SEABIRD by-catches are expected to become a thing of the past in the New Zealand hoki fishery according to Richard Cade, CEO of the New Zealand Hoki Fishery Management Co.

The Hoki Co. is updating its code of practice and other strategies to reduce seabird bycatch. New practices will include offal management strategies and using the Brady Bird Baffler invented by Ministry of Fisheries observer Keith Brady.

Bafflers comprise orange plastic cylinders suspended at intervals along arms mounted on the sides of a ship's stern.

The length of baffler arms increase birds' perception of vessel size, so keeping them away from the sides and stern.

Bafflers have been tested by the trawlers San Venturer and Independent I. Their skippers say that seabird by-catch has reduced radically.

Dave Webb, San Venturer's skipper, says: "It's stood up to some pretty rough weather and part of the challenge for Keith was to create a system sturdy enough without being cumbersome. He's done that."

San Venturer has been finetuning the Baffler, but Dave Webb says only slight adjustments were needed.

"The straps tend to lift out of the water when the boat rolls and some smaller birds, which are very wary of the shimmering of the straps when they're down to the water, will fly under them when they lift.

That's just a case of us getting them the right length for our vessel."

The design plays on seabirds' and preys' dislike of flying under things or having something over them. It doesn't scare birds, but confuses them into giving it a wide berth.

Constant motion of the Baffler ensures birds do not become familiar with them.

Also, a safety system has been incorporated ensuring that the winch and arms can support a man's weight.

The Brady Bird Baffler was developed and patented by Keith Brady, also it has won initial Department of Conservation approval.

Figures for seabird by-catch in the New Zealand hoki fishery are 140 in the 1998/99 season and 94 in 1999/00. Birds tangle in trawl warps or hit vessels when diving for offal or fish.

New Zealand waters and offshore islands support more albatross and petrel species than any other country. For instance, the rarest albatross is the Chatham breeding on a single rock stack and the population is 5000 pairs. However, bird by-catch around the world add up to tens of thousands.

New Zealand's Seabird National Plan of Action is being prepared for approval later this year to provide targets and objectives for monitoring, assessing and reducing seabird mortality for the next five years.

But Richard Cade sees this as being too slow and so the industry is taking its own steps.

"It is in the interests of fishers, as well as conservationists, to reduce the number of birds caught. There is the dollar value, of course. For, every bait taken equals one less hook fishing and, for trawl fisheries, every fish taken is one less in the trawl.

"For the hoki fishery, I think the answer is not just the bafflers, it's combined strategies including bafflers, offal management, codes of practice and, probably, sonic guns."

"One skipper said about the baffler: 'They do make a difference - a significant difference - but we have to do some other things as well to make sure we change birds' behaviour'."

"Birds are clever. They've learnt that, if they fly behind boats, they are probably going to get food. Unfortunately, this also means that there is going to be some interaction with the boat.

"It's like, if you realised that bus drivers threw out $50 notes, you'd have a lot of people running behind buses - and some are bound to get run over. But, until you changed the bus driver's attitude to throwing out $50 notes, you're never going to stop people running behind the bus!

"You can make offal meal. It might mean that part of the plan in the long-term is that we get all large vessels to have meal plants, for example, so that no offal gets dumped. As a result we get a different way of dealing with half the catch.

"People might calculate that it will take five to ten years to change the way fleets process offal. But in that time, as part of their management plan, they're also going to do a lot of other things.

"So that, by the time they get to year five, they will have meal plants on board and have taken other measures, such as bafflers and sonic guns, to mitigate bird by-catch.

"Having these mechanisms means companies can plan long-term integrated approaches."

The Hoki Fishery Management Co. is owned and managed by more than 40 commercial shareholders who own 99 % of the New Zealand hoki quota.

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Baffler keeps birds away from trawls