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The hook pod is a capsule that protects the barb of the hook and thus prevents seabirds from becoming caught during longline setting.

"The cunning design behind this device is a mechanism that releases the hook as it sinks below 10 m, leaving the hook free to fish for fish.  Therefore its use does not disturb negatively the fishery and helps the birds fly by in peace."

Click here for more information on the pod.

You can now watch a video clip of progress with experimental hook pod trials conducted on the FV Anarthur out of Italají, Brazil.

See also http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/getinvolved/b/albatross/archive/2011/06/13/hook-pod-trails-in-brazil.aspx for more information on the Brazilian trials conducted earlier this year.

Development of the hook pod by BirdLife International's Global Seabird Programme was supported financially in 2010 by a grant from ACAP (Project ACAP 2010-13).

A detailed and illustrated report on progress with the hook pod's development was given by Ben Sullivan to this years' meeting of the ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group, held in Guayaquil, Ecuador in September.  Go to SBWG4 Doc 10 Rev1: Hook Pod Update.

Hooked Black-browed Albatross drowned behind a longliner

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 November 2011