We announced the winner of our new seabird photography competition, which encourages fishermen to look at seabirds in a new light. The competition attracted 84 entries – a great result, with the judges very impressed with the standard.

John Barry from Stewart Island won first prize – a trip for two to Rarotonga. Second and third prizes went to Ree Whaiti of Bluff and Jacquline Paulin of Invercargill.

The competition was sponsored by Te Ohu Kaimoana, Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd, the Hamish Saunders Memorial Trust, Gourock and Wild Press.

As you view our website you will see some of the photographs from the 2005 photo competition. Visit our photo credit web page to learn more.

The Seabird Smart Award recognises fishermen who go the extra mile to reduce seabird by-catch.

The 2005 winner was Solander Fisheries of Nelson. An outstanding role-model for seabird by-catch mitigation in the fishing industry, Solander was one of the first companies in New Zealand to begin systematically collecting and reporting seabird by-catch and using tori lines was standard for the company long before it became mandatory.

Founder and managing director Charles Hufflet continues to be the driving force behind the company’s commitment to seabird by-catch mitigation.

Special thanks to Wild Press for donating the trophy.

An interactive Southern Seabird Solutions display that tells the story of seabirds, the threats they face and the actions being taken to conserve them now greets the 1.7 million annual visitors to the Taiaroa Head’s Royal Albatross Centre in Dunedin.

The display had a right royal launch in February 2005 by Prince Charles, whose passion for seabirds is well known.

Sanford Ltd is the display’s principal sponsor. We also received support from Oceanwings, WWF-New Zealand, the Department of Conservation and Wild Press.

The annual Supporters’ meeting held in October, 2005 in Nelson attracted 60 people and included a variety of local and international speakers. The themes of the meeting were 1) seabirds and trawling and 2) working with our neighbours.

With the spotlight on trawling, there was lots of useful discussion on progress being made by industry and government and planned activities for 2006. We heard about solutions that were being tested in Alaska by Ed Melvin, Washington Sea Grant Program, which may be relevant to New Zealand. We also discussed the role Southern Seabird Solutions could play in bringing a speedy end to the problem of seabirds being killed during trawling operations.

Other speakers included Dave Kreutz of Oceanwatch, who talked about progress being made in the Australian tuna fleet; Godofredo Canote of the Peruvian Fisheries Research Institute described the Peruvian fishing fleets and their plans for addressing seabird by-catch; and Graham Robertson of Australian Antarctic Division outlined his existing and planned projects in Chile and Argentina.