Archives

The latest issue (No. 8 of March 2011) of Boletín Atlántico Sur, the bulletin of Proyecto Albatros y Petreles - Uruguay is now available on-line at http://www.cicmar.org.uy/proyectos/pap/bas.

The 12-page bulletin is written in Spanish but the articles carry English summaries.  Two articles report on Uruguayan research to reduce the mortality of albatrosses and petrels caught on long-line hooks.  The first article is entitled "La línea espantapájaros: resultados de una investigación en palangreros uruguayos" and shows that the use of bird-scaring streamer ‘tori' lines reduced seabird mortality to zero on eight fishing trips.

The second article "La cápsula de calado submarino: una invención para resolver la captura incidental de aves marinas en palangre pelágico" reports on at-sea trials of an under-water setting capsule designed to take the baited hooks out of the reach of seabirds.  This work is a collaborative effort with the Australian Antarctic Division. and Amerro Engineering along with the Uruguayan National Directorate of Aquatic Resources (La Dirección Nacional de Recursos Acuáticos; DINARA).

Three field trips were undertaken in Uruguayan waters over September-October 2010 on the pelagic long-liner F/V Qian Lian 2 and gave promising results relating to the applicability of the capsule to pelagic long-line fisheries worldwide.  The design of the under-water capsule has previously won its Australian inventors (Phil Ashworth and Graham Robertson) a prestigious award from the WWF International Smart Gear Competition (click here).

Back-numbers of Boletín Atlántico Sur are also available at the same web site.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 3 April 2012