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The Seabird Safe Award for 2010 has been awarded by the Southern Seabirds Solutions Trust to the New Zealand deep-sea trawler F.V. Thomas Harrison.  The vessel's Skipper Ted Goomes and Mate John Saxon accepted the award on behalf of all the fishing crew who have worked on the vessel over the past three years.

Mitigation trials held aboard the vessel included holding and discharging offal in batches at different intervals, and pumping minced offal onto the sea surface.  Carrying out the trials involved fitting equipment onto the vessel during port calls, interrupting normal factory and processing procedures while fishing, and carrying cameras and New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries observers to record seabird responses to the different treatments (click here).

Two 2010 Seabird Safe Award finalists were also announced - John Cleal of F.V. Management Services Ltd, and Leigh Commercial Fishermen's Association.

Past winners of the Seabird Safe Award were Charles Hufflett of Solander Fisheries, Nelson (in 2005) and Murray Williamson of South East Resources Ltd, Timaru (in 2007).

The 2010 Seabird Safe Award was sponsored by Sealord, The Deep Water Group and the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries.

Click here for the media release on the 2010 awards.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 October 2010