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CalendarKiama Pelagic Trip Report - Saturday 24th June 2023
Vessel: M.V Kato
Here s what was seen outside the harbour on a Kiama pelagic on the M.V. Kato on Saturday 24 June 2023. The trip list uses the IOC Checklist v13.1 (Jan. 2023) for taxonomy, nomenclature & order of species. It gives fairly conservative numbers, which are estimates for the commoner species.
Leaving the harbour at 07.30 hrs, having watched an Australian Hobby chasing a group of Galahs, we travelled directly out to deeper water near the shelf edge, stopping only to view passing Humpback Whales. Reaching our first chumming spot at 09.15 hrs in 84 fathoms/154 m at 34 44 13 S; 151 05 35 E, 22.5 km ESE of the harbour, we began to lure any birds in the neighbourhood into the boat with our usual mixture of pet mince, beef and pork fat, supplemented with tuna oil. We soon had a good range of the commoner albatross species around us, with the odd Solander's Petrel passing over the slick. After about an hour and a half and the birds having eaten their fill as we drifted ESE, we moved about 5 km further out into deeper water to see what we could find. Stopping at 11.15 hrs at 34 45 31 S; 151 10 35 E in 139 fathoms/254 m, where the edge of the shelf was falling away beneath us, we began our second chumming session. As we drifted c. 500 m ESE into the deepening water, we saw much the same range of species over the next hour.
We set off back into the harbour at 12.15 hrs, our journey punctuated by a flyby from a Brown Skua which showed no particular interest in us and more passing whales which were readily seen in the calm conditions then prevailing. We arrived back at the dock at 14.26 hours.
Sea conditions were good all day, fairly flat at first, gradually increasing to a comfortable 0.5-1 m swell at the shelf edge, but then diminishing as the wind dropped on our return leg. The sea temperature was 16.5 degrees inshore and 18.1 degrees at the shelf edge.
Species seen outside the harbour, maximum at any one time in brackets:
125 Silver Gull: 35+ (25) these birds were mostly inshore.
981 Kelp Gull: 1 (1) an adult perched on the headland as we returned.
115 Greater Crested Tern: 17 (10) a number of birds rested on the boat s bow rail while we were chumming.
980 Brown Skua: 1 (1)
088 Black-browed Albatross: 6 (4)
859 Campbell Albatross: 2+ (1) photo shows one bird had a metal band on its right leg.
091/861 Shy Albatross: 2 (1) not possible to determine if these were subspecies cauta or steadi.
860 Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross: 8+ (4)
931/860 Buller's Albatross: 4 (2)
075 Grey-faced Petrel: 1 (1)
971 Solander's Petrel: 5 (1)
068 Fluttering Shearwater: 1 (1)
913 Hutton's Shearwater: 1 (1)
104 Australasian Gannet: 8+ (2) mainly immatures.
106 Australian Pelican: 3 (3) near the harbour entrance on our return.
We saw good numbers of Humpback Whales, a few unidentified dolphins and a seal sp. loafing on the water as we were coming back.
Report prepared by Graham Barwell