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

And East Coast Odyssey http://eastcoastodyssey.wildiaries.com/

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

Australasian Gannet

A late afternoon call to Australian Seabird Rescue from a holiday maker at Manyana regarding an injured bird on the beach prompted action. We were 2 hours away and it would've been dark by the time we got there so Wildlife Rescue was contacted. Thankfully they had a member who lived close and he headed out to get the bird. In the meantime I contacted the lady to throw a towel over the bird to prevent him going back in the surf. So the bird was rescued - fishing line untangled and an overnight stay with Wildlife Rescue. Julie and I went down the next morning to collect him. He still had 2 large hooks in his wing so we brought him home - removed the hooks and kept him in care for a couple of days to ensure he had 100% use of his wing.

With a clean bill of health he was released back into the wild. The ASR "mermaids" went into the surf to ensure he kept going and after about an hour of preening and getting the human smell off him he took to the sky.

Welcome to ASR Kate, seen here with Julie in the surf - all in the line of duty eh? Both girls down to their knickers to make sure the bird got away OK. I was very brave and stood on the beach taking photos. A big thanks to Wildlife Rescue for their help. It's great to be able to work with other groups to save our wildlife. 

A magnificent bird, the Gannet is a pelagic seabird that spends all its time at sea except for breeding. So this fellow, even though far from land, has had an awful experience with mankind due to careless fishing practise but thankfully the story has a good ending.

Betty