July 17th Pelagic Report From: David Muth Subject: LOS Pelagic (Apologia pro vita sua)   All:   As you have already heard, the LOS Pelagic Trip of last Saturday, July 17, did not exactly rewrite the record books. Inasmuch as I was the "trip leader" (which I now realize was a set-up), I will here give some account of the the trip. We will eventually post a trip log, for what it is worth.   We departed on a very comfortable Tomeny Charter boat (The Carribean Sea??) via Belle Pass, the mouth of Bayou Lafourche, and struck a course for the head of the Mississippi Canyon (SSE). We hit very nice green water fairly quickly, in which we encountered a few Black and Common terns, as well as the usual suspects. There was good fish activity in green water, but no mammalian activity. The water got progressively bluer, and we eventually passed into real blue green water, which was thick with drift rows of sargassum--a good sign, we thought. We came upon some Black Terns feeding over a shoal of ravenous fish (Hardtails and Bonita??). We laid down the mother of all chum slicks, using fish culled from a shrimp trawl supplied by Tomeny, Menhaden oil supplied by Hemeter, tuna parts supplied by Carol Foil, offal from the Ditmann/Cardiff kitchen, and a patented recipe from yours truly. We laid the slick in a broad circle, and we circled. And circled. And circled. Nada. Zilch. Nothing.   When we got over the Miss. Canyon, we took a more easterly course, making for deep water. When we got as far southeast as we could go with our time/distance restraints (about 35 miles s. of SW Pass in 3000+ feet of water), we laid down the GRANDMOTHER of all chum slicks. We circled. And circled. And then, we circled some more. And circled. And circled. Nada. Zilch. Nothing.   We then headed mostly north, hoping to find a rip line. A lone tern, our first, only, and last Bridled Tern, rocketed past, well off our port. We stopped, and watched it disappear southward: unchaseable. Apologies to those on board who needed Bridled Tern, but this one did not cooperate. Approaching a big thunderhead, we saw a group of frigatebirds circling, and thought, this is it! As we came up on the frigates (and the first raindrops), young, handsome Paul Conover, called out a "probable storm petrel." We stopped, and laid down the great-grandmother of all chum slicks. We circled. And circled. And then, we circled some more. And circled. And circled. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. Except that one of the frigatebirds came in, picked up a morsel we'd offered. And spit it out.   We then headed toward the Midnight Lumps, or Sackett Banks, an interesting structure -- a sea hill within the Miss. Canyon. We found a blue-blue rip with good sargassum, and a large number of frigates and Royal Terns, a few blacks. Great views of cooperative frigates. We laid down the Great-Great-Grandmother of all chum slicks. But you've heard this story....   Then, we came back in, crossing a finger a green water, pluming out of sw pass, then blue, then green, then brown and Belle Pass.   A few observations:   This was virtually the same route traversed two weeks earlier on an LSUMZ expedition, a scouting trip, in effect. On that day, every time we stopped and chummed Wilson's Storm-Petrels appeared almost instantaneously. We also got a Leach's, and another Oceanodroma that was variously thought to be Leach's or Band-rumped. We also had several Bridled Terns. (AND we had a small, all-dark procellarid that just possibly might have been--coulda been, mighta been, shoulda been--the gulf's first Bulwer's Petrel; but hey, you did not hear that from me). We also had TWO pods of incredible and cooperative Risso's Dolphins!!   But Saturday, we were completely skunked. One distant fly-by Bridled Tern. Paul's possible Storm-petrel, and a few other possible birds. A couple of glimpses of possible cetaceans, none of which materialized.   Bizzarre.   One thing I can say: we were in the same places, but different waters. On July 1, green water was full of Sargassum, but blue water was devoid of it. On July 17, green water had no sargassum, but in blue water there was as much as I've seen, though concentrated in specific areas, with large expanses of clean water. We had pretty good signs of fish life throughout, including good numbers of small flying fish, and, near the rips, sargassum, and blue-green interfaces, a large number of hardtails and small "tuna"=bonita??   The northern gulf remains a complete mystery. Sorry to those aboard, but we did our best. I did not hear about the possible Sooty Tern until we were coming in, but none of the leaders saw it or were told about it (unless it was the Bridled that bombed past). But we thought, given our success July 1, that chumming would at least produce storm-petrels. Not even a pod of dolphins!! Oh well. However, I would not give up yet...   BTW, I am not superstitious, and do not believe in mystical, vaguely eastern nonsense, like "kharma." However, rocket scientists and other rational folk will agree that the appearance of a Green Violet-Ear a few days before did not help this trip. Worse, the fact that Charlie Lyon was on the the pelagic trip created a bad juxtaposition of cosmic forces. After all, a person who slept till 11:00 a.m. in Shreveport (despite a canard about performing an operation that morning!), then got up and drove to Lafayette in time to see that wretched hummer, can not have a good follow-up pelagic trip. This would cause irreparable perturbations in the space-time continuum.   So, the blame for this trip lies squarely with Dr. Lyon. I did not go see that hummingbird!   David Muth The Once and (NOT) Future Pelagic Trip Leader New Orleans