Sunday 15 September 2013

The East Coast Odyssey

Recently I had the pleasure to sail for half day on a beautiful sailing boat called the Yukon from Eden. The Yukon is calling for people passionate about seabirds, sailing and the impacts of plastic in our oceans. The Yukon (originally known as Elly) was built in 1930 in Fredrikshavn north of Jutland. She was a Danish fishing trawler until 1974 where she was renamed Yukon and became a pleasure sailing boat. Current owners are David and Ea Nash and she is based in Tasmania.

We saw loads of Australian Gannets and Common Dolphins who were frantically feeding on a school of fish, they were joined by New Zealand Fur Seals, Shy Albatross, Yellow -nosed Albatross, Diving Petrels, Brown Skua and a Wedge tailed-shearwater. And of course we trawled for plastic which we snagged very little of, however it depends on the currents and wind. We did manage to catch lots of jellies, phytoplankton and zooplankton which is attracting a lot of interest from our marine species.

The Yukon is part of the East Coast Odyssey’s whose mission, under the supervision of Monash University’s Jennifer Lavers is to collect data on the millions of multi-coloured plastic remnants killing marine wildlife off Australia’s spectacular east coast. The impacts are unknown and this is the first time this type of work has been undertaken. 

The East Coast Odyssey is working in partnership with the Two Hands Project, who are running lands-based community events throughout the expedition. Two Hands embodies the spirit of the huge national/international clean up days but asks what you can do with your two hands, in 30 minutes, at a location near you. Two Hands takes it back to grass roots, looking at what you can do to care for where you live.

Links to Two Hands Project www.twohandsproject.org


Penny 

Photo courtesy of the East Coast Odyssey

Photo courtesy of the East Coast Odyssey

Photo courtesy of the East Coast Odyssey

Photo courtesy of the East Coast Odyssey

Photo courtesy of the East Coast Odyssey

Saturday 7 September 2013

Close


This was one lucky lady. This hideous hard plastic lure with a hook was embedded in the pelicans face 1mm away from her eye. First spotted she was bleeding but gave Australian Seabird Rescue team members the slip and hid somewhere for a couple of days. Unable to rest until she was caught - we did - and with no infection she was treated and released on site.

Hook and lure embedded near a pelican's eye. Fortunately it was able to be successfully removed.



Then....
A couple of days later a big male turned up with this float tangled in his foot with a 4oz sinker attached. He had no hope of flying and could only lift off the water and crash back down. He too was caught and released on site. Two good results - but both incidents due to careless fishing.
 

Hook and sinker tangled around a pelcians foot. Australian Seabird Rescue was able to catch the bird, remove this mess and sucessfully release the pelican.


Betty

Sunday 1 September 2013

Spring has Sprung! but sadly for our birds their trouble has just begun!



Careless thoughtless fishing has caused this horrific injury to this young breeding female. The net was tangled around this girl's leg! Whether it was floating (unlikely with 2 sinkers attached) or she has been caught in it and the fisherman has dragged her ripping the skin off the muscle and then cutting the rope as it has been cut not frayed. A professional wouldn't do that. Her foot was so tightly wrapped it had cut off her circulation, her leg was stripped of skin and feathers and heartbreakingly she had to be euthanized.
 
How could this happen? Both Australian Seabird Rescue team member and vet were in tears as they cut off the net to see if she could be saved. She just sat quietly hoping we could help her. An absolute tragedy which could have been avoided!

Betty

 
Horrific injury to a pelican caused by a fishing net.

Net caught around pelicans leg