Other Peri-Antarctic Islands
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© Lonely Planet Publications 229 Other Peri-Antarctic Islands Among the tiny islands scattered across the vast empty expanse of the Southern Ocean are earth’s remotest islands. Inconsequential though they may appear, they are vital refuges for vast numbers of seals, penguins and other seabirds, since there is nowhere else they can go to breed and raise their young. The peri-Antarctic islands are also interesting for their histories of discovery, exploita- tion, scientific research and, in some cases, human settlement. The small communities that have lived – and died – on some of these lonesome isles are remarkable testaments to resilience and determination. In most cases, people lived on an island for a short period of years and little trace remains of their stay. At Tristan da Cunha, however, the inhabitants are successfully balancing the traditions of their island community with the intrusions and benefits of modern life. No voyage – not even a circumnavigation of Antarctica – will take in all the peri-Antarctic islands. There are simply too many. Voyages sailing from Australia, New Zealand or South Africa will often stop at Macquarie Island or Heard Island and New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands. Resupply vessels visiting Îles Kerguelen, Îles Crozet, Île Amsterdam and Île St Paul take tourists. Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island are usually visited on ‘repositioning’ cruises, en route to the northern hemisphere, where the ships ply Arctic waters during the austral winter, or on the return south the following season. Bouvetøya, Peter I Øy and Scott Island are visited only rarely. HIGHLIGHTS South Sandwich Stroll through ‘megaherb meadows’ on Islands the boardwalk at Campbell Island ( p253 ) Île Amsterdam Go ashore at the royal penguin rookery in Sandy Bay on Macquarie Îles Kerguelen Island ( p244 ) Overlook some of the world’s newest land, created by the 2005 eruption in the OTHER PERI-ANTARCTIC South Sandwich Islands ( p256 ) Try to catch a glimpse of one of the world’s rarest birds at Île Amsterdam ISLANDS ( p242 ) See the legendary Arched Rock at Îles Kerguelen ( p235 ), now collapsed, Macquarie Island silhouetted against the dawn Campbell Island 230 OTHER PERI-ANTARCTIC ISLANDS •• Bouvetøya lonelyplanet.com 0 100 km PERI-ANTARCTIC ISLANDS 0 60 miles Scale applies to island insets only Îles Crozet South Sandwich Islands 3 Scott Islas Diego Shag Gough Island Ramirez Rocks Island Falkland Islands 16 19 22 26 20 24 Bouvetøya Prince McDonald Île Île Edward Islands Amsterdam St Paul South Islands Îles Shetland Kerguelen Islands 1 2 5 6 7 26 0º 30ºW 25 30ºE 1 2 23 24 22 3 20 21 60ºE 4 18 4 19 5 6 Heard Macquarie Island Island 8 7 90ºW 17 90ºE 8 9 120ºW 120ºE South Georgia 16 15 60ºS 50ºS 150ºE 180º 9 12 11 40ºS 13 10 14 23 150ºW South Orkney Islands The Snares Antipodes Bounty Islands Islands Balleny Islands 10 13 14 21 Auckland Campbell Peter I Øy Tristan Islands Island da Cunha 18 15 11 12 17 25 BOUVETØYA activity on the island. Another island, Bouvetøya is the most isolated island on earth. Thompson Island, was first sighted by 19th- Not counting its tiny neighbor to the south- century sealers northeast of Bouvetøya. It’s west, Larsøya, the nearest land (Antarctica) is believed to have been destroyed during a vol- more than 1600km away. canic explosion in 1895 or 1896. ISLANDS ISLANDS Bouvetøya is the tip of a volcano that rises Sometime between 1955 and 1958, a low- out of the Southern Ocean, and although the lying shelf of lava rock rubble appeared on volcano is dormant, there’s still geothermal Bouvetøya’s western coast, probably as the OTHER PERI-ANTARCTIC lonelyplanet.com OTHER PERI-ANTARCTIC ISLANDS •• Bouvetøya 231 result of a landslide. This created the island’s enormous numbers of fin whales in the waters only bird-nesting site of any size, an area surrounding Bouvetøya; one man recalled about 500m wide and 2km long. Norwegian later that their blows reminded him of the discoverers named it Nyrøysa (New Rubble); smoke coming from the many chimneys of a it’s also called Westwind Beach. Scientists Norwegian town during the winter. landed on Bouvetøya in 1978 and measured The Norvegia expedition also claimed the a below-ground temperature of 25°C. island for Norway on December 1, and on Bouvetøya covers about 54 sq km. The January 23, 1928, it was formally annexed by highest point is 780m Olavtoppen (Olav Norwegian royal proclamation. (The British Peak). It and another high peak surround Parliament declined to get upset about such an the ice-filled crater of an inactive volcano unpromising dot of territory and renounced known as the Wilhelm II plateau. Glaciers all claim to Bouvetøya later in 1928.) cover 93% of the island and prevent land- When a 1955 South African expedition ings on the southern and eastern coasts, while visited in HMSAS Transvaal, all that was left steep cliffs as high as 490m block access to of the Norvegia hut was a cable, the leg of a the north, west and southwest. Landings can stove and some cement. be made in only a few places, and numerous In 1971 Norway made the island a nature offshore rocks make navigation hazardous. reserve. Bouvetøya’s weather is nearly always cloudy Bouvetøya has only rarely been visited. or foggy. The mean temperature is -1°C; in Several events, however, are mysterious. First, summer, the average high is 2.2°C. a sunken lifeboat and assorted supplies were The island is named for French navigator discovered at Nyrøysa in 1964, but their origin Jean-Baptiste-Charles Bouvet de Lozier, who, could not be determined. sailing in Aigle, first sighted it on January 1, Second, a thermonuclear bomb test seems 1739, but was unable to get a good fix to de- to have occurred to the west of Bouvetøya termine its position. It was not until 1808 that in 1979. Although no country ever admitted British whaling captains James Lindsay and setting off a bomb there, an orbiting satel- Thomas Hopper, sailing in Swan and Otter, lite detected a brief, intense burst of light on resighted it and proved that it was indeed an September 22, 1979. Magnetic, seismographic island. Bouvetøya’s precise position, however, and ionospheric evidence all pointed to a nu- was only pinned down 90 years later by the clear blast. Personnel at Australian Antarctic German Deep Sea Exploration Expedition in stations later detected radiation and radioac- 1898 sailing in Valdivia, which did not suc- tive debris. In May 2006 the Israeli newspaper ceed in landing. Yediot Aharonot said that newly disclosed doc- An American sealing expedition led by uments revealed that Israel and South Africa Benjamin Morrell in Wasp made the first had conducted a ‘ nuclear experiment.’ landing on December 8, 1822. They took 192 Third, a newspaper in the Norwegian capi- fur-seal skins, Fanning writing later that the tal of Oslo reported in 1986 that US census seals were so tame ‘that they would come up records showed that, since 1959, 60 women and play among the men who were skinning and 26 men had emigrated to the US from the their companions.’ uninhabited Bouvetøya! This encouraged other sealers, who visited Three huts were set up by a Norwegian sporadically during the 19th century. Two research expedition that spent four months British sealing ships, Sprightly and Lively, re- on the island in 1978. They’re now gone, discovered Bouvetøya on December 10, 1825, but in 1994 a shipping container brought to and named it Liverpool Island, taking posses- Nyrøysa, on the island’s windward coast, was OTHER PERI-ANTARCTIC sion for the British crown. converted to a small Norwegian research sta- Science, in the form of the Norwegian tion, last used during the 2001–02 season. A ocean ographic expedition in Norvegia, first five-member research team landed for a three- ISLANDS visited Bouvetøya in December 1927. Despite month stay in December 2007, but found it the ship twice hitting an underwater reef, par- had vanished – along with major sections of ties were put ashore on seven days during the Nyrøysa itself. They built a small camp of nine month, 667 fur seals were taken, and a small tents, most of which a storm soon destroyed. hut was built at Cap de la Circoncision on Using extra timber, they enlarged a wooden the northwest coast. The expedition found shipping crate into a shack. The destruction of 232 OTHER PERI-ANTARCTIC ISLANDS •• Prince Edward Islands lonelyplanet.com all of these huts indicates the ferocious winds Cave Bay is a large cave that has sheltered two and waves experienced by Nyrøysa. groups of castaways as well as an incongru- Macaroni and chinstrap penguins, elephant ous Champagne toast made by a secret South seals and many fur seals breed on the island. African naval expedition in January 1948. The islands’ highest point is Marion’s 1230m PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS Mascarin Peak, formerly known as State Bleak and barren in winter, lush and green in President Swart Peak. It had a small ice plateau, summer, the Prince Edward Islands consist of but recently this has all but disappeared due to Prince Edward Island and the larger Marion climate change. Also, the island’s bogs are now Island, 22km to the southwest. They cover 316 noticeably drier, and meteorological records sq km and are part of South Africa’s Cape of show a large reduction in annual rainfall and Good Hope Province. an average temperature rise. Dome-like Marion Island is dotted by many Nevertheless, the weather is fairly consist- small lakes and more than a hundred small ent: low temperatures year-round, extremely hills; as the 1961 edition of the Antarctic strong westerly winds, abundant snow and Pilot picturesquely notes, the island ‘appears rain, and skies usually at least three-quarters from northward as a cluster of rugged nip- covered by clouds.