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CalendarKiama Pelagic Trip Report Sunday 23rd October 2022
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Here's what was seen outside the harbour on a Kiama pelagic on the MV Kato on Sunday 23 October 2022. The trip list uses the IOC Checklist v12.1 (Jan. 2022) 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.
We gathered in the harbour on a gloomy morning and discussed whether the pelagic should go ahead. The forecast wasn't promising, but with the participants having made the effort to get here, some having come a long way, the consensus was that we should risk it, even if we had to come back early. As it turned out the sea conditions weren't too bad with the predicted strong winds not amounting to much, but the persistent showers and poor visibility made for somewhat difficult viewing.
Leaving the harbour at 07.30 hrs we travelled SSE out 23.5 km to 34 42 54 S; 151 06 34 E in 90 fathom/165 m shelf-edge waters, where we stopped and drifted, chumming with chicken mince, suet, a pilchard log, cod-liver and tuna oil, a veritable seabird feast! Birds were scarce initially, but eventually started to come in, with a Wilson's Storm Petrel and Solander's Petrels providing good views. A distant cookilaria was seen by one keen-eyed photographer whose photos strongly suggested Cook's Petrel.
After about an hour we moved up the slick to see if anything had arrived but not come up to the boat, but, finding nothing new, we moved a further 4 kms out to deeper water to see what might be around there. At 34 43 19 S; 151 09 10 E, 27.5 km from the harbour in 115 fathoms/ 210 m shelf edge waters, we began our second chum and drift session at 10.45 hrs. We remained here for an hour or so, seeing our first albatross for the day, a handsome Buller's Albatross, but no greater variety of birds than before. It was noticeable that the birds appeared to be not at all hungry, showing little interest in the tasty morsels on offer.
Having driven up the new slick but seeing the same birds, we turned shorewards, encountering a Shy Albatross as we made our return journey. We arrived back in the harbour at 14.20 hrs.
Sea conditions were manageable in a 1.5-2 m swell with sea temperature at the shelf edge around 20 degrees.
Species seen outside the harbour, maximum at any one time in brackets:
125 Silver Gull: 2 (2)
115 Greater Crested Tern: 12+ (4)
Commic type Tern: 1 (1) not seen on the day; picked up in photos
063 Wilson's Storm Petrel: 11 (5)
91 & 861 Shy Albatross: 1 (1)
931 Buller's Albatross: 1 (1)
971 Solander's Petrel 30+ (10)
918 Cook's Petrel?: 1 (1) distant views and not seen by most on board; photos strongly suggest Cook's
069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater: 150+ (20+)
070 Sooty Shearwater: 1 (1)
071 Short-tailed Shearwater: 10+ (2) mixed in with the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
072 Flesh-footed Shearwater: 1+ (1)
068 Fluttering Shearwater: 50+ (5)
Fluttering type Shearwater: 50+ (10)
913 Hutton's Shearwater: 10+ (3)
104 Australasian Gannet: 2 (1)
Some unidentified dolphins were seen, but no whales.
Dorsal fins of a sunfish sp. and a marlin sp. were also seen.
Report prepared by Graham Barwell