• Saturday 24th February 2018 SOSSA PELAGIC TRIP, KIAMA, NSW, AUSTRALIA

     
    Published on 05-03-2018 05:42 AM
    Here's what was seen outside the harbour on the pelagic from Kiama on the MV Kato on Saturday 24 February 2018. The list uses the IOC Checklist v8.1 (2018) for taxonomy, nomenclature & order of species. It gives fairly conservative numbers, which are estimates for the commoner species. There's also a map from Google Earth showing our route.

    Leaving Kiama at 07.40 hrs AEDST, we travelled 29.8 km ENE out to the shelf edge at 34° 37’ 10” S; 151° 10’ 47” E in 210m+ waters, where we made the first of our stops for the day at 09.55 hrs, chumming and being pushed 1.76 km south by the wind. At 10.47hrs we turned and travelled back up the slick, then stopped at 34° 37’ 40” S; 151° 10’ 23” E, 29 km E of the harbour in 200m+ waters, and repeated the process, drifting 670m S over the following half hour.


    Long-tailed Jaeger

    We then moved a few kilometres west into slightly shallower (160m+) waters at 34° 38’ 34” S; 151° 08’ 18” E, 25.6 km E of the harbour, where we again stopped, chummed and drifted 1.48 km south, 11.34-12.05 hrs, then turned back up the slick, stopped and drifted a further 2.10 km south, 12.09-12.49 hrs. Here we caught and banded some Flesh-footed Shearwaters. Turning westward again, we tried our luck in 130m+ shelf waters, 20.3 km E of the harbour, stopping at 34° 37’ 13” S; 151° 04’ 57” E, chumming, catching and banding Wedge-tailed Shearwaters as we drifted 2.53 km south, 13.07-13.50 hrs.


    Grey-faced Petrel

    Moving back west into shallower (80m+) shelf waters, we made for our sixth stop for the day at 34° 40’ 34” S; 150° 56’ 21” E, 7.25 km E of the harbour, drifting south 2.51 km, as we chummed, 14.41-15.13 hrs. Time had run out by this stage, so we headed directly back into the harbour, arriving at 15.50 hrs.

    Conditions were bumpy in the 1.5-2m swell, but a steady wind kept the birds in the air. Sea temperature was around 25° at the shelf edge and around 22° inshore.

    Highlights were the Long-tailed Jaegers which came close in to the boat giving everyone excellent views.

    Species seen outside the harbour, maximum at any one time in brackets:

    063 Wilson's Storm Petrel - 1 (1)
    091 Shy Albatross - 1 (1) Tasmanian breeding cauta judging from the yellowish tinge along the culminicorn; it did not stay long.
    075 Grey-faced Petrel - 60+ (20) this was the only pterodroma seen for the day
    069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater - 40+ (8) a few caught & banded
    071 Short-tailed Shearwater - 10+ (1)
    072 Flesh-footed Shearwater - 100+ (30) a few caught & banded
    068 Fluttering Shearwater - 1+ (1)
    913 Hutton’s Shearwater - 1 (1)
    104 Australasian Gannet - 1 (1)
    125 Silver Gull - 20 (13) mainly just outside the harbour
    112 Caspian Tern - 1 (1) just outside the harbour
    115 Greater Crested Tern - 3 (1)
    945 Pomarine Jaeger - 5 (2)
    933 Long-tailed Jaeger - 6 (3+)

    The only cetaceans were a small pod of what were probably Common Dolphins.
    Graham Barwell