• Saturday 24th May 2014 SOSSA PELAGIC TRIP, WOLLONGONG, NSW, AUSTRALIA.

    The list of what was seen on the boat outside the harbour on Saturday 24 May. It uses the BARC Australian Checklist (v2014 Jan. based on IOC v4.1) for taxonomy, nomenclature & order of species and gives fairly conservative numbers. For the commoner species the numbers are estimates. There's also a .jpg file from Google Earth showing our route.


    Kelp Gull

    Leaving at 07.15 we travelled out to 34° 26' 57" S; 151° 17' 58" E, 36.1 km E of Wollongong harbour in 290m+ pelagic waters, where we stopped, chummed and drifted 865m SE, 10.35-10.50 hrs, then continued a further 10 km E to 34° 25' 58" S; 151° 23' 53" E, 45 km E of the harbour in 300m+ pelagic waters, where we stopped, chummed and drifted 335m SE, 11.45-11.55 hrs, then turned back in, stopping briefly to view some cetaceans and arriving back at 16.00 hrs. Seas were relatively calm though a little bumpy out past the shelf edge as the wind from the SE blew against the current running from the NNW. Sea temperatures were c. 23° at the shelf edge and c. 20.5° inshore.


    Solander's Petrel

    Maximum number at any time in brackets

    088 Black-browed Albatross 5 (5) adult
    Black-browed Albatross type 1 (1) immature
    859 Campbell Albatross 2 (2) adult
    971 Providence Petrel 10 (4)
    071 Short-tailed Shearwater 2 (1)
    068 Fluttering Shearwater 3 (1)
    104 Australasian Gannet 10 (2) mainly adults, but at least 1 immature seen
    125 Silver Gull 100 (50)
    981 Kelp Gull 4 (4) 2 adults & 2 immatures
    115 Greater Crested Tern 20 (10)
    128 Parasitic Jaeger 1 (1) dark phase bird
    114 White-fronted Tern 2 (1)



    An Australian Fur Seal was seen inshore and a pod of Bottle-nose Dolphins along with one or more pilot whale sp. were encountered near our second stopping point in pelagic waters, where we also saw a marlin sp. leaping out of the water. Humpback Whales were seen breeching on our way back in. Some of these animals spent time on the surface with their tails in the air. We were uncertain why they were doing this.

    Cheers

    Graham