The Science
Patagonian toothfish are not the only species being decimated by pirate fishing vessels. The science team on board the Arctic Sunrise documents the impact pirate fishing has on a wide array of bird species in the Southern Ocean.Don't forget to feast your eyes on our Bird of the Week!

Longline Fishing
What is longline fishing and why is it so detrimental to a variety of wildlife?

Campaign Report
Track the progress of our campaign by checking out these periodic reports from Greenpeace's onboard campaign team.

Ship Log & Webcast
What's daily life like on a Greenpeace ship? How does the crew prepare for these dramactic actions? And just what is a bosun anyway? Get first hand accounts from our crew.

Last Year
In 1999 Greenpeace embarked on an expedition to expose pirate fishing in the Southern Ocean and caught the notorious, Spanish-owned pirate vessel Salvora illegally fishing in the French waters around Kerguelen Island. Here's an overview of that campaign...

White-chinned Petrel

White-chinned petrels are one of the most numerous, and commonly encountered species in the Southern Ocean.

They are large, dark (black to creosote-brown) birds closely related to the albatross. As the name suggests, they have a variably-sized white patch under their "chin".

They have a wingspan of 1.3 - 1.4 metres. Males weigh up to 1.4 kg, while females, slightly smaller, weigh up to 1.3 kg. Despite this considerable size, the White-chinned petrel is still smaller than any albatross species.

They follow ships in considerable numbers (the M/V Arctic Sunrise has seen between a dozen and several hundred White-chinned petrels on most days of this expedition). The follow fishing vessels in even higher numbers (hundreds - thousands). Their ability to dive to depths of 10 metres or more makes them particularly adept at foraging around fishing vessels.

Herein lies the problem - as the baited longlines go into the water, these petrels may seize them not just on the surface before they sink, but even as they sink. If they do so they become hooked and are drowned. The photgraph on the left shows a White-chinned petrel diving for a Patagonian toothfish as Greenpeace was confiscating the line.

Birds forage up to 1, 650 km from their breeding colonies. Being smaller than the albatrosses and giant petrels - and therefore more agile - White-chinned petrels forage close in to fishing vessels, and try to grab food before their larger relations are on the scene.

In an effort to lower albatross bycatch in the legal toothfish fishery, CCAMLR has required night-time setting for most areas. This certainly does help substantially reduce albatross catch, but petrels such as the White- chinned actually feed at night and may suffer even higher levels of hooking as a result. from 30 degrees south (although non-breeders may reach much lower latitudes - in 1999, some followed the Arctic Sunrise to within a day of Port Loius in Mauritius) to the sea-ice of the Antarctic at 65 degrees south and beyond.

Scientific Name: Procellaria aequinoctialis

Breeding: They lay a single egg every year, between November and May.

Breeding Colonies: the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean; the Prince Edward, Crozet, Kerguelen groups in the South Indian Ocean; and on Campbell, Antipodes and the Auckland islands south of New Zealand. Small numbers may breed on other subantarctic islands. No reliable figure for their total population has been compiled.

Status: Vulnerable
They are the bird species most likely to be caught in longlines in the Southern Ocean. CCAMLR's Scientific Committee has estimated that in the area covered by CCAMLR alone (ie the area south of the Polar Front or Antarctic Convergence), up to 138, 000 White- chinned petrels have been caught in the pirate fishery for toothfish over the last three years. The Scientific Committee describes this extraordinary number of petrel deaths as "unsustainable" for the species. But many additional petrels are caught as bycatch in the legal CCAMLR fishery and in other longline fisheries - such as the Southern Blue-fin Tuna - to the north of the CCAMLR area.

Range:

Summer Range

Colonies

The White-chinned petrel is circumpolar during the summer from 30 degrees south to the sea-ice of the Antarctic at 65 degrees south and beyond. Non-breeders may reach much lower latitudes. In 1999, some followed the Arctic Sunrise to within a day of Port Loius in Mauritius. During the winter, the birds will migrate up to the shelf waters of South America, Australia/New Zealand, and southern Africa.

Sources: Graham Robertson & Rosemary Gales. 1998. Albatross Biology and Conservation. Surrey Beaty, Chipping Norton (NSW). Graham Pizzey & Frank Knight. 1998. Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Angus and Robertson, Sydney. Derek Onley & Sandy Bartle. 1999. Identification of Seabirds of the Southern Ocean. Te Papa, Wellington.

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