Saturday 18th December 2021 SOSSA PELAGIC TRIP, KIAMA, NSW, AUSTRALIA

Here's what was seen outside the harbour on the SOSSA Kiama pelagic on the MV Kiama on Saturday 18 Dec. 2021. The trip list uses the IOC Checklist v11.1 (Jan. 2021) 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 the harbour at 07.30 hrs, we headed straight out into shelf waters, getting to a point 23.7 km ENE of the harbour at 34 37 51 S; 151 06 52 E, before we stopped and began to chum. While the sea depth here at 155m/85 fathoms was shallower than our usual stopping points along the shelf edge, there were still plenty of birds around, mainly shearwaters, and soon the slick was attracting plenty of interest.

We drifted south in the northerly wind for the next three or so hours, 09.15-12.10 hrs, with the conditions conducive to keeping the birds in the air and thus more readily seen. The banding team occupied themselves with catching and banding Flesh-footed Shearwaters, present in good numbers, until they ran out of bands. As we drifted, we had visits from a single Shy Albatross and a Sooty Tern, as well as a couple of Long-tailed Jaegers. Numbers of Wilson's Storm Petrels built up over the course of the morning, so that there were at least 15 visible on the slick by the time we were ready to go.

As we prepared to move on, a battery problem meant we had only one of the two engines available, so we proceeded directly to harbour earlier than usual, arriving back at the mooring at 14.10 hrs. Tying up with only one engine working was a tricky prospect, but the skipper, deckhand and some helpers on land managed to manoeuvre the boat into its mooring with a minimum of difficulty.

Sea conditions were a bit rocky in the 1-1.5m swell offshore as the wind rose, slightly calmer inshore. Sea temperature at our chumming point was 22.8 degrees.

Highlight was probably the Sooty Tern which gave clear views to all on board, but the good numbers of shearwaters were also a bonus.

125 Silver Gull: 14 (12)
115 Greater Crested Tern: 4 (2)
120 Sooty Tern: 1 (1)
945 Pomarine Jaeger: 4+ (1)
933 Long-tailed Jaeger: 2 (2)
Jaeger sp.: 1+ (1)
063 Wilson's Storm Petrel: 20 (15)
091/861 Shy Albatross: 2+ (1) subspecies not determined but considered most likely to be cauta
075 Grey-faced Petrel: 10 (3)
069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater: 60+ (10)
070 Sooty Shearwater: 2 (1)
071 Short-tailed Shearwater: 30+ (10)
072 Flesh-footed Shearwater: 100+ (50+)
104 Australasian Gannet: 8 (2)

No cetaceans were seen.

Report prepared by Graham Barwell