• Saturday 22nd June 2013 SOSSA PELAGIC TRIP, WOLLONGONG, NSW, AUSTRALIA.

    Here's a list of what we saw on the boat outside the harbour on Saturday. I’ve used the IOC Checklist (v3.3) for taxonomy, nomenclature & order of species and give my usual fairly conservative estimates of numbers.

    Graham Barwell


    We travelled out to 34° 42' 45" S; 151° 03' 14" E, 35 km SSE of Wollongong harbour and ESE of Kiama in 130m+ shelf waters, where stopped, chummed and drifted S 2.63 km to 34° 44' 09" S; 151° 03' 34" E, 10.55-11.55 hrs, then turned back, stopping at 34° 41' 20" S; 151° 01' 14" E, 31.5 km SSE of the harbour in 120m+ shelf waters, where we stopped, chummed and drifted 127m S, 12.30-12.50 hrs, then continued back in and past the Five Islands to the harbour. Seas fairly bumpy in the morning with a moderate swell, calming a little in the afternoon. Water temperature c. 18° inshore, 19-20° offshore.


    Black Swan 4
    005 Little Penguin call
    846 Antipodean Albatross 1 female gibsoni -- feathers on outer right wing showing effects of collision with a cable
    088 Black-browed Albatross min. 7+ adults including 1 with a green ?data logger? & 1 with black darvic band 051 plus metal band
    859 Campbell Albatross min. 2 adults
    Black-browed Albatross type many sub-adults & immatures (max. 15+ at any one time)
    091 Shy Albatross
    864 Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosss 2+ ad. & imm.
    931 Buller's Albatross 7+
    937 Northern Giant Petrel 1
    081 Blue Petrel 1--this bird came in at 34° 43' 37" S; 151° 03' 32" E, 36.7 km SSE of the harbour, & stayed half an hour
    083 Fairy Prion 100+
    075 Great-winged Petrel 1 macroptera
    971 Providence Petrel 1
    071 Short-tailed Shearwater 1
    068 Fluttering Shearwater 50+
    913 Hutton's Shearwater 2+
    085 Common Diving Petrel 9
    106 Australian Pelican 2
    104 Australasian Gannet 10+ ad. & imm.
    125 Silver Gull 300+
    000 Kelp Gull 4 (1 ad. & 3 imms)
    115 Greater Crested Tern 2
    114 White-fronted Tern 1 possible
    980 Brown Skua 3


    We also saw 2+ Humpback Whales.