Tori line

Melissa Range

To set a tori line: attach streamers
to the backbone of a longline of hooks.
The albatross, al-qādūs, the diver,
is at risk from fishing with baited lines
Tow weights on lines for stabilisation
and extra drag when sailing in high winds.
as birds are attracted to fish offal
bait for demersal and pelagic fish –
Deploy the tori line before shooting
away the gear (two lines are best practice).
a hundred thousand albatross die hooked
each year and drown as fishery bycatch.
Reel the line back when the last hook is set.
Set at night to avoid seabird movement.
Mollymawks form vast colonies, lining
their egg-ready nests with penguin feathers.
Combine the tori lines with weighted branch
lines for rapid hook sink on deployment.
Albatross mate for life, incubating
their eggs for seventy to eighty days –
Prevent seabird-gear interaction by
deploying tori lines over warp cables.
both parents take a year to raise a chick,
and it will starve if one albatross dies.
Consider dying your bait blue to make
the offal less appealing to divers.
When albatross fledge, they only touch sea
for six years or more until they must breed.

The Science

This poem was inspired by a BBC News story about bird scaring lines (‘tori lines’) reducing the fishery bycatch of albatross. BirdLife South Africa’s Albatross Task Force was set up in 2004, and since then there has been around a 90% reduction in the number of seabirds killed by southern African fisheries. They encourage pelagic and demersal longline fisheries to use colourful streamers attached to the longlines. The streamers are a visible deterrent which stops albatross diving while the line of baited hooks is being set. If the line is weighted this also sinks the hooks rapidly away from where albatross will dive. The bait is similar to an albatross’ normal prey species and so without tori lines and weighted hooks, birds dive to catch the bait, get caught on the hooks, and drown.

Bird scaring lines were invented in Japan and are widely known as ‘tori’ (Japanese for ‘bird’) lines. Clean Catch UK have been monitoring the use of these lines around the world and recommend their use to reduce bycatch in fisheries. The interlocking form of the poem echoes the interaction of humans and birds, and how risks can be mitigated to the benefit of all.

The Poet

Amelia Dowler is a writer, classicist, and birdwatcher based in Kent. She is a keen supporter of efforts to protect, conserve, or restore natural habitats for birds and other wildlife, supporting UK charities Kent Wildlife Trust, Sussex Wildlife Trust, the RSPB, and the BTO. In the UK the RSPB runs the annual Big Garden Bird Watch and the BTO runs a wide variety of surveys throughout the year monitoring birds in the UK. All of these projects aim to get as many people involved as possible, like the work of BirdLife South Africa, to understand and protect our global birdlife. Amelia has been published in the Kent and Sussex Poetry Society Folio, Mugwort, Obsessed with Pipework, Orbis, Under the Radar, was longlisted in the Live Canon Poetry Competition 2025, and was joint 1st in the Orbis poetry prize 2025. BlueSky: @ameliadowler.bsky.social

Next poem: Trill Performance by Melissa Range