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title: "Woman power: Namibia acts to reduce seabird mortality by its longliners and trawlers"
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# Woman power: Namibia acts to reduce seabird mortality by its longliners and trawlers

A number of ACAP-listed albatross and petrel species visits Namibian waters in the south-east Atlantic, including the Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross *Diomedea dabbenena* from Gough Island ([click here](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1569-non-breeding-tristan-albatrosses-tracked-at-sea-are-at-risk-to-longline-fisheries-off-southern-africa)).

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/T/Tristan/tristan_albatross_with_egg_inaccessible_2012_katrine_herian.jpg)

 Tristan Albatross, photograph by Katrine Herian

 These visitors are at risk to Namibian trawl and longline fisheries as recently reported by BirdLife International’s [Albatross Task Force](http://www.birdlife.org/news/tag/albatross-task-force): “[i]n Namibian waters alone, more than 30,000 seabirds are drowned every year due to long-line and trawl fishing, making these fisheries some of the most destructive in the world ([click here](http://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/saving-seabirds-empowering-women-albatross-task-force-gains-momentum)).

 BirdLife also reports that the problem is now being addressed by the voluntary use of bird-scaring (tori) lines.  These lines are being constructed by a group of five women in Walvis Bay, known as Meme Itumbapo, bringing needed employment.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Mitigation/Twin_tori_lines_on_South_African_hake_trawler_Barry_Watkins.jpg) 

 Twin bird-scaring lines deployed behind a southern African trawler

 Photograph by Barry Watkins

 “A total of 13 trawlers (about 15% of the trawl fleet in Namibia) have [sic] now purchased tori lines for voluntary use on their vessels, as well as 3 demersal long-line vessels (about 25% of the fleet).  Steel weights that keep hooks out of the reach of albatrosses - funded by a Lucile and Packard Foundation project - are now in production for the longline fleet.”

 Namibia drafted a National Plan of Action for Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries (NPOA-Seabirds) following Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ([FAO](http://www.fao.org/home/en/)) guidelines ([IPOA-Seabirds](https://www.acap.aq/ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/006/x3170e/X3170E00.pdf)) over the period 2003-2007 but it has, as yet, not been formally adopted.

 Namibia is not a Party to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement but has sent observers to its meetings in the past.

 [Click here](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/latest-news/1710-a-fishing-company-in-namibia-adopts-the-use-of-bird-scaring-lines-to-save-albatrosses-and-petrels) for a related story in *ACAP Latest News* on Namibian use of bird-scaring lines.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 July 2014*