Bird-scaring line tension device
Image: Nelson Miranda

The bird scaring line tension device can show whether a bird scaring line is being used. It shows this by measuring the tension of the bird scaring line as it is towed through the water. The device can also show if the vessel is night setting.

The device is added into the bird scarling line and records tension continuously. This data is sent wirelessly to a monitor on board the vessel. Data from more than one vessel can be transmitted to a cloud database and this means a person on shore can see if vessels are using their bird scaring lines.

The device can also be used to show the vessel is night setting because the time is also recorded. 

The device is comercially available through Imvelo. 

Recommended minimum specifications

• The device is active during all fishing sets.
• The device data is cross referenced with each fishing set.

What to check

To find out if the vessel used the bird scaring line on each set, check:

• the vessel logbook
• electronic monitoring footage, or
• observer data.

This will allow you to find when setting started and ended, and compare this to the data collected by the bird scaring line tension device.

To find out if the vessel was night setting on each set, check the vessel logbook, EM footage or observer data to find out where fishing took place (latitude and longitude) and work out the time of sunset and sunrise.