Diaries
Barry Watkins' diary
Barry Watkins and Bronwyn O'Connell
LATEST ENTRY
Wednesday 4 June 2008
Over here in Africa Bronwyn O'Connell joined us in March, based in Cape Town, and John Paterson and Melba Mate are members of the brand new Namibian Albatross Task Force. Welcome aboard!
PREVIOUS ENTRIES
Thursday 3 April 2008
It seems ages ago now, but it was in April last year that Samantha Petersen and I sat down one evening to draft the proprosal to set up an Albatross Task Force (ATF) in Namibia.
Monday 14 May 2007
The skipper Steven 'Steich' Milne from Aberdeen offers a firm hand shake and off we steam to northern waters. We also have an observer on board - a requirement for every Namibian vessel, irrespective of the fishery.
Monday 12 February
Peter Exley, from the RSPB, had chosen to come to Cape Town for his sabbatical. He is helping me to produce an awareness brochure on conserving seabirds in the South African hake trawl fishery.
Thursday 30 November
Earlier this month, I returned from Hobart, where I had attended the annual Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Then, it was back to business on a wet-fish trawler. From Cape Town, we headed up the west coast and fished westerly off Dassen Island for five days.
Friday 20 October
On several occasions I have said, publicly, that the huge, positive response shown by this fishery on the plight of the albatross has blown me away.
Monday 9 October
Some time back, I was asked if I was interested in attending a trawl mitigation workshop in New Zealand. My response: is the Pope a Catholic?
Monday 18 September
Late August and early September saw me on the Godetia, owned by Irvin and Johnson: a 56-metre wet-fish trawler. The objective of this cruise was to compare how seabirds interacted with and without flying a tori line whilst offal was discarded.
Friday 15 September
On 14 August, I drove from Cape Town to Mossel Bay (a small port on our eastern Cape coast) through storm-ravaged countryside to join an inshore hake trawl vessel.
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