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

Over 250 oiled birds are now being cared for at the Mount Manganui Wildlife Response Centre

The Mount Manganui Wildlife Response Centre now has 253 birds in care including petrels, shags, penguins and shearwaters plus 3 seals. Approximately 1300 birds have not survived. When the birds are brought into the centre they are assessed by vets and ornithologists to single out those which are physically strong enough to survive. The oil is too thick to remove by simply scrubbing. They are first bathed in warm canola oil which breaks down the fuel oil, then washed in warm detergent. The birds take about 5 days to preen the detergent from their bodies but they will have to be held in the wildlife centre for several months until their natural habitats have been cleaned of the oil.
A group of Hawke's Bay residents have knitted tiny woolly penguin pyjamas! These will be put on oil smeared Little Blue penguins to prevent them preening before their feathers have been washed free of the oil.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm

Back on the Rena, 88 containers have been lost overboard with 30 of these unaccounted for. Many of the remaining containers are in a precarious position and more are expected to be lost. Heavy seas have forced salvation efforts to cease and increased fear of the ship breaking apart.

Katie Cox captured exclusive close-up images 

of the grounded Rena off the coast of Tauranga.