Mobbed by seabirds and no tuna

One day, skipper Dave Kellian was fishing for yellowfin tuna with a hand line. He was trying to attract tuna to his fishing spot by releasing pilchards into the water. But a mob of hungry seabirds always got the pilchards before they sunk to depths where tuna were. 

“I must have brought every flesh-footed shearwater in the area around my boat – but no tuna!” Dave says.

So Dave and his crew made a ‘bag’ out of a raincoat by tying up its arms and waist. They put rocks in to weight it and filled it with pilchards. They then lowered this over the side, on the end of a rope. When they thought it was out of range of the birds, they jerked the rope. This tore open the coat’s Velcro fastener and released the pilchards into the water. 

They discovered that the seabirds would not dive for the pilchards if they were released 10 metres or more below the surface. Released this deep, the pilchards worked to attract tuna to the vessel, and Dave and his crew got into the business of fishing again.

Fishers are inventors

As a result of his ‘experiment’ Dave realised that if baited hooks could be hidden and released at 10 metres, seabirds would be unlikely to be caught. So Dave began developing a device to achieve this. 

As a result of the commitment and effort of many people, particularly the Australian scientist Graham Robertson, the underwater bait setter is fully tested, proven and operational. It is computer operated and hydraulically powered machine to release baited hooks out of sight and reach of seabirds. Nothing to see here seabirds! 

The underwater bait setter is commercially available through Skadia Technologies.