07 Feb 2023

A Cacophony of Prolific Wildlife at Macquarie Island

The excellent weather continued as blue skies and calm waters greeted Heritage Adventurer as we arrived at Buckles Bay in Macquarie Island. 

It was a day of sensory overload as we had the privilege of immersing ourselves among the cacophony of prolific wildlife: exquisitely coloured and curious King Penguins, raucous colonies of Royal Penguins, the more subdued Gentoo and Rockhopper Penguins, and massed huddles of enormous Southern Elephant Seals all interspersed with the ever opportunistic Skuas and Giant Petrels scrounging for their next meal.

Sunshine interspersed with occasional squalls and hail gave us a taste of the typical Subantarctic weather while tall seeding tussocks waved in the breeze sheltering the large leaved megaherb, 'Macquarie Cabbage', a testimony to the success of the island's rabbit eradication efforts. Cruising close to shore, we headed south gazing at numerous penguin colonies including the massive King Penguin colony at Lusitania Bay and the two rusting disgesters in its midst - a reminder of a more exploitive era when the island was home to a gruesome oil trade that lead to countless penguin deaths.

It is in the grey evening light as we pass Hurd Point, the southernmost tip of Macquarie Island and home to an estimated one million Royal Penguins that three Orca pass near the ship, their tall dark dorsal fins slicing through the water as we set sail for the ice.

Image (c) R.Young