South Georgia Wandering Albatross Survey

We sailed wing and wing most of the way to the island.

This morning we threaded our way through a wall of icebergs at the entrance to Wilson Harbour on the forbidden south coast of South Georgia, seeking shelter chased in by a Force 6 south westerly on the rise. The entire island is now destined to become a Terrestrial Protected Area (TPA) and in the island’s management plan, no cruise ships are allowed to disembark passengers on the south coast. Only small expedition vessels like ours with a Regulated Activity Permit (RAP) can land.  Although this ‘iceberg’ cemetery as we call it looks daunting it actually provides a safe barrier to the swell that would otherwise enter this bay. Having said that we had to up anchor twice when bergy bits on the move threatened our anchor and chain . . . .

Vinson anchored in Wilson Harbour.

The Vinson of Antarctica is on a six week science support cruise on behalf of the South Georgia government with support from the Antarctic Research Trust principally to census the Wandering Albatross population of the entire island.  Our secondary objectives are to make cursory biological audits of the official visitor sites on an ad hoc basis, to further enhance the South Georgia management plan going forward, and to monitor the avian flu situation on every landing.

Dion taking the science team ashore on the first landing.

We are a small team of 10. Our sailing crew consists of Justino Garcia-Borreguero, skipper; myself as Co-Expedition Leader, Dion Poncet is the local knowledge and landing expert and crew Tor Bovim and Jennifer Coombs. The science team is headed by Jennifer Black, Environmental Manager for South Georgia and Sally Poncet, the Great Wandering Albatross expert for the island, going back decades. Andy Black, Ken Passfield and Kiwi Kelvin Floyd, an invasive plant specialist round out their team of five.

Ken on the saddle radioing Jen and Andy out on the South West Point, bottom left.

Sally Poncet logging a nest.

The last time this census was carried out was in 2015 and before that 2004, the idea being a once in every ten year event. There are 30 known sites on the island where active nests were occupied in the last census, including Bird Island at the far northwest end of South Georgia, which is manned by a year round science team from the British Antarctic Survey.  They keep an almost daily track of the many species of albatross, other flying birds, penguins and marine mammals that inhabit what has become many years ago a control island, again with no tourist visitors allowed.

Annenkov Island.

Having left Stanley in the Falklands on January 12th, we are 10 days into this expedition cruise and have ticked off five of the 30 sites we need to visit. Most are along the south coast and a handful in the Bay of Isles on the northeast coast. It’s all about wind and swell whether we can make a landing.  Some of the trickiest landings are on rocky headlands where a few birds are nesting up above in the tussock, in complete solitude. Others, like the almost mystical Annenkov Island, a significant outlier 20 miles off the south coast, has 176 breeding pairs. We can say this today, exactly, as we just spent two glorious days (some of it in the mist and rain) hiking up and down the terrain counting these magnificent birds.

Vinson anchored at Annenkov.

Due to the pristine nature of Annenkov, we are led to believe we could be the last humans to set foot ashore there for the near to mid-term future.  It will most likely be left in its Southern Ocean fastness, possibly for another ten years until the next census – maybe. Satellite imagery, although not yet there, can make human intervention in this regard a thing of the past. Progress yes, less impact on the island another yes, but sadly for the researchers who have followed this story for decades with boots on the ground.

Wanderers in courtship display.

In view of overall Wandering Albatross decline as a global trend, from what we know so far from the few sites the team has visited, there are increases and decreases. It is now a race against time and weather to get these 25 remaining sites in the can, so the South Georgia population as a whole can be assessed.

Skip Novak

Co-Expedition Leader