Sections
CalendarBoat: M.V. Contagious, skippered by Dale Wellham.
CONDITIONS
A gentle south-westerly breeze was a welcome change to the near-fortnight of almost non-stop westerlies that had preceded this trip. This was followed by an even more welcome southerly change that hit at around 11am, bringing with it some heavy rain and up to 15 knots of wind from the right direction . We commenced the drift at -32.7886383, 152.7033754 at 1005 drifting back over the shelf break before repositioning back into deep water again just after midday. Water temperature 19 degrees inshore and 22 degrees at the shelf.
ACTIVITY
Departed Nelson Bay public wharf at 7:27am returning by 3:38pm. Very little activity on the journey out until about 150m of water where noticed many White-faced Storm-petrels feeding, in a broad area to the north of our line. We motored a bit further, still inside the shelf-break and found a similar thing, though this time with Solander's Petrels milling around and feeding with the stormies. There were some dolphins around and we saw again a sizeable fin, most likely from a Yellowfin Tuna.
The feeding flocks of these two species was really to define the day. Not much at all came into the berley apart from a few Wilson's Stormies two Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross and an immature Black-browed Albatross. For the thirds consecutive trip we had Crested Terns foraging in the slick at the shelf and we watched a group of 8 birds flying east into even deeper water. A Buller's Albatross rounded out a third albatross for the meagre tally. The trip back in was again virtually birdless aside from a few gannets and a Brown Skua that just tipped us over a total count of ten species for the day.
White-faced Storm-petrel. Photo: Allan Richardson
BIRDS
10 species were recorded outside of Port Stephens; another very lean day despite the southerly winds and a real winter feel to the day. Counts are totals for birds seen outside the heads (with the maximum number visible from the boat at one time in brackets) - many are estimates. Taxonomy follows the BirdLife Australia Working List V4.
White-faced Storm-petrel: 90: (16). We strongly suspect this is a gross underestimate. Birds were visible across the horizon and were seen in two feeding flocks before we even reached the shelf. Conservative estimate.
Wilson's Storm-petrel: 6 (1). All pelagic.
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross: 5 (2). Two birds at the shelf came in to sit in the slick, the remainder seen en-route.
Black-browed Albatross: 2 (1). An adult on the way out and an immature bird during the first drift.
Buller's Albatross: 1. One bird at the shelf.
Solander's (Providence) Petrel: 120 (11). Omnipresent and several birds visible on any scan of the horizon. Seen in feeding groups with the White-faced Storm-petrels.
Australasian Gannet: 60 (20). Numbers seemed to be down somewhat and no large feeding flocks seen today.
Brown Skua: 1. Single bird that came in to investigate the wake of the boat about 6 miles out on the return leg; unfortunately did not come in.
Crested Tern: 4 (2). Two birds behind the boat at the shelf, with another group of 8 birds seen flying into deeper water halfway through our first drift.
Silver Gull: 1. Inshore on way out.
MAMMALS
Common Bottlenose Dolphin: 100. Several pods at the shelf.
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin: 10. A few seen just outside of the heads.
Humpback Whale: 15. Mostly seen distantly except for one massive adult that breached suddenly about a third of the way out - breathtaking.
FISH
A moderate-sized Yellowfin Tuna seen jumping at the bait-ball.