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| Providence Petrel |
With a forecast wind direction of W-NW - about as bad as it gets - following several days of westerlies, we had some challenges ahead of us as we left Mooloolaba Marina at 7am on Sunday August 5, 2018. A Wedge-tailed Shearwater and a couple of Hutton's Shearwaters were seen on the way out. So were good numbers of Humpback Whales, including a group of about 12 that were hanging around a fishing boat. A pair of Brown Boobies were perched on a trawler nearby.
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| Brown Booby pair |
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| Humpback Whale |
We reached the shelf in 400 metres 32 nautical miles offshore at 9.40am (26.41,61 S; 153.13, 431E) and began laying a berley trail. During the 3.5 hours that we drifted off the shelf we had Providence Petrels about and a few Hutton's Shearwaters, but it was otherwise pretty much a bird-free zone. The wind was blowing a comfortable 10-12 knots on a swell of 1.5 metres making for pleasant conditions, but the north-westerly failed to produce the goods as might be expected.
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| Hutton's Shearwaters |
The occasional Australasian Gannet and a few more Hutton's Shearwaters were seen on the return journey and we arrived back at the marina at 3.50pm.
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| Australasian Gannet |
PARTICIPANTS
Greg Roberts (organiser), Toby Imhoff (skipper), Zoe Williams (deckhand),
Warren Bennett, Robyn Combes, Jo Culinan, Phil Cross, Alex Ferguson, Richard Fuller, Steve Grainger, Nicholas Haass, Judith Hoyle, Alan Kind, Wayne Kroll, James Martin, Gillie Matthew, Deb Metters, Stewart Meltlon, Rachel Oh, Gavin O'Meara, Xiatong Ren, Carolyn Scott, Raja Stephenson, Shen Zang.
SPECIES Total (Maximum at one time)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater 2 (1)
Hutton's Shearwater 15 (4)
Providence Petrel 20 (3)
Brown Booby 2 (2)
Austrasian Gannet 5 (2)
Crested Tern 80 (20)
Pied Cormorant 2 (2)
Humpback Whale 30 (12)
Offshore Bottle-nosed Dolphin 20 (6)
