TRIP REPORT
15 November 2011

Departed Simonstown at 0745 on ‘Stella’ skippered by Anees and guided by Barrie Rose.

Conditions were virtually windless after the previous night’s westerly gale and the trip to Cape Point was pleasant and uneventful except a pod of 3 Humpbacked Whales.

Outside Cape Point a fairly large westerly swell persisted and our progress was quite slow for the first few miles. There were few birds on the outward trip and brief stops
were made for Arctic and Pomarine Skuas. At fifteen miles we encountered our first albatross, an Indian Yellow-nosed.

At 20mls we came upon the monkfish trawler ‘Realeka’ trawling to the north and processing its catch. Conditions were now quite calm and although bird numbers were low we were able to find and spend time with four species of albatross, both Giant Petrels and most of the routine species seen at this time of year. Highlight of the day was good close views of at least 3 Great-winged Petrels. After spending two hours with the trawler we headed back towards Cape Point via a hake liner which we had seen on the way out. The ‘Christina’ was processing its catch and had relatively small numbers of the same species in attendance. We collected 6 large hake (M. paradoxus) which had broken free from the long-line.

With the predicted Southeast wind holding off we headed back to Cape Point in pleasant conditions with the wind behind us. The trip back produced a Humpbacked Whale which breached twice and a large shoal of Yellowfin Tuna which jumped and broke surface in a feeding frenzy 50m from the boat.

Inside False Bay we stopped at Partridge Point to view the Bank Cormorant colony before heading back to Simonstown.

Species seen

Shy Albatross – 50
Black-browed Albatross - 10
Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross - 1
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross - 15
Northern Giant Petrel - 5
Southern Giant Petrel - 20
White-chinned Petrel – ca 1500
Pintado Petrel – 30
Great-winged Petrel - 3
Sooty Shearwater - 10
Great Shearwater - 1
Subantarctic Skua - 4
Pomarine Skua - 2
Arctic Skua - 6
Common Tern - 20
Swift Tern – coastal and to 8mls
Sandwich Tern - coastal
Kelp Gull – 20 and coastal
Cape Cormorant coastal and to 5mls
White-breasted Cormorant - coastal
Bank Cormorant - coastal
Cape Fur Seal – 100+
Humpbacked Whale – 4
Oceanic Blue Shark - 1
Yellowfin Tuna – 1 feeding shoal

Many thanks to Barrie for guiding and Anees for skippering to make a very enjoyable trip.