Sunday 9th June 2019 SOSSA PELAGIC TRIP, KIAMA, NSW, AUSTRALIA

Here's what was seen outside the harbour on the pelagic from Kiama on the MV Kato on Sunday 9 June 2019. This was an extra trip to take advantage of an east coast low with southerly winds and high seas which passed earlier in the week and the recent appearance of a range of rarities off eastern Tasmania and southern Victoria, which might have started to push up into NSW waters. The trip list uses the IOC Checklist v9.1 (Jan. 2019) 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 and chumming spots.


Leaving Kiama Harbour at 07.30 hrs, we proceeded straight out to the shelf edge, where we made our first drift & chum stop at 34° 47’ 15” S; 151° 11’ 39” E, 32.2 km ESE of the harbour at 240 fathoms (439 m) at 09.25 hrs. From here we drifted fairly rapidly for 45 mins in the 1.5 knot (2.8 kph) current from the north, with the westerly wind pushing us further east, until we turned south and moved along the slick, then resumed our drift at 34° 48’ 01” S; 151° 12’ 12” E, again being pushed ESE by wind and current for a further 920m until 10.48 hrs. At this point the boat’s depth sounder showed we were in 403 fathoms (737 m) and the shelf edge was dropping precipitously. The birds we had attracted were not hungry so there was no opportunity to catch and band anything. Wondering what might be present in deeper water, we moved further ESE and made another drift & chum stop at 34° 47’ 54” S; 151° 14’ 33” E, 38.4 km from the harbour in pelagic waters, drifting 11.03-11.16 hrs, but with the sea almost empty of birds as we reached a max. depth of 503 fathoms (920 m).


At this point we thought we’d try inshore behind the shelf edge, so we moved 12.2 km west to 34° 47’ 11” S; 151° 07’ 11” E, 27 km from the harbour in shallower water (114 fathoms/208 m), where we began our third drift & chum session at 12.16 hrs. We stayed in this area until 13.20 hrs, drifting steadily back ESE again. By now it was time to turn back in to shore which we did, with only a brief stop on the return leg to look at a passing Humpback Whale. We arrived back in the harbour at 15.50 hrs.


Sea conditions were comfortable through the day with a swell of <1 m, gradually flattening out as the moderate wind dropped in the afternoon. The plume of warm water offshore, which was a feature of our May pelagic, had started to dissipate, but sea temperatures at the shelf were still a warm 23°, which presumably helps explain the absence of a significant range or numbers of cold water species, though there were a few more present than in May. The hoped-for influx of birds from southern waters did not eventuate.


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


063 Wilson’s Storm Petrel - 12+ (4)
086 Wandering Albatross 1 (1) first of the season
088 Black-browed Albatross - 6 (2) all adults
091 Shy Albatross – 8 (2) subspecies not determined
864 Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross - 10 (4) mainly adults, but one immature present
931 Buller’s Albatross – 1 (1) first of the season
083 Fairy Prion - 20 (2) first of the season
971 Providence (Solander’s) Petrel - 40 (6)
068 Fluttering Shearwater – 2 (1)
104 Australasian Gannet – 10 (2) mainly adults
099 Australian Pied Cormorant – 1 (1) just outside the harbour
Double-banded Plover? – 2 (2) seen on the return leg but species not determined with certainty
125 Silver Gull - 25+ (20)
114 White-fronted Tern – 2 (2) immatures, first of the season
115 Greater Crested Tern – 10 (2)


We saw two pods of what were probably Bottlenose Dolphins on the return leg as well as a couple of Humpback Whales, one of which showed a deeply scarred back, which was presumably the result of being struck by a propellor.


Graham Barwell