PORT O'CONNOR
PELAGIC TRIP REPORT III - August 20, 1994 Aboard the Chip XI
Report Transcribed from 1995 Texas Deepwater Pelagic Trips Newsletter
Copyrighted By: Dwight Peake and Mark Elwonger
Storm Petrels Again in August
High pressure over the Gulf made for windy and rough 3-5 foot seas but this did little to
discourage 30 determined pelagic birders on August 20. The first Leach's Storm-Petrels
showed up at almost precisely the same time as last time: 10:30AM. For he next hour,
as the Chip XI passed over a bottom irregularity known as "The Hump", 9 storm-petrels
were spotted, offering good looks at both Band-rumped and Leach's. The advantage of a
fast boat like the Chip XI is that it can keep up with these swift, erratic wave-huggers.
An excursion into deeper water 100+ miles out proved to be less productive than the Hump,
so we returned and encountered an additional two Leach's in nearly the same area as the
Band-rumps were seen 2.5 hours earlier.
Then, an hour after returning to the shelf, the first of three Cory's Shearwaters appeared,
accompanied by a pod of Pantropical Spotted Dolphins. Checking several production platforms,
we inspired an immature Masked Booby to fly directly over the boat!
