AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE ISSUE 26 2014 AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC ISSUE 2014 MAGAZINE 26 The Australian Antarctic Division, a Division of the Department of the Environment, leads Australia’s Antarctic program and seeks to advance Australia’s Antarctic interests CONTENTS in pursuit of its vision of having ‘Antarctica valued, protected and understood’. It does this by managing Australian government activity in Antarctica, providing transport and SCIENCE logistic support to Australia’s Antarctic research program, maintaining four permanent Australian research stations, Pests eradicated from Macquarie Island 1 and conducting scientific research programs both on land Hard core science 2 and in the Southern Ocean. Historical temperature reconstructions show hemispheric differences 4 Australia’s Antarctic national interests are to: • Preserve our sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Mapping the migratory route of pygmy blue whales 5 Territory, including our sovereign rights over the The laws of whaling 6 adjacent offshore areas. • Take advantage of the special opportunities Antarctica Next generation toothfish management tools 7 offers for scientific research. Potential diamond-bearing rocks discovered in Antarctica 8 • Protect the Antarctic environment, having regard to its special qualities and effects on our region. Polar ecosystems vulnerable to increased sunlight 10 • Maintain Antarctica’s freedom from strategic and/or Diatoms have that sinking feeling 12 political confrontation. New breeding behaviour discovered in emperor penguins 13 • Be informed about and able to influence developments in a region geographically proximate to Australia. Volcanoes provided ice-age refuge for Antarctic biodiversity 15 • Derive any reasonable economic benefits from living and How old is that humpback whale? 16 non-living resources of the Antarctic (excluding deriving such benefits from mining and oil drilling). Elephant seal population decrease linked to polar vortex 18 Counting elephant seals from space 20 Australian Antarctic Magazine seeks to inform the Australian and international Antarctic community about the activities $1.6 million for marine mammal research 21 of the Australian Antarctic program. Opinions expressed in Sea ice symposium 22 Australian Antarctic Magazine do not necessarily represent the position of the Australian Government. Public Open Science Day 23 Australian Antarctic Magazine is produced twice a year (June and December). All text and images published in the OPERATIONS magazine are copyright of the Commonwealth of Australia, A summer of many challenges 24 unless otherwise stated. Editorial enquiries, including requests to reproduce material, or contributions, should be addressed to: HISTORY The Editor Australian Antarctic Magazine Close of the Mawson Centenary 26 Australian Antarctic Division 203 Channel Highway ARTS FELLOWS Kingston, 7050 Tasmania, Australia. Beyond Whoop Whoop 28 Australian Antarctic Division Secrets of the Giant Freezer 30 Telephone: (03) 6232 3209 (International 61 3 6232 3209) POLICY email: [email protected] Facsimile: (03) 6232 3288 Managing activities in the Larsemann Hills 32 (International 61 3 6232 3288) Expansion of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve 34 Editor: Wendy Pyper Production: Sally Chambers, Jessica Fitzpatrick. IN BRIEF 35 Graphic Design: Paper Monkey FREEZE FRAME 37 ISSN 1445-1735 (print version) Australian Antarctic Magazine is printed on Monza satin recycled paper; a 50% post consumer waste and 50% FSC certified fibre stock. Australian Antarctic Magazine can be viewed online: ABOUT THE COVER www.antarctica.gov.au/magazine Reminiscent of a tropical island rather than a subantarctic one, this image of Macquarie Island shows an east coast slope covered with silver-leaf daisy (Pleurophyllum hookeri), looking north towards the station. The photo was taken in 2007 by Frederique Olivier, who has spent 14 seasons working in Antarctica and the subantarctic, as a scientist, photographer, expedition guide, voyage manager, commercial skipper, media producer and camera operator. A successful conclusion to the pest eradication project (page 1) will ensure the World Heritage values of this beautiful island are preserved. AAD9614rj SCIENCE Pests eradicated from Macquarie Island Macquarie Island researchers will no longer wake to the night time scrabblings of rodents around their field huts, with the pests now officially eradicated from the island. The seven year, $25 million eradication project, ‘After the baiting, the island was divided into funded by the Australian and Tasmanian six hunting blocks, with teams of two hunters 2 governments, ended in April this year, with dispatching rabbits using detection dogs, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service project spotlighting, burrow fumigation and trapping,’ manager, Keith Springer, declaring that no Mr Springer said. rabbits, rats or mice had been detected for ‘In 2013 two New Zealand rodent dog handlers the past two and a half years. and their three rodent detection dogs joined the A ceremony was held in Hobart on the return team specifically looking for evidence of any of the 12-strong hunting team, including surviving rats and mice, and found none.’ 11 hunting dogs and their handlers, who had The project has generated global interest as it spent the past 13 months scouring the 12 785 is the first time that rabbits, rats and mice have hectare island for signs of survivors, after an been eradicated all at the same time, from an extensive baiting program in 2011. island the size of Macquarie Island. 3 Already the flora and fauna on the World With the island now free of pests, the key Heritage listed island is bouncing back, with is to prevent a reintroduction of pests from tussock grasses providing cover for seabird ships’ cargo. In 2013 the Australian Antarctic chicks, and megaherbs returning in all their Division opened its new biosecurity facility on lush, green glory. Some bird species, previously the Hobart waterfront. The facility has vermin restricted to breeding on offshore rockstacks, traps, impenetrable walls and fumigation areas such as blue petrels and Antarctic terns, have and staff use rodent detector dogs to screen begun to recolonise the main island. The cause all cargo destined for Antarctica and the of much of the island’s erosion and deadly subantarctic. On Macquarie Island, rodent and landslides has also been removed. insect traps are laid around the station during While the news is good, ecologists say it could and after voyages. take up to 20 years before a new ecological WENDY PYPER equilibrium is reached and the end result is not Corporate Communications, Australian Antarctic Division always predictable. Reports from other island eradication projects indicate that even in the 1 same archipelago, different plant species can 1. The hunting dogs and their respond quite differently to the removal of handlers spent most days and pest species. However it is clear that significant nights walking the island in ecological improvement is the main story from difficult weather conditions. Seven springer spaniels, four islands where pests are removed. labradors, a border terrier cross ‘It is exciting to see an ecosystem which and three New Zealand rodent suffered significant degradation due to pest detection dogs were chosen for their work ethic, adaptability, species, for more than 100 years, firmly on and tolerance to the cold and the road to recovery, and it will be just as wet. Here, Gary Bowcock walks fascinating to see how the landscape recovery the island with Joker and Tama. evolves in the coming decades,’ Mr Springer said. 2. The tourist boardwalk at The eradication program eliminated some Sandy Bay in 2005. 150 000 rabbits from the island in the first year. 3. The tourist boardwalk at The release of calicivirus culled numbers initially Sandy Bay in 2013 as the (in 2011), followed by an aerial baiting program tussock grasses bounce targeting surviving rabbits, as well as rats and back from grazing pressure. mice. Australian- and New Zealand-trained dogs All photos courtesy of were then brought in to help hunters to finish the Tasmania Parks and the job – finding just eight adult survivors of the Wildlife Service. aerial baiting, plus a single litter of kittens. ISSUE 26 2014 AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC MAGAZINE 1 SCIENCE 1 Hard core science An ice core climate record spanning the past 2000 years was retrieved from the remote heart of Antarctica this past summer by an international team of scientists and deep field operators. JEAN JACQUES OLIVIER About two tonnes of ice core sections, drilled ‘We used a Danish Hans Tausen drill to extract A highlight of the team’s work was obtaining a over five weeks at Aurora Basin, 500 km inland our main ice core, which is 303 m long and spans 300 year temperature record from the main ice from Casey station, made the long sea journey the past 2000 years,’ Dr Curran said. core using a field-based ‘laser spectrometer’. to Hobart in a refrigerated container onboard ‘We also used two other smaller drills to extract In the past, scientists used laboratory-based the Aurora Australis in February. 116 m and 103 m cores, spanning the past 800 techniques to measure temperature, which The ice cores will now be transferred to to 1000 years, to obtain extra ice for large could take up to two years to complete. Australian and international ice core laboratories volume chemical analyses. ‘This field-based technology speeds up our for analysis of atmospheric gases, particles and ‘Using a variety of