Here's what was seen outside the harbour on the SOSSA pelagic from Kiama on the MV Kato on Sunday 28 September 2015, after having been postponed from the Saturday due to rough seas. It uses the BARC Australian Checklist (v2015 Jan. based on IOC v5.1) 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.
Arctic Tern
Leaving at 07.00 hrs, we travelled south east from the harbour, then turned east and proceeded to the shelf edge at 34° 46’ 55” S; 151° 07’ 53” E, 27.7 km E of Kiama harbour in 180 m shelf edge waters, where we stopped and began chumming at 10.10 hrs. We drifted slowly north along the shelf edge, catching and banding a number of species including an Australian banded Black-browed Albatross, presumably from Macquarie Island, 2 Buller’s Albatross, a female Wandering Albatross, presumably from one of the Indian Ocean colonies, and a young, estimated less than 1 yo Antipodean Albatross, race antipodensis. By 13.55 hrs we had drifted 5 kms N to 34° 44’ 13” S; 151° 08’ 06” E, and at this point we turned back into the harbour, arriving at 15.25 hrs.
Northern (L) and Southern Giant Petrels
Seas fairly rough initially with a 2 m swell from the south, gradually easing. Sea temperature not determined. The persistent S and SE winds during the week, associated with a slow-moving low in the Tasman Sea, produced an excellent range of species.
Species List - (X) is the maximun number seen at the same time.
847 Antipodean Albatross 1 (1) thought to be a young, <1yo antipodensis, caught & banded
086 Wandering Albatross 3+ (1) 1 caught & banded, identified as a female exulans
088 Black-browed Albatross 5+ (2) adults, but 1 young bird with an Australian band, presumably from Macquarie Island
859 Campbell Albatross 2 (1) adults
Black-browed/Campbell Albatross 30+ (16) young birds
091 Shy Albatross 15+ (4) both cauta and steadi considered present, based on bill colour, with most birds being steadi
864 Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross 1 (1) 1 immature with an all black bill
931 Buller’s Albatross 3+ (2) adults, 2 caught & banded; 1 bird had some feather damage on its right carpal, consistent with collison with a wire
929 Southern Giant Petrel 1 (1) immature
937 Northern Giant Petrel 5+ (5+) immatures
080 Cape Petrel 1 (1)
083 Fairy Prion 20+ (5) despite careful scanning, all birds seen were this species
075 Great-winged Petrel 10 (2) mainly gouldi from NZ but at least one macroptera from WA seen
077 White-headed Petrel 1 (1)
971 Providence Petrel 4+ (2)
915 White-chinned Petrel 1 (1)
060 Wedge-tailed Shearwater 50+ (5)
071 Short-tailed Shearwater 1000+ (40)
913 Hutton's Shearwater 2 (1)
063 Wilson’s Storm Petrel 2 (1)
065 White-faced Storm Petrel 25+ (3)
104 Australasian Gannet 5+ (1) adults and at least 1 immature
098 Great Cormorant 1 (1) just outside the harbour
125 Silver Gull 10+ (2)
114 White-fronted Tern 1 (1)
115 Greater Crested Tern 10+ (4)
952 Arctic Tern 2+ (2)
980 Brown Skua 1 (1)
We saw a sunfish sp. at the shelf edge but no seals or cetaceans all day.
Cheers
Graham Barwell