09 Apr 2016

Thousands of Shearwaters Escort Us North

The Spirit of Enderby departed from the Port of Tauranga on the 6th April on our South West Pacific Odyssey voyage from New Zealand to Papua New Guinea. Our group of keen birders and avid travellers have been enjoying familiarising themselves with the ship, and finding sunny spots on the deck to watch for bird and marine life as we head north towards Norfolk Island.

The highlight of our day at sea on Saturday was the constant parade of thousands of short-tailed shearwaters flying across our bow. They are currently on their annual migration from Tasmania to the Okhotsk region in Russia (where we will catch up with them on our Sea of Okhotsk voyage in June) and their numbers have been estimated at around 23 million. We must have seen more than 50,000 birds an hour pass by for over 10 hours!