• Saturday 24th January 2015 SOSSA PELAGIC TRIP, WOLLONGONG, NSW, AUSTRALIA.

    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