Carcass Island & New Island
We spent the entire day in the northwest region of the Falklands Archipelago. The islands in this area are world-renown for their wildlife. First thing this morning, the National Geographic Explorer stopped just off the southern end of Carcass Island, where those of us who wanted to enjoy a longer hike landed. They went ashore on Leopard beach…a Caribbean-styled white sand beach, from whence they walked through sand dunes, over Gothic Point Paddock, and a couple more miles around the bay of Port Pattison all the way to The Settlement. The rest of us stayed aboard ship and sailed around to the anchorage site for The Settlement.
Carcass Island is owned by our long-time friends Rob and Lorraine McGill, and they invited us into their home for a traditional Farmer’s Tea in the morning. The spread that Lorraine put out on their dining room table was awesome (Figure A). Meanwhile, the hikers saw a lot of wildlife during their morning trek, but most of the species they encountered were also hanging out right near The Settlement’s landing as well. Everyone had plenty of opportunities to observe and photograph the island’s amazing wildlife and enjoy a spot of tea.
As we sailed toward our afternoon’s destination, the ship encountered an enormous gathering of black-browed albatrosses on the water’s surface taking advantage of schooling fish being forced to the surface by a combined force of Peale’s dolphins and penguins. As we neared the feeding frenzy, albatrosses took to the air all around our ship and caused some considerable excitement among the guests out on the Foredeck, especially those with cameras.
We reached New Island in the middle of the afternoon and immediately went ashore to enjoy some more excellent nature watching. This large island is the driest region in the archipelago and today we were blessed with nearly perfect conditions. The previous owners (Tony and Kim Chater of the northern half and Ian Strange of the southern half) have recently merged their two properties into the New Island Conservation Trust so that the entire island is now a nature reserve. They still graze sheep on a limited fenced-in area, while at the same time have been experimenting with re-establishing tussock habitat in another.
From the landing in Settlement Harbour, we walked over to the windward side of the island in order to view a mixed colony of rockhopper penguins, black-browed albatrosses, and king shags. Many of us found ourselves near one of the launch sites used by the albatrosses to get airborne (Figure B). The rockhoppers were nearly all undergoing their yearly moult, so there wasn’t a lot of hopping on rocks going on. In addition to all this, we also were able to visit an interesting museum that has been organized in the old Captain Barnard building near The Settlement. The story behind this building is very interesting. Barnard and four crewmembers from the American whaler Nanina were marooned here from June 1813 until November 1814 by a group of British sailors that they had rescued, not knowing that Britain and America were at war at the time. The British sailors took over the ship when the whalers refused to take them to a British port.
