Deep ocean pelagics off Albany – May 2015

Hi all, After much discussion with various birders and the skipper of our Albany boat, I’ve organised a weekend of deep ocean pelagics off Albany, scheduled for the 23rd and 24th May this year. These trips will start early and head further offshore than the usual trips, hoping to find some of the deeper ocean albatross and petrel species. The trips will be a little more expensive than the standard Albany trips due to increased fuel costs – the cost with a full boat of 18 will be $180/person/trip, increasing if we don’t fill the boat (e.g. to $200 if we only have 16 on board). The other trade-off is that the weather cut-off is likely to be slightly lower than usual as we are heading further from land. The plan will be to leave early (approx 0500) to accommodate the extra travel time while still allowing several hours for chumming once we get out there. Assuming we get out on both days, on the Saturday I plan to head straight out for the 3000m mark on the first day, and possibly target any intrusions of cold water if there are any in the vicinity. This will probably add 1-1.5hrs travel time each way. On the Sunday, the plan is to investigate a couple of seamounts (I think in c. 2000m). The exact details may change, but the overall plan will be to go deep! If these trips are worthwhile, I will try to run them at a few different times of year over the next few years, complementing the standard trips. If you would like to book a place for one or both days, please let me know. As always, we need minimum numbers for these trips to run. Cheers, John