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CalendarKiama Pelagic Trip Report Saturday 23rd September 2023
Here's what was seen outside the harbour on the Kiama pelagic aboard the MV Kato on Saturday 23 Sept. 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, we travelled directly out into deep water, often through flocks of Short-tailed Shearwaters flying southward, before we passed the edge of the continental shelf. In calm conditions we began our first chumming session at 09.35 hrs in 246 fathoms/450 m at 34 46 33 S; 151 11 55 E, 34 km from the harbour. There were a Shy Albatross and an immature probable Antipodean Albatross subspecies gibsoni mooching about when we arrived, but they couldn t be lured in by our chum: a tasty mixture of chicken mince, beef fat, fish scraps and tuna oil. There were very few other birds to be seen, so, after 45 mins of not much to see, we shifted 7.5 km back in to shallower water on the shelf edge.
We stopped at 34 44 45 S; 151 07 52 E in 115 fathoms/210 m at 10.55 hrs. Again birds proved to be very scarce though another Shy Albatross and a Buller's Albatross paid us a visit. After 25 minutes or so, we tried another spot 3 kms further in, still on the shelf edge. Here at 34 44 21 S; 151 06 16 in 91 fathoms/166m, we encountered the Short-tailed Shearwater flocks again but nothing else, except for a Shy Albatross, in the 25 minutes we stayed there. We decided by then that the shelf edge waters were not going to offer us much, so we went further in with the hope of catching and banding Wedge-tailed Shearwaters which have returned from their winter absence. At 12.40 hrs we stopped at 34 44 00 S; 150 59 48 E in 69 fathoms/126 m shelf waters. Again the Short-tailed Shearwaters predominated, showing no interest in us in their haste to get back to their southern breeding grounds, and even the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters seemed to have disappeared with only a solitary one showing itself. In disgust we turned back into the harbour, arriving earlier than usual at 13.50 hrs.
Highlight of the day was the large flocks of Short-tailed Shearwaters flying south.
Seas were calm with a swell of <1m and little current; sea temperature at the shelf edge was 18.3 degrees.
Species seen outside the harbour, maximum at any one time in brackets:
125 Silver Gull: 10 (3)
981 Kelp Gull: 1 (1) an immature flying just outside the harbour
115 Greater Crested Tern: 6 (2)
847 Antipodean Albatross gibsoni: 1 (1) an immature thought to be this species
088 Black-browed Albatross: 2 (1)
091/861 Shy Albatross: 6 (1) subspecies not determined
931 Buller's Albatross: 2 (1)
075 Grey-faced Petrel: 2 (1)
971 Solander's Petrel 2 (1)
069 Wedge-tailed Shearwater 200 (100) we passed a large flock resting on the water on the way to the shelf.
071 Short-tailed Shearwater: 3000 (250) flocks flying south along the continental shelf
Fluttering/Hutton's Shearwater: 2 (1)
068 Fluttering Shearwater: 2 (2)
913 Hutton's Shearwater: 8 (2)
104 Australasian Gannet: 7 (3)
099 Pied Cormorant: 1 (1) on the water just outside the harbour.
Mammals
We saw several Humpback Whales heading south and a seal sp. loafing at the shelf edge, but no dolphins.
Report prepared by Graham Barwell