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On My Own - Australia and New Zealand 2002 Emmalee Tarry |
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Wollongong Pelagics
Back in the early 1990's when the internet and electronic mail were just starting to impact our lives, I was an early participant in the E-mail birding discussion group BirdChat. The most exciting chat came from Australia about the pelagic trips out of Wollongong. I began to look forward to the reports about the large number of Albatrosses. It wasn't long before WIR (when I retire) began to include a long trip to Australia including Wollongong pelagics.
Wollongong is a fairly large industrial city south of Sydney and. home to a large university. Other than a Buddhist Temple, the city has not exploited its potential for tourism.
Prior to leaving home, I reserved a place on the Sydney Pelagic on the second Saturday in July and the Wollongong Pelagic on the fourth Saturday in July. I also planned to take the September and October Wollongong Pelagics. These trips tend to fill so you should definitely make advance reservations.
The southern oceans around Australia and New Zealand are rich in seabirds and birding is good all year long with the winter months of July and August being the best opportunity for Albatross species.
While Wollongong is granddaddy of pelagic birding in Australia there are other trips from other cities. It is very hard to find information about some of the other locations and also hard to plan your land trip to be in the right place at the right time for both land and seabirds. If you go out of your way for the pelagics you may find the trip cancelled because not enough people signed up or at the last minute because of the sea conditions. Pelagic birding is always tough. By the time I arrived in Sydney, the Sydney pelagic in July had been cancelled because not enough people signed up. This is a shame because I understand the Sydney pelagic is run on a fairly nice boat.
SOSSA - Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association
Wollongong pelagic birding trips are sponsored by SOSSA and are the most reliable trips. Trips are rarely cancelled for weather and almost never cancelled because not enough people show up. Trips are scheduled on the fourth Saturday of every month. If the Saturday trip fills, a second trip may be scheduled on Sunday. During the prime months of July and August trips may be scheduled on other weekends.
SOSSA or the Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association uses the Wollongong pelagics to support their "at sea" studies into the local marine environment. The organization bands birds at sea and breeding birds on islands near Wollongong. On every SOSSA trip you can count on having one or more very knowledgeable observers aboard. Unlike the Kaikoura trips, this group is out looking for rarities and compiling accurate counts of the birds seen. Participants are serious birders not just tourists interested in big birds.
On most trips the boat will stop to capture and band some of the birds. Since the trips are 8 hours or more in length you will still have plenty of time to cover the area. Time will also be spent on whales and dolphins. Almost any naturalist will be happy to see some of the rarer whales such at the Pygmy Killer Whales Feresa attenuata that has been sighted on several trips. Humpback Whales migrate off the coast of Wollongong and there are people aboard who will be excited to see them. On my first trip we spent some time waiting for 3 feeding Humpbacks to surface. It was even more frustrating because we sailed away from the first great Albatross in order to chase the whale (at 7 knots).
One of the things I did was to join SOSSA while I was there. I felt I would really like to stay in touch and to support this worth while ecological effort.
Setting Expectations - The Sandra K
I know I am spoiled when it comes to boats. There are great whale watching boats in the Boston area. I have taken pelagic trips in North Carolina, Oregon, and California and I think even experienced pelagic birders from these areas are in for a bit of a shock when they see the Sandra K and meet the captain.
All of the following comments about the Sandra K and its captain are my opinion only and based on my experience and observations on many pelagic birding trips. Despite all this criticism of the boat, I took 3 trips because I knew the birds would be good. If I ever go back to Australia I will take as many Wollongong pelagics as I possibly can, but I do so with the full knowledge that I am taking a risk and that I am responsible for my own safety especially moving around on the boat and getting on and off.
The MV Sandra K is 43 feet in length and weighs 17 tons,. It carries 23 passengers and has a top speed of 7 knots. The boat is primarily used as a party fishing and whale watching boat. There is nothing inherently unsafe about a small boat. I believe that with some modifications and a more safety conscious captain this boat could be safe.
The first problem is the total lack of any system for getting passengers on and off the boat. The boat docks next to stone stairway and you get on by jumping from the stairs down to the boat. I could only to do this with help and at times I had to wait for and insist on getting some assistance. Then you have to get off by climbing over the boat rail and jumping up to the stairs.
In the worst possible scenario you fall between the boat and the stairs and I saw one young man do just that. He was very lucky and landed on a narrow stone ledge just at water level. On a higher tide the ledge will be underwater. If the boat is not secure to the dock you could fall into the water between the boat and the stairs and that is life threatening. To make matters even worse, returning from the third trip, the captain was distracted by something on the dock and passengers were disembarking before the boat was secured to the dock. Careful captains I have observed do not allow any passenger to disembark until the boat is fully secured to the dock and the captain himself (herself) has inspected the moorage. There is no question in my mind that this boat needs some method of boarding passengers and that with a bit of effort this can be provided. I was told that the problem is the tide, but every ocean going vessel has to deal with the tide.
There is limited seating on the outside lower deck. The only real seats are on the upper deck which is reached by a vertical, narrow ladder. The railing around the upper deck is not very high and very open. The boat rocks with the swells and at times I felt I would slide overboard if I was not holding on. In rough seas, spray washes over the upper deck soaking everything. I always take my camera in a backpack which I can strap to some structure on the boat. Anything loose on the upper deck is likely to fall overboard. It is only safe to go up and down the ladder when the boat is stopped.
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I hope someone is paying attention to things I was unable to assess like communication and navigation equipment, testing of the life saving gear, and the emergency training of the crew. Observations like the above do not lead to confidence about other safety aspects.
I am not the only one to voice complaints about the Sandra K. A professional birding trip leader told me his company would not take clients on Wollongong Pelagics. I hope that my vocal complaints will get the sponsors to make some other arrangements because the birds are great. In the meantime each participant should consider their physical condition and boating experience and decide if they can participate.
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