New Zealand Sub Antarctic Islands – Macquarie Island – Part 1

Macquarie Island lies south of Enderby, Auckland and Adams Islands.  Macquarie Island is under the control of Australia.  Australia has maintained a wireless and meteorological station since the early 20th Century.  Before that Australia had been the licensing government that allowed a hundred years of exploitation of the fur seal, elephant seal and penguin populations.  All of the animals were hunted to near extinction and this involved hundreds of thousands of each species.  Recent research of cargo reports reveals, for example, that over 220,000 fur seal pelts were deemed good enough to be shipped in that early period (1810-1820) and that one of the prime reasons for that trade coming to an end was that is appears that by 1820 a sealing ship and crew could only find four seals to kill.  No one knows for certain what type of seal these were.  It is not until the mid-1950’s that fur seals are even observed on Macquarie.   In the 19th Century most of the fur and oil trade businesses were unconcerned that their actions were exterminating populations of animal life found nowhere else.

Sir Douglas Mawson, who in 1907 had sailed with Ernest Shackleton to Antarctica, organized and led an Australasian Antarctic Expedition in 19ll.  Part of the mission of this expedition was a scientific exploration of Macquarie and to establish a permanent wireless station to make relay radio contact between Antarctica and the rest of the world. Frank Hurley, the photographer who accompanied Shackleton on his voyages, was with Mawson on this first trip.   By 1915 Mawson decided that Macquarie needed special protection and he, along with Hurley, began a campaign to protect the island and its flora and fauna.  The Tasmanian Government issued a proclamation declaring Macquarie a Sanctuary for Wildlife in May 1933.

Macquarie Island itself may be one of the rarest geological features on earth.  It is the largest uplifted deep oceanic crust found exposed on earth in original condition.  Largely volcanic in nature and formed miles beneath the ocean the island lies at the southern end of the Macquarie Ridge that is the interaction between two primary tectonic plates.  At the northern end of the Ridge is New Zealand about 1,500 kilometers from Macquarie Island.  Some of the island rocks may be up to 10,000,000 million years old, but the island was thrust above the surface between 600,000 to 700,000 years ago.  The geology and origin of the island are so rare that it was these issues that led to the island being declared a World Heritage Area in 1997.

After a day and night transiting a rough crossing from Adams Island we arrived in the morning off the northeastern side of Macquarie.  I have an acquaintance that had worked on a seal project a number of years ago and she spoke fondly about most aspects of her time on Macquarie.  I expectantly was looking forward to experiencing some bits of the island.  It was her contention that Macquarie is almost always shrouded in fog, blasted by westerly gales and cold.  In fact the literature claims that there is at most 35 days of sunshine and 330 days of fog, wind, rain and cold.

The dawn showed us fog and a dusting of snow on the ridges.  The wind is a constant in these latitudes, but very soon we were overwhelmed by a full sunshine day that turned warmer and warmer. Surprisingly the wind dropped off to a light breeze as we made our way ashore at Buckles Bay to visit and formally check-in with the residents of the permanent station established originally by Mawson.

The beach was covered in hundred of Southern Elephant Seals with a scattering of giant beach masters still ashore.   Curious King penguins inspected us as me made our way toward the station.  Gentoos were a little more circumspect and distant.  The station sits on a narrow isthmus and a large hill at the northern end.  We crossed the isthmus to the wildly crashing surf on the west side of this bit of low laying land. Gentoo penguin chicks were well developed and looked very well fed.  In many cases there were two chick families.  Food appeared to be abundant for this colony.

It was so warm that I had the opportunity to see Penguins using their flippers and feet as cooling radiators.  In fact I do not remember seeing such bright orange/red coloration triggered by their capillaries moving lots of warm blood to their feet and flippers.

At the station we had our passports stamped and were told we were very lucky in that today was the best weather they had had for months!  The chef of station had prepared morning tea with lots of scones, jam and cream.  As said, food was abundant for this permanent colony.

It was immediately apparent that no tall plant life could survive on Macquarie in the normal constant winds.  We could see low growing tussock grass and various other forms of vegetation, but no trees.  The elephant seals appeared to make an interesting adaptation to the wind in that they were often curled up on beds of tussock grass or even under the grass—smart to avoid the wind.  This morning, however, was so beautiful, as it was almost tropical…or at least so until we headed back to the zodiacs and the ship. The wind started to rise, overcast skies began to form and the temperature dropped…very theatrical considering we were at Buckles Bay only about 3 hours of the most beautiful day so far.

We were going back to the ship for lunch and to sail further south to Sandy Bay that was to be the afternoon shore exploration.  I was most interested in this next stop because I hoped to be able to take images of Royal Penguins that only breed on Macquarie and were nearly exterminated by the oil collectors in the 19th Century.

New Zealand Sub Antarctic Islands: Previous Blog : Part 4 < > Next Blog : Part 6