shearwaters east coast Avalon Saturday and Sunday August 5-6

[ILJones]

Checked Motion Bay off Maddox Cove on Saturday morning - there were about 1500 shearwaters between North Head and Motion Head, 50/50 Sooty - Great, with three Manx Shearwaters, two Hump Whales and one Fin Whale. Fifteen gannets and a few kittiwakes, no jaegers or storm-petrels. Fifteen fine cod in the ice box.

Spent Sunday going back and forward between Mobile and Great Island in a tour boat - there were about 4000 shearwaters present, 50/50 Sooty - Great, with six+ Manx Shearwaters up to three at a time - this is a great way to get good looks at shearwaters, many of which seemed too stuffed with capelin to be able to get out of the way of the boat, never mind fly. Several Sooty Shearwaters were up by the beach near the Mobile hydro plant and Mobile Bay was full of shearwaters first thing in the AM in fog. No jaegers or storm-petrels, but two Red-necked Phalaropes looked like fresh juveniles. Marine mammals included 20+ Hump Whales and one Minke Whale. One ocean sunfish.

ilj

[ILJones]

I never though I'd say this but I am tired of looking at shearwaters. No Cory's seem to be around this year so far.

ilj

[ILJones]

And I forgot to mention, we had one Sooty Shearwater off Mobile that was overall snow white in colour, with a light bluish gray bill and a scattering of a few small black spots on the flight feathers and scapulars - recalling an immature Ivory Gull.

ilj

[ILJones]

One very disturbing observation from Sunday afternoon was the deployment of gill net(s) between two sets of red floats off Tinker's Point between Mobile and Tors Cove - smack in the middle of a concentration of dozens of whales and tens of thousands of seabirds near the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. Such behaviour by fishermen would seem to me to be highly destructive and unacceptable.

[thefunkys...@gmail.com]

On Monday, 7 August 2017 18:43:25 UTC-2:30, ILJones wrote:
> One very disturbing observation from Sunday afternoon was the deployment of gill net(s) between two sets of red floats off Tinker's Point between Mobile and Tors Cove - smack in the middle of a concentration of dozens of whales and tens of thousands of seabirds near the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. Such behaviour by fishermen would seem to me to be highly destructive and unacceptable.

Yes!, the Sentinal Fishery is a study that is done thru-out the Island to gauge the amount of Cod in the water's and to compile information.Absolutely agree with you!,the mentality to have such a study in a day with no Fishery when the Whales are at such great risk chasing Caplin is just mind boggling.There is no reason whatsoever in an educated society that the importance of whales and the amazing influx of visitor's that it brings onto the Island in true Tourism dollar's is allowed during the Whales congregation to chase Caplin and should not be allowed from the 5th of July to the 20th of August.The study as comparable to Tourism makes no sense whatsoever,hopefully some phone call's can be made to enlighten the Minister responsible and there is a good possibility thou no proof that the dead Hump in Biscay Bay was caught in net's and just 100 feet from the Humpback dead on the beach is a compilation of huge net's,those net's are new net's from the ocean as me and a buddy completely cleared that site of all garbage and check it consistently to keep it clean,these net's unfortunately are all over our ocean,how those whales ever make it thru all that stuff is beyond me!!!

[brucema...@gmail.com]

For the record the dead decomposing whale on the beach at Biscay Bay is a minke whale that showed up alive but dying one day in early June? This was before any capelin or cod nets were in coastal waters. No one knows why it died but lets remember everything dies at one time or another and a whale can die of natural causes.

Minke RIP

B Mactavish


P.S. Fresh Ches's Fish 'n Chips or the Tourist's Dollar - what is more important. That is debatable.

[thefunkys...@gmail.com]

Oh my Gawd I had the huge reply and then just deleted it and read the P.S part and all I could think of was Ches's and tartar sauce the stuff in the clear package haha.So in one line they should just give the byes a holiday during those dates,pay them the same amount and continue the study after those important times,not a hard plan to achieve.I'm going to Ches's right now and you are to blame!

[ILJones]

update for Friday August 11...

JW reports thousands of shearwaters, mostly Great with some Sooty and one at least one Manx still present today between Mobile and Great Island, most near the mouth of Mobile Bay. With 30+ Humpback Whales and four Fin Whales.

[brucema...@gmail.com]

Thanks for this update. Cape Spear has gone deadly quiet but hearing about humpback whales and 'seabirds' off Topsail Beach to Chamberlains last 48 hours.

B Mactavish