Hi Roger (& others)
Sorry to hear that - I've never been on a Sydney trip but having started to
help organise the WA trips recently, I well understand how having a reliable
boat operator AND not having to worry so much about not filling the boat would
make it much easier for the trip organiser! Sounds like a big loss...
John
Sent from my iPhone
> On 7 Oct 2013, at 10:41 am, "Roger McGovern" <> wrote:
>
> It is with some sadness that I have to inform birding-aussers that the MV
> Halicat has operated its last pelagic sea watch expedition from Sydney. Hal
> Epstein has sold the vessel and we understand that it will be moving away
> from Sydney on a permanent basis. The Halicat has been operating these trips
> for the best part of 20 years and I have been extremely fortunate to have
> been part of that operation for all of that time except when I was living in
> Perth in 1998-9.
>
> The scheduled pelagic trip on Saturday October 12th will proceed as usual in
> order to honour the bookings already in place and we will be using the MV
> Lormar for the day - it is a displacement vessel with a capacity of about 20
> passengers. Since this trip next Saturday is almost fully subscribed, it is
> planned to run the November 9th trip on the same vessel, if there is
> sufficient interest.
>
> There are no arrangements in place to my knowledge for the continuation of
> the Sydney pelagic tradition and I have to say that, having reached a
> 'certain age' in life, I think that the future of seabird watching off
> Sydney should be in younger hands than mine. We have been very fortunate in
> having Hal as the key part of providing the vessel for these trips as he was
> prepared to go out even when numbers were not sufficient to make it
> financially viable and the Halicat was an exceptional platform for
> observation. A future organiser will have the task of finding a suitable
> vessel and figuring out how to handle the financial risk of the somewhat
> fickle Sydney market.
>
> Hal, Steve Anyon-Smith, David James and I would be more than happy to assist
> anyone trying to get something organised and to pass on all our knowledge of
> boats, bookings, locations, sourcing berley material, and the like. Finally,
> a big thank you to all those birders who have supported the Sydney pelagic
> in the past. I really hope that we can get an alternative operation running
> off Sydney - it is too important to our knowledge of seabirds to give up on
> it.
>
> Cheers
> Roger McGovern
>
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