Gulf of Mexico Cruise ship Pelagic August 2018
James Holmes
I have looked at taking a cruise ship into the Gulf of Mexico for years hoping to get access to deep water in the Gulf of Mexico (in Louisiana/ABA waters). Unfortunately, cruise ship trips originating from New Orleans and Mobile likely offer limited daylight hours in Louisiana/ABA waters (within 200 miles of land).
Cruise ships, however, also depart from Galveston, Texas. Those that go from Galveston to the Yucatan Peninsula or Jamaica probably do not spend any/enough daylight hours in Louisiana/ABA waters. However, some trips go directly from Galveston to Key West and then on to the Bahamas. It appeared to me that these 7 or 8 day trips spend substantial time in Louisiana/ABA waters (150-200 miles from land) during daylight both on the way to Key West (day 2) and on the way back to Galveston (next to last day). These trips also spend significant time in the Florida Straights/ABA waters during daylight hours. I ultimately found three cruise lines (Carnival, Disney and Royal Caribbean) that did the Galveston-Bahamas route although this particular route seems to be much less common than trips from Galveston to the Yucatan Peninsula/Jamaica.
There are a few eBird
reports for cruise ships in the Gulf of Mexico, but they generally provide very
limited data, and it is likely many of the reported species are from outside of
Louisiana/ABA waters.
We left Galveston around 4pm on August 19. At 7:30pm I had 5 Brown Boobies come up close to the ship that mapped in eBird to Louisiana waters but I think are in Texas waters. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S47984563
On August 20, I started at sunrise (6:30am) in deep waters off Terrebonne Parish, LA (26.852, -90.517). I did not see my first bird (my only Band-rumped Storm-Petrel in LA) until 6:59am: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S47984599 We were in Louisiana waters (Terrebonne, Lafourche and Plaquemines Parishes) for just over 7 hours to 25.769, -88.269. The number of birds steadily decreased as the day progressed.
August 20 pelagic species in Louisiana: Red-billed Tropicbird (1), Arctic Tern (1), Sooty (4) and Bridled Terns (5), Sooty/Bridled Terns (13), Band-rumped Storm Petrel (1), Audubon Shearwaters (5), Brown and masked boobies (1).
On August 24, I started at 7:13am (Eastern time) in the Florida Straight (24.526, -80.49) and we continued west staying about 30 miles south of the Florida Keys
August 24 pelagic species in the Florida Straights: Red-necked Phalarope (1), Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (1), Brown Noddy (29), Sooty (427) and Bridled Terns (21) and Brown Booby.
On August 25, I started at 6:51am in deep waters off Plaquemines Parish (25.971, -88.578) and we were in Louisiana waters the entire day (ending in shallow water as we went up the shelf at 27.702, -92.208). We went through several good patches of sargassum in the morning (and that had the most birds). I put an image of the route of our return trip in my ebird lists: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48080435
August 25 pelagic species in Louisiana: Red-necked Phalaropes(5),
Sooty (35) and Bridled Terns (23), Sooty/Bridled Terns (77), Royal Tern (1), Audubon (24) and Great Shearwaters (1), Brown Booby and a
tropicbird species (poor photos of the tropicbird at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48080112)
There were more birds on August 25 (compared to August 20) perhaps because we were around sargassum for
a good portion of the morning.
Details for the above species are in the various eBird lists. Some additional comments:
· Audubon’s Shearwaters were common in the Gulf of Mexico but absent in the Florida Straights They seemed to be most common around sargassum. Except for one, they did not approach the ship.
· Sooty and Bridled Terns were also common although most in the Gulf of Mexico went unidentified.
· The Red-necked Phalaropes were also in the sargassum.
· The first tropicbird was distant and I could not find it in the camera. The 2nd tropicbird was sitting on the water so easier to find but was too far to definitively identify.
I additionally looked for pelagics on the way into and out of Freeport, Bahamas and the trip north from Nassau, Bahamas. All I was able to locate were Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies. No other pelagic species.
Happy to answer any questions on this topic.
Thanks
Jim Holmes
Sacramento, CA
