Saving the A male wanderer Wandering · Saving the Wandering Albatross A male wanderer displaying at South Georgia. ... the planet. In the fullness of time, he may well come to be

16 AFLOAT.com.au September 2012

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Although gloomy downward spiralling statistics continue to

point toward the grim inevitability of extinction for the iconic Wandering Albatross, there is now a faint ray of hope for the survival of the species, thanks to the extraordinary dedication of a small team of Australian scientists and engineers.

After s ix years of design, development and testing, the team is close to perfecting an Underwater Bait Setter, a mechanical device that sets baited long-line hooks up to 10 metres

underwater, safely beyond the diving depths of even the most determined seabirds. After often frustrating trial and error development, the machine’s prototype has successfully demonstrated its mechanical and commercial viability on board a 25 metre Uruguayan long-liner in South Atlantic waters.

Although fur ther refinement and additional deep-sea trials are necessary before the machine can enter production, the underwater bait setter is regarded as the best and some

might say the only hope there is for snatching the Wanderer from the jaws of extinction.

Dr Graham Rober t son , a distinguished seabird ecologist with the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart, is the Principal Research Scientist with the Wildlife Conservation and Fisheries programme and is the driving force behind the development of the device.

In the course of a life committed to the study of Australia’s seabirds, Graham Rober tson has always harboured a particular personal

As Afloat reported in June, the magnificent Wandering Albatross is hovering on the very brink on extinction as a result of the wholesale slaughter of seabirds caused by longline fishing.

Now, thanks to the extraordinary dedication of a group of Australian scientists and engineers backed by generous American and Australian philanthropists, there is a glimmer of hope that an ecological catastrophe may be averted. Bruce Stannard reports. Photos by Graham Robertson.

Saving the Wandering Albatross

A male wanderer displaying at South Georgia.

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fascination for Diomedea exulans, the largest and longest-lived bird in the world, which is now among the most rapidly declining creatures on the planet. In the fullness of time, he may well come to be regarded as the saviour of the species.

Only 10 breeding pairs of Wanderers remain in Australian waters, clinging to a tenuous existence on the storm-battered coasts of Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean, halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica.

Each year over 100,000 albatrosses are dragged to their death beneath the sea after being caught on baited hooks deployed, for the most part, by long-line fishermen from Japan, Taiwan,

Korea and various flag-of-convenience states whose high seas fleets operate with impunity beyond the rule of law.

The result is that 19 of the 21 species of albatross are now officially listed as endangered. Other seabirds also succumb to the temptation of the baited hooks. According to the most recent data, over 300,000 seabirds die each year in global long-line fisheries.

In plundering the Southern Ocean, Blue Fin Tuna fishermen deploy long-lines that stretch up to 130 kilometres. Each line is baited with as many as 3,000 barbed stainless steel hooks. Others seeking species like Patagonian Toothfish set 15 kilometre long lines carrying up to 10,000 hooks. As the

lines stream aft, the baits provide the easiest of targets for the scavenging albatrosses, which spend much of their long lives scouring the waves in search of just such tasty morsels.

Albatrosses attack the floating bait without hesitation. They have been known to dive more than five metres below the waves, an aggressive pursuit that often ends in their swallowing the baited hooks and being dragged down to a truly horrible death by drowning. Graham Robertson’s underwater bait-setter promises to put an end to all that.

Dr Robertson was keen to emphasise that the idea for the device came out of the fishing industry, and was “not generated from academia.” It was


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conceived by New Zealand fisherman David Kellian who was appalled by the scale of seabird mortality associated with long-line fishing.

“Dave is an amateur inventor,” he said, “He developed a rudimentary concept but couldn’t get it to go properly so he handed it over to a New South Wales fisherman called Tony Foster. Tony was an enthusiast, but like Dave he lacked time, money and engineering skills to develop the concept.

“Tony identified Amerro Engineering at Mooloolaba as the company best

placed to develop it. I happened to be in Mooloolaba in 2006 sending someone out on a fishing boat and I wandered into the Amerro workshop on the waterfront. It was all quite serendipitous.

“I met the general manager, Phill Ashworth and he showed me the very rudimentary capsule that Dave Kellian had made. It looked like the tail section of a Hamas rocket, but I could see that the concept had promise. I checked around the fishing industry to determine whether the fishermen themselves would be prepared to give it a go if we could develop something that actually

The underwater setter is a stern-mounted, hydraulically-driven device that can be retro-fitted to most tuna fishing vessels after their construction.

Black-browed albatross.


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worked. They were all very positive and Phill and Tony were real disciples, so I became involved.

“About that time I was approached by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the American philanthropic organisation that spends many millions of dollars each year on conservation projects. They wanted advice on how best to spend $2 million on seabird conservation in the Pacific. I told them about all the scientific projects my colleagues were working on and at the end of an hour-long conversation I spoke about the underwater bait setter.

“They invited me to apply for a grant and I was lucky enough to get $80,000. Two other organisations, Peregrine Adventures, the Melbourne-based Antarctic tourism company and Quark Expeditions, also put in money. That

was the beginning of our R&D programme for which I have subsequently raised over $600,000.”

Dr Robertson explained that the underwater setter is a stern-mounted, hydraulically-driven device that can be retro-fitted to most tuna fishing vessels after their construction. To operate the device the deckhand simply places a baited hook in the bait chamber of the capsule and presses the release button. The pull-down motor propels the capsule down a transom-mounted track at three metres per second.

At the end of the track, which extends one metre underwater, the capsule free-falls to a pre-set depth. The baited hook is then flushed from the capsule on the ascent phases through a spring-loaded door at the bottom of the capsule. At the end of the descent phase, a computerised

Uruguayan long-liner Qian Lian 2. The crew of Qian Lian 2 with Patron de Pesca, Alfredo.


controller engages the recovery motor and the capsule returns to the start position. The cycle is repeated every eight to nine seconds.

Target release depth can be varied from four to 10 metres depending on the diving capabilities of the species of seabirds interacting with the gear. Because many seabird species dive in response to a visual cue, releasing baited hooks beneath the opaque lower limit of propeller turbulence is expected to be sufficient deterrent for most seabird species.

In 2010 Dr Robertson and Amerro Engineering flew the machine to Uruguay where it was installed aboard the long-liner Qian Lian 2 and trialled in the swordfish industry in September-October. Uruguayan waters were selected as

the test site because they are frequented by large numbers of seabirds from South Georgia, the breeding grounds of the endangered Wandering Albatross.

In 35 days of fishing 15,000 hooks were set by hand and 15,000 set underwater with the bait setter. There were no statistical differences between setting methods in fish catch rates. Two birds were caught by underwater setting compared to 11 birds caught by so-called interactions, that is, bait brought to the surface by a diving bird and which ultimately causes the hooking of another bird at the surface.

The prototype version of the machine set hooks at only four to six metres, which was found to be not deep enough to deter deep diving petrels and shearwaters. Following further modifications and sea trials in Australia, the underwater setter is currently capable of setting baited hooks at a depth of 10 metres within 15 metres of the stern at a setting speed of nine knots on a cycle of nine seconds. Dr Robertson makes the point that 10 metres is much deeper than the known dive depth of albatrosses and is close to the known dive depth of white-chinned petrels.

The test programme in Uruguay was beset by difficulties from the outset. The team’s arrival there coincided with a series of rolling strikes that effectively crippled the country. The machine was held by the Aduana (the customs department) for six weeks, a delay that affected the experiment at sea and meant that the trials could not be completed in 2010.

The machine was again seized by Uruguayan Customs when the team returned home in November 2010. Despite daily emails and phone calls from Australia it took 10 weeks for the prototype to be released. This delay meant the team was unable to prepare in time to return to Uruguay in 2011, effectively losing an entire year from their schedule.

After modifications and extensive testing in Mooloolaba the Mark II machine was returned to Uruguay in June this year.

“The Uruguayan bureaucracy performed better this time,” Dr Robertson said, “but even so I had another six week wait in Montevideo before our project could start.

“The machine was again fitted to the stern of the Qian Lian 2 and the long-liner steamed 200 nautical miles east of its homeport, La Paloma in search of swordfish and tuna. The trip was not without drama. On one of our hauls a pod

Skipper (Patron de Pesca) Alfredo Olaya, our principal collaborator and a darn good bloke.

Alfredo (with grey beard) and crew hauling on board a big swordfish during our experiment.

Spectacled petrel a ‘cousin’ of the white-chinned petrel which looks identical but has a white spot under the chin and lacks the spectacles across the face.


of killer whales wiped out nearly all the swordfish caught, leaving just the heads. That demoralised the crew. Then a giant sun fish was sucked into the propeller nozzle and bent the prop.”

The trip was however an outstanding success so far as the bait setting machine was concerned. A total of 14 birds were caught with gear set by hand but none was caught with the machine to a depth of 10 metres.

“Everyone wants a positive outcome,” Dr Robertson said with masterful understatement, “and we all want it sooner rather than later. But inventions are not easy. They take time

To help save the Wandering Albatross, donations can be made to the Seabird Conservation Fund through Birdlife Australia. For credit card donations phone 1300 730 075 or visit online at http://www.birdlife.org.au/support-us/donate/ and select Seabird Conservation Fund on the drop-down menu. Cheque donations can be posted to Birdlife Australia, Suite 2-05, 60 Leicester Street, Carlton, Vic 3053 stipulating your gift is for the Seabird Conservation Fund and including your postal details for receipting purposes.

Great shearwater.

and involve a lot of trial and error. “Try to imagine the complexity in

the development in say, the internal combustion engine of a car or the gearbox or electronically stabilised brakes that must work every time without fail. Although we are not dealing with issues as substantial as those, there are similarities.”

In the middle of 2013 Graham Robertson and his team will return to Uruguay for what they hope will be the final proving trials for the underwater bait setter. The Wandering Albatross will no doubt be counting on their success. h

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Saving the A male wanderer Wandering · Saving the Wandering Albatross A male wanderer displaying at South Georgia. ... the planet. In the fullness of time, he may well come to be

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