TASMANIA BOAT TRIP - 17/10/1999
On Board: Denis Abbott, Sue Baker, John Barkla, Diana Bryant, Gabrielle
Harrison, Chris Lester, Jann Mulholland, Ross Mulholland, Susan
Myers, Richard Nowotny, Tim Reid, Fred Smith, Bill Wakefield,
Maggie Wakefield
Conditions: Left at 8 am and returned at 4 pm. In the morning, it was
relatively calm with slight chop and waves about a metre. Wind
was fresh at 15 knots from the NE. Chop increased over the day
with some 2-3 m waves in the afternoon as the breeze freshened to
15-20 kts with gusts of 25 kts. There was no swell. The expected
SW change did not arrive. The weather was fine and mostly sunny
all day.
We travelled the 14 nautical miles out to the shelf to the NE of
Eagle Hawk Neck and some 4nm beyond it. We then went S initially
outside the shelf and then along it, visited the Hippolytes to
the SW of EHN and returned along the shore.
Highlights: The number of Southern Fulmars was exciting as was the
Black-bellied Storm-Petrel. However, the sheer number of
Short-tailed Shearwaters was staggering. They occupied a band
about 3-4 nm wide just before the shelf. This band extended for
the length of our whole trip along the shelf and, presumably, a
whole lot further. Our estimate was that there were more than a
million birds. Amazing spectacle.
Birds: Most seen at once Estimated Total
Little Penguin 1 1
Common Diving-Petrel 1 3
Southern Giant-Petrel 1 2
Northern Giant-Petrel 4 10
SOUTHERN FULMAR 1 5
Cape Petrel 10 25
Great-winged Petrel 2 4
all r. macroptera
Fairy Prion * 40 200
White-chinned Petrel 3 8
Sooty Shearwater 1 10
Short-tailed Shearwater 50,000 100,000s
Wandering Albatross 3 12
r. exulans
Royal Albatross 1 3
r. epomophora
Black-browed Albatross 2 6
one r. impavida
Shy Albatross 30 60
two r. salvini
Yellow-nosed Albatross 2 6
Wilson?s Storm-Petrel 25 40
Grey-backed Storm-Petrel 2 5
BLACK-BELLIED STORM-PETREL 1 1
Australasian Gannet # 30 50
Black-faced Cormorant # 100 120
White-bellied Sea-Eagle # 2 2
Peregrine Falcon # 1 1
Pacific Gull 2 5
Kelp Gull # 10 15
Silver Gull # 3 10
Crested Tern 2 5
White-fronted Tern 7 10
* A probable Salvin's Prion was also seen
# Mostly on the Hippolytes or in-shore
Mammals: Australian Fur-seal
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