• Saturday 22nd February 2014 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 BARC Australian Checklist (v2014 Jan. based on IOC v4.1) for taxonomy, nomenclature & order of species and give my usual fairly conservative estimates of numbers. For the commoner species I haven't attempted to estimate the numbers.

    White-necked Petrel

    I've attached a .jpg file from Google Earth showing our route.


    Leaving at 07.12 hrs we travelled SE to 34° 35' 46" S; 151° 11' 58" E (WGS84), 33.9 km from the harbour in pelagic waters, where we stopped and drifted 400m W to 34° 35' 51" S; 151° 11' 43" E, 10.32-10.52 hrs, then continued SE before turning back in to 34° 38' 07" S; 151° 14' 05" E, 5.49 km from our first stopping point and 39 km SE of the harbour in pelagic waters, where we stopped and drifted 400m W to 34° 38' 04" S; 151° 13' 50" E, 11.35-12.10 hrs, then continued back into the harbour catching Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed Shearwaters on the way, arriving back at 15.45. Seas bumpy early on with a 2-3 m SE swell, becoming a little flatter as the day wore on. Water temperature 21° inshore, 23.5° out at the shelf.

    Long-tailed Jaeger


    Sooty Shearwater

    Maximum number at any one time in brackets

    088 Black-browed Albatross 10+ (4) at least 2 adults, but mostly immatures
    091 Shy Albatross cauta 3 (3) all Tasmanian birds
    774 White-necked Petrel 2 (1) seen at first and second stopping points
    075 Great-winged Petrel gouldi 2+ (2) note that IOC treats gouldi and macroptera as a single species
    069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater Many
    070 Sooty Shearwater 1 (1)
    071 Short-tailed Shearwater (5)
    072 Flesh-footed Shearwater Many
    068 Fluttering Shearwater 5+ (1)
    106 Australian Pelican 1 (1)
    104 Australasian Gannet 25+ (12)
    125 Silver Gull Many
    981 Kelp Gull 3 (3)
    115 Greater Crested Tern 7+ (5)
    945 Pomarine Skua 6+ (3)
    933 Long-tailed Jaeger 3 (3) seen at second stopping point

    A Bottle-nosed Dolphin was reported just outside the harbour. No other cetaceans.

    Cheers

    Graham