New Island, West Falkland
New Island is located on the western side of West Falkland. In the old whaling days, the area was used by the American whalers sailing out from New England, heading for Cape Horn to continue into the huge Pacific Ocean to hunt the mighty sperm whales. Here they introduced cattle, pigs and goats and this always gave them good opportunities for fresh food as they made a call. Unfortunately all these animals were hard to hunt as the tussac grass was dense and high, making it easy for the animals to hide. The easy way to get them out was using fire and, strange enough on this isolated outpost in a rugged, wet and windy Southern Ocean, fire is still today a hazard. The grass of course burns up very rapidly but the peat layer will continue to burn for a long time, some places for several years. Sealers also raided the island from about 1770, and in a few decades almost wiped out the fur seal and sea lion populations. Altogether the intense slaughter, destroying the tussac grass, and bringing rats and cats to almost every island, made other species also dwindle in numbers. Most of the bird fauna suffered badly.
People, called Kelpers, started to arrive to settle the Falkland Islands, as the British reclaimed Falkland Islands in 1833. Most of the islands were owned by few landlords or the company, FIC. Kelpers (sheep farmers) settled at different camps all over to run sheep ranches, called a “Camp.” Sheep farming became the main revenue for the Falklands, for almost 100 years.
Life was harsh and mutton was the main food for the Kelpers and any opportunity to find other food resources was always welcome. Harvesting penguins, both adults but mostly eggs, was a large operation every season and for many decades. This severely also decreased the penguin populations here at Falkland Islands.
Our aim today was to explore New Island. The island is now free from grazing sheep, and free of brown rats. Strange enough, only the less aggressive Norwegian Rat was able to get ashore, yet this island is still a breeding spot for 100,000s of different birds. It is also set aside as a nature sanctuary, as a Trust, by the former private owners.
As many times before in the Southern Ocean, “Plan A” for the day was scrapped as the wind was hauling with almost hurricane force. Again we were lucky to be in the shelter of the many islands here on the western side. “Plan A” became “Plan B,” and everyone was brought ashore at Settlement Beach. At the beach, the locals have established a small museum with objects from the sealer and whaling time. At the beach also, an old WWII mine sweeper is grounded. It was brought down in the late 40’s to be used for sealing but as most seals were already gone, the profit was almost nil. Most of us made the effort to hike to the windward side to watch the black-browed albatrosses and rockhopper penguins. A heyday for photographers!
One of the previous owners of New Island, Kim and Tony Charter are still living at the camp with two children, five and seven years old. They joined us for lunch as we made a very short reposition for our afternoon adventure to North Harbour. As the Zodiacs brought us ashore, a pod of Peale’s Dolphin made our life very wet. Usually any splash into the boat is regarded as very unpleasant, but these dolphin were really putting on a show and nobody was dry as we stepped out onto the beach.
At the beach we all divided into long, medium and short hikers. At least the two first groups made it to the windward side at Albatross Bay, overlooking breeding Rockhopper penguins and Black-browed albatrosses. At the landing beach, Tony Charter told us about his very interesting find, a Yaman arrowhead.
We are soon to sail our last leg on our long transition heading for Ushuaia, first to Antarctica later South Georgia and now Falklands. Throughout the voyage we have talked about heroic explorers, sealers and whalers. It is about 200 nautical miles to Statton Island south of Tierra del Fuego and, most likely, some of the indigenous population on the very southern tip of South America did in fact make it to Falkland Islands with a very small raft, long before any European ever sailed in these waters. No book, nor film, not even the date or names of this crew will ever be known.
At least this can explain a mystery which Darwin, during his visit to Falkland Island in 1833, spent time and effort to explain. As he visited the islands he noticed a small endemic fox, the Warrah. This is the only land mammal to ever exist here before the Europeans introduced species.
Nature is full of mysteries and it is always easy to come up with questions but sometimes very hard to answer or explain. We have, all along this splendid voyage, been able to ask many questions, and we found a few answers but still know nature is very complex.
New Island is located on the western side of West Falkland. In the old whaling days, the area was used by the American whalers sailing out from New England, heading for Cape Horn to continue into the huge Pacific Ocean to hunt the mighty sperm whales. Here they introduced cattle, pigs and goats and this always gave them good opportunities for fresh food as they made a call. Unfortunately all these animals were hard to hunt as the tussac grass was dense and high, making it easy for the animals to hide. The easy way to get them out was using fire and, strange enough on this isolated outpost in a rugged, wet and windy Southern Ocean, fire is still today a hazard. The grass of course burns up very rapidly but the peat layer will continue to burn for a long time, some places for several years. Sealers also raided the island from about 1770, and in a few decades almost wiped out the fur seal and sea lion populations. Altogether the intense slaughter, destroying the tussac grass, and bringing rats and cats to almost every island, made other species also dwindle in numbers. Most of the bird fauna suffered badly.
People, called Kelpers, started to arrive to settle the Falkland Islands, as the British reclaimed Falkland Islands in 1833. Most of the islands were owned by few landlords or the company, FIC. Kelpers (sheep farmers) settled at different camps all over to run sheep ranches, called a “Camp.” Sheep farming became the main revenue for the Falklands, for almost 100 years.
Life was harsh and mutton was the main food for the Kelpers and any opportunity to find other food resources was always welcome. Harvesting penguins, both adults but mostly eggs, was a large operation every season and for many decades. This severely also decreased the penguin populations here at Falkland Islands.
Our aim today was to explore New Island. The island is now free from grazing sheep, and free of brown rats. Strange enough, only the less aggressive Norwegian Rat was able to get ashore, yet this island is still a breeding spot for 100,000s of different birds. It is also set aside as a nature sanctuary, as a Trust, by the former private owners.
As many times before in the Southern Ocean, “Plan A” for the day was scrapped as the wind was hauling with almost hurricane force. Again we were lucky to be in the shelter of the many islands here on the western side. “Plan A” became “Plan B,” and everyone was brought ashore at Settlement Beach. At the beach, the locals have established a small museum with objects from the sealer and whaling time. At the beach also, an old WWII mine sweeper is grounded. It was brought down in the late 40’s to be used for sealing but as most seals were already gone, the profit was almost nil. Most of us made the effort to hike to the windward side to watch the black-browed albatrosses and rockhopper penguins. A heyday for photographers!
One of the previous owners of New Island, Kim and Tony Charter are still living at the camp with two children, five and seven years old. They joined us for lunch as we made a very short reposition for our afternoon adventure to North Harbour. As the Zodiacs brought us ashore, a pod of Peale’s Dolphin made our life very wet. Usually any splash into the boat is regarded as very unpleasant, but these dolphin were really putting on a show and nobody was dry as we stepped out onto the beach.
At the beach we all divided into long, medium and short hikers. At least the two first groups made it to the windward side at Albatross Bay, overlooking breeding Rockhopper penguins and Black-browed albatrosses. At the landing beach, Tony Charter told us about his very interesting find, a Yaman arrowhead.
We are soon to sail our last leg on our long transition heading for Ushuaia, first to Antarctica later South Georgia and now Falklands. Throughout the voyage we have talked about heroic explorers, sealers and whalers. It is about 200 nautical miles to Statton Island south of Tierra del Fuego and, most likely, some of the indigenous population on the very southern tip of South America did in fact make it to Falkland Islands with a very small raft, long before any European ever sailed in these waters. No book, nor film, not even the date or names of this crew will ever be known.
At least this can explain a mystery which Darwin, during his visit to Falkland Island in 1833, spent time and effort to explain. As he visited the islands he noticed a small endemic fox, the Warrah. This is the only land mammal to ever exist here before the Europeans introduced species.
Nature is full of mysteries and it is always easy to come up with questions but sometimes very hard to answer or explain. We have, all along this splendid voyage, been able to ask many questions, and we found a few answers but still know nature is very complex.
