Very remote and very interesting. Macquarie Island is a recent island. Formed less than 700,000 years ago. That is ludicrously young in geological terms. It is also very unusual because it is made of uplifted and exposed oceanic crust. Formed by the collision of two tectonic plates, the island was squeezed up from deep below the ocean like toothpaste from a tube. Geologists get extremely excited about this place. They can see rock structures here that are almost inaccessible anywhere else in the world. To me, it looked like some quite ordinary hills covered in grass. There is little that is obviously unusual to the untrained eye. I tried to spot some pillow lava but failed. This is rock formed by the rapid cooling of lava underwater. Spotting anything was quite difficult as we were carefully herded around and not even allowed to pick up a rock.
Macquarie Island is also the scene of the most incredible animal slaughters. Beginning with the sealers who “discovered” the island in 1810. They killed 120,000 fur seals in just the first 18 months. By 1820, at least a quarter of a million fur seals been taken rendering them virtually extinct. Attention then turned to elephant seals which were similarly slaughtered. By 1830 70% of the elephant seals were gone. Then it was the penguins turn. They were herded along planks and pushed into steam powered digestors. 2,000 penguins at a time producing half a litre of oil per penguin. In 1933, when nearly everything had already been killed and there was no longer a market for seal or penguin oil, the island was declared a wildlife sanctuary. Since then, seal numbers have mostly recovered and the penguins have come back.
However, this was far from the end of the slaughtering. Mice and rats had come ashore with the sealers. These were causing mass destruction with the sea birds. Cats, introduced to protect human food from the mice, were also helping themselves to the bird life. An estimated 60,000 birds per year. Rabbits, released to provide food in 1870, were running rife and destroying the local vegetation. The rabbits were reduced to about 10,000 in the early 1980s when myxomatosis was deliberately spread around. Over time they developed a resistance to the desease and by 2006 there were over 100,000 bunnies. Rats and mice feeding on young chicks, and rabbits nibbling on the grass layer, has led to soil erosion and cliff collapses, destroying seabird nests. Substantial portions of the Macquarie Island bluffs are eroding as a result. In September 2006 a large landslip at Lusitania Bay partially destroyed an important penguin breeding colony. This was attributed to a combination of heavy spring rains and severe erosion caused by rabbits.
In 2007 a program to eliminate the rats, mice and cats by poisoning was started. This cost over £12 m and involved helicopters spreading poisoned bait all over the island. It was mostly successful but unfortunately also killed large numbers of kelp gulls, giant petrels, black ducks and skuas. The program was abandoned early but followed up by hunters with dogs. By 2014 the result of the biological, chemical and ballistic warfare on the animals was declared a great success. The island was pest free. Populations of many bird species have increased and the plant life is recovering. Avian influenza, bird flu, is likely going to be the next big killer. It has not reached Macquarie Island yet but elsewhere in the sub-Antarctic regions it is becoming responsible for the deaths of large numbers of seabirds, penguins and seals.
We arrived at “Macca” early in the morning. On the isthmus right on the northern end is quite a large research base. Obviously, they wanted very little to do with a bunch of tourists. A couple of rangers came down to the shoreline to discuss the sea state with our crew. It was decided that there was too much swell for a safe landing. Meanwhile, I had been leaning over the side of the ship and was surprised at how many penguins were swimming round us. They were mostly King Penguins. Quite large birds with very striking colouring. It was almost like there was something about the ship that they found attractive.
We pressed on south to an area called Sandy Bay. Here there was less swell. The whole area was a bit more sheltered. There were some elephant seals on the shore along with many king penguins and a few royal penguins. These are smaller, yellow crested penguins endemic to the area. We had a small patch of beach to wander along and also some steps to a viewing platform. Despite the small area, we were carefully organised into groups and assigned to a guide. We spent about an hour mostly just standing around photographing the creatures. Penguins are very smelly. You don’t get this when watching a documentary. Once you are physically close to a rookery there is an extraordinarily strong and quite distinctive stench.
Along with the penguins, there were a few skuas and giant petrels on the beach. Birds, penguins, seals and tourists all squashed up next to each other. Our last stop was the viewing platform for the royal penguin rookery. I had never seen this type of penguin before. They only breed here, on Macquarie Island. A high-risk strategy. Macca is subject to frequent earthquakes. Occasionally these can be strong and may also give rise to tsunamis. Funny looking birds with bright yellow and rather dishevelled crests.
Back on the ship we moved further south to Lusitania Bay. There are many more royal penguins here but no good landing places. On the beach, a couple of the large digestors used for boiling penguins down, can be seen rusting away. We went out in the zodiacs to bounce around for a while. The wind was getting up and so was the sea. I left my main camera on the ship. This proved to be a good decision as within a few minutes we were getting soaked in the little RHIBs. A couple of orcas went past as we were heading back. The wind and spray was making visibility quite poor by then but we still managed to catch a glimpse of two black dorsal fins.
Macca done, the ship set sail due south.