Perth Western Australia Pelagic Trip Report Friday 27th June 1997

Particpants : me (!) and 20 fishers

Conditions :

Departed Hillarys Boat Harbour at 7.00am (sunrise at 07:18) - returned at 4.10pm.  Forecast to be a 1 metre sea on a 1.5 metre swell but it was very calm.  The temperature was about 11C at departure with a maximum of about 21C.  The breeze was very, very light.

Description :

With the weather so calm all week, I decided to go on a fishing trip to see what was out there at this time of year.  The boat only went out to a depth of 124m, so I wasn't sure what I would see.  The trip wasn't earth shattering, but it was good.

The boat headed out from Hillarys Boat Harbour to S31 48.374 E115 14.430 with a depth of 123 metres at 08:30.  A few gannets, a Great Skua and a Yellow-nosed Albatross were the only birds seen on the way out.

The longer we were there, the more Yellow-nosed Albatross that came in (mostly immature with only one full adult seen).  There were also some (immature) Black-browed Albatross with them.  One Crested Tern and a few Wilson's Storm-Petrels were the other birds seen early.  About 10:30 a Great Skua landed on the surface nearby, and shortly after one Cape Petrel and one Soft-plumaged Petrel flew past.  The Cape Petrel stayed for a while.

The day was spent drifting, with regular repositioning of the boat.  The maximum number of birds seen at any one time were 21 Yellow-nosed Albatross, 4 Black-browed Albatross and 3 Great Skuas.

We headed back for shore at 14:55, and on the way we saw 3 whales (Humpbacks?), and 3 Bottle-nose Dolphins in the harbour.

Bird List (Christidis & Boles order) :

Cape Petrel (1)
Soft-plumaged Petrel (1)
Black-browed Albatross (4+)
Yellow-nosed Albatross (30+)
Wilson's Storm-Petrel (6 sightings with a maximum of 2 birds)
Australasian Gannet (6)
Great Skua (4)
Crested Tern (1)

Pied Cormorant (~10) harbour
Silver Gull (50+) harbour
Australian Magpie (1) harbour

Mammal List :

Humpback Whale (3)
Bottle-nose Dolphin (3) harbour

Fish List (not mine) :

Pink Snapper
Yellow-eyed Pink Snapper (young of same species?)
Leatherjacket
reef shark
Skipjack
Blowfish
a big one!! (1 metre long) that I don't know

© Copyright Frank O'Connor 1997-2004

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Last Modified 31st January 2002