Here's a list of what was seen from the Sandra K outside the harbour on Saturday 24 January. It uses the BARC Australian Checklist (v2014 July based on IOC v4.2) 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.
Leaving at 07.15 hrs we travelled out, catching and banding Wedge-tailed Shearwaters as we went, past the shelf edge to 34° 25' 34" S; 151° 21' 50" E, 42 km east of Wollongong harbour in 300 m+ pelagic waters, where we stopped, chummed and made a slick to see what we could attract, 11.35-12.12 hrs, drifting 2.85 km SSW in the strong NE current to 34° 27' 02" S; 151° 21' 13" E, then turned back in, travelling back to the harbour without further stops, arriving at 15.45 hrs.
Pomarine Jaeger
Seas fairly calm with low 1-2 m swell from the northeast. Sea temperature 23° inshore and 24° out past the shelf edge.
Sightings: maximum number seen at any one time in brackets
088 Black-browed Albatross 1 (1) adult or subadult
Black-browed/Campbell Albatross 2+ (2) young birds
075 Great-winged Petrel 2+ (2) NZ breeding gouldi
069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater 200+ (100)
071 Short-tailed Shearwater 50+ (10)
072 Flesh-footed Shearwater 2+ (2)
068 Fluttering Shearwater 4 (2)
Fluttering/Hutton's Shearwater 2 (1)
913 Hutton’s Shearwater 2 (1)
063 Wilson’s Storm Petrel 1 (1)
106 Australian Pelican 1 (1)
104 Australasian Gannet 1 (1) adult
125 Silver Gull 10+ (10)
981 Kelp Gull 1 (1)
115 Greater Crested Tern 5+ (3)
120 Sooty Tern 1 (1)
109 White-winged Black Tern 2 (2) flying north, 10 km E of the harbour near 34° 25' 29" S; 151° 00' 46" E
945 Pomarine Skua 20+ (13)
933 Long-tailed Jaeger 5+ (5) adults and immatures
Black-browed Albatrosses
We saw a 1 Bottlenose Dolphin inshore and several unidentified dolphins offshore. We also saw a probable Australian Fur Seal resting on the sea surface. Small flying fish were seen regularly throughout the day.
Cheers
Graham Barwell