A sea trip is fun… Pennicott Wildlife Journeys offers various tours on the water in Hobart. My first ‘Journey’ was to take a few other people and me to Iron Pot Lighthouse, a lighthouse near Betsy Island. The small 12-seater boats followed the coast west of Bruny Island to the northern tip of the island, travelled east to the lighthouse and back up the coast to the north. As we left the harbour, I got my first glimpse of the RSV Nuyina. The Australian icebreaker supplies the Antarctic stations of the Australians and is designed for various research tasks in rough seas. I knew the ship by name from my work at the AWI in bathymetry and at the IBCSO. Just like the RV Investigator on the opposite side of the harbour entrance (also an Australian ship used for research and training). Such impressions create a completely different relationship to the names in the database!
During the Iron Pot Cruise, we encountered rocky cliffs, seals (southern fur seals), dolphins, lots of cormorants and seagulls, as well as gannets. There was even a brown falcon perched on a branch on Betsy Island. When we wanted to follow the eastern coast back to Hobart, a large whale appeared. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a picture of it. According to our guide, it was a southern right whale, which is more common in these waters. One of the whales I had never seen live before. The animals can grow up to 18 metres long and weigh 80 tonnes. The whale only came to the surface very briefly and disappeared again very quickly. Even after waiting a while, it was difficult to be in the right place at the right time or to look in the right direction. As whales can dive long and deep, it is difficult to predict when they will surface for air.
The dolphins, on the other hand, loved to ride the bow wave of the small boats. When we were joined by a second tour boat, the playful mammals kept popping up between and above the boats. In the end, we spent considerably more than just 2.5 hours on the water.
A video of the Cruise will be released later.
