagic longline fleet over the past couple of years. As part of the project I recently headed out on a trip to…

I’ve recently started working with the Task Force in Chile and I am delighted to have this opportunity as I know Chilean fisheries inside out and I believe that we really need to make a big effort to reduce seabird mortality, so it is great to be part of the ATF. 

I've been lucky enough to spend time at-sea on a variety of fishing vessels from the purse seine fishery in the far north of Chile to the longline fishery…

We were extremely excited to welcome Allen Tshautshau as the newest member of the Albatross Task Force team in South Africa in early July. He is an extremely enthusiastic and passionate conservationist and wasted no time in getting down to the grind stone. On only his second day on the job he arrived with his bags packed and ready to join me on his first trawl trip ever (his training trip). I was just as excited, as it…

The best practice suite of mitigation measures for pelagic longline fisheries is the combination of a bird-scaring line, appropriate line weighting and night setting. This combination protects the area where hooks are still close to the surface (bird-scaring line), sinks baited hooks rapidly out of the reach of foraging birds (line weighting) and prevents seabirds from seeing baited hooks (night setting).

On my last…

I have recently returned after twelve days at-sea off the southeast coast of Brazil, where we were fishing for tuna in an area bordering our neighbours and friends from Uruguay. The zone is favoured for the convergence of cold and warm water fronts, which form further north reaching well into Brazilian waters in the austral winter.

This warm-cold water front forms an area characterised by rough sea conditions with waves…

Since we began our community outreach work in the port city of Talcahuano, we have had enthusiastic participation and profound attention on behalf of the local children. "Bycatch" is a new term for many people and the range of marine species is a lot to take in for those unfamiliar with fisheries. For children hearing about the issue, it must seem like a whole new universe.

Whilst visiting local schools or…

The Albatross Task Force is collaborating with local Peruvian NGO ProDelphinus to work with small scale fisheries, specifically a longline fishery that targets hake and cusk eel. One observer, Harold Leonid Parra Rivera, reports here on his last trip from the port of Mancora:

Below: Mancora is home port to a variety of small scale fishing vessels

Four o’clock in the morning in Mancora, Peru is the time at which…

The definition of small-scale (sometimes referred to as artisanal) fisheries is not particularly clear and it differs from country to country. However, most fleets that are described as small-scale share some common characteristics:

• Small vessels, often of wooden or fibre-glass construction;
• Manual fishing operation;
• Simple fishing gear;
• Limited storage capacity;
• Short fishing trips, typical one or a few days;

The problem of incidental seabird mortality in fisheries is a global concern. The interaction is exacerbated as the areas of high productivity targeted by marine fisheries are also the key foraging grounds for many seabirds, creating a strong overlap between humans and these vulnerable marine vertebrates.

Within this scenario Chile represents an important example in South America, with ca. 4.000 km of coast line, throughout…

Two years after the implementation of the NPOA-S in Argentina, the first workshop was held as a follow-up to the plan. In the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development over 40 specialists including researchers, academics and members of Non-government Organisations plus representatives from relevant government offices met to discuss the progress under the plan. Argentina ATF was delighted to be present!

The…