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A training capacity workshop for observers from the National Observer Programme belonging to the National Fisheries Institute in Argentina (INIDEP) took place recently at facilities of the Estación Hidrobiológica de Puerto Quequén in southern Buenos Aires Province.

The three-day course was lead by Leandro Tamini (ATF Argentina- Aves Argentinas), Sofía Copello and Juan Pablo Seco Pon (National University of Mar del Plata-CONICET) and took place between 30 November and 02 December 2010.  Observers were trained in following sampling protocols from albatrosses and petrels interacting with high-seas trawl and longline fishing operations in waters of the Argentine Continental Shelf.

The main goal of the workshop was to improve data collection on seabird interaction and mortality in fisheries.  Observers actively participated in the course which ended with a successful field trip from the Puerto Quequén harbour aboard a small-scale fishing vessel, when at least 10 species of seabirds were spotted, including several ACAP-listed Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris and White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis.

Argentina is one of the several South American countries that are Parties to the Agreement and which hold a great diversity and abundance of procellariiform birds within their waters. Very recently, Argentina announced the adoption of its National Plan of Action-Seabirds (NPOA-S) which was approved by the Federal Fisheries Council (Resolution 03/2010).  The NPOA-S is framed within the FAO's IPOA-S and follows the objectives of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.

Juan Pablo Seco Pon, ACAP South American News Correspondent, 10 December 2010