Port Fairy, VIC, Pelagic Trip Report, 17 June 2001
Observers: Chris & Rosemary Lester,
Rohan Clarke, Geoff Walker, Neil Macumber, Euan Fothergill, Harry Clarke, Laurie
O’Connor, Tom Fletcher, Victor Gillatt, Michael O’Keefe (from Ireland) and Mike
Carter (leader).
Weather: A large, strong, high-pressure area was
centred over western Victoria.
Many scattered light drizzly showers, mostly over the land.
Partially cloudy, 6/8 to 2/8, but we experienced mostly sunshine. Cold; c 8*
C.
Wind: mostly calm, occasionally 5 Kt SW beyond the shelf.
Sea: Slight on a low swell becoming glassy on a low
swell. Thus it was a very gentle trip. Side awnings were not required. One
person was sick, briefly.
Activity: Sailed @ 07.35. Headed out SSW @ 13.5 Kts.
Encountered little on the way out so we hardly paused. Stopped to berley with
shark liver and sliced couta beyond the shelf-break @ a depth of 262 fathoms,
(100 fathoms = 180 m), from 10.30 to 11.15. Then moved out 2-3 Nm to 380 fathoms
and berleyed from 11.30 to 12.00. Moved further west to 38*50’S 141*45.6’E, (c.
62 km SSW of Port Fairy) and berleyed from 12.30 to 13.05 when we headed in.
Cruised W & S shores of Lady Julia Percy Island (LJPI) from 15.05 to 15.35.
Docked @ 16.40.
Mammals: A few Common Dolphins and Australian Fur
Seals with feeding Gannets about 20 km out. 1,000’s of Seals at LJPI.
Birds: A very quiet day with low abundance. 19 species
of seabird identified beyond the river mouth indicated below average diversity
but several were distant or seen only briefly. The highlights were an adult
Buller’s Albatross and a couple of Common Diving Petrels. The
lowlight was the almost total absence of Black-browed Albatross. Unless
noted otherwise, most listed below were beyond the shelf break (i.e.
pelagic).
Little Penguin: 1 inshore & 1 on LJPI.
Common Diving-Petrel: 2 inshore, one seen fairly
well.
Giant Petrel sp?: 1
Cape Petrel: 3 (3).
Great-winged Petrel: 25 (17), 20 macroptera, 5
gouldi.
Slender-billed Prion: 1 inshore.
Fairy Prion: 13 (7), 1 inshore.
Sooty Shearwater: 1.
Fluttering Shearwater: 200 (200) inshore.
Black-browed Albatross: melanophris 1 sub-adult.
No, I haven’t missed off a
couple of noughts. We saw just one, the fewest ever. Exactly one year ago
we had 430! But that was off Portland where we connected with three trawlers.
Today we didn’t see any trawlers but I suspect some were fishing beyond the
horizon to our west and that they had attracted most of the albatrosses. We hope
to be out again within 2 or 3 weeks. I’ll report again then.
Shy Albatross: cauta 40 (18).
Yellow-nosed Albatross: 6 (1), 3 inshore, 3 offshore.
Buller’s Albatross: 1 adult.
Australasian Gannet: 200 (40), none pelagic. In the a.m.,
they were either fishing or flying to the east in groups
of 4-6. In p.m., they were returning westward
towards Lawrence Rocks in flocks 2 to 4 times
larger.
Black-faced Cormorant: 1 on LJPI.
Great Skua: 1 distant, inshore.
(Pacific Gull: 1 in Port Fairy.)
Kelp Gull: 10 on LJPI.
Silver Gull: 50 on LJPI & 10 inshore near Port Fairy.
Crested Tern: 36 (15). 1 pelagic, 6 offshore & 29
inshore.
Also on LJPI we had a Brown Falcon, 6 Sooty Oystercatcher
& 2 Masked Lapwing.
Mike Carter
30 Canadian Bay
Road
Mt Eliza Vic 3930
03 9787 7136
