As the Macquarie Island 2024-25 summer season draws to a close, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife ranger Mel Wells reflects on the team's achievements on the island.
We are nearing the end of what was a very busy wildlife monitoring season on Macquarie Island, which is informally known as Macca. The annual cycle of the island dictates the rhythm of our lives while living and working on this Tasmanian Nature Reserve and World Heritage Area.
Winter can generally be a period for dormancy; plant life browns-off and most animals leave the island for productive offshore waters. As humans we spend long hours hut-bound, our movements dictated by challenging weather and extended darkness.
The return of the remarkable wildlife in spring bring prosperity to the island as it bursts into life and transitions into what is the bustling and rich Macca summer season.
Endemic Macquarie Island cormorants nesting on onshore rock stacks
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania has a long-term wildlife monitoring program on the island in collaboration with the Australian Antarctic Division and University of Tasmania. The program is designed to understand population trends and identify threatening processes to help manage and conserve the unique and highly threatened sub-Antarctic wildlife.
The on-island component of this program is run by the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service ranger team. For the last couple of years we have been fortunate to increase our on-island monitoring capacity with extra personnel. This year, the three rangers have been joined by field biologists from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic and Studies. With the experience and passion the team brought, and the added benefit of having enthusiastic and eager Australian Antarctic Program expeditioners to assist when required, we have achieved a lot – and have had a lot of fun in the process.
As some of the team has already left and the remaining tick off the last of the monitoring tasks, it's time to reflect on our achievements and catch up on the data entry and reporting side of things. Some of the wildlife monitoring field work has included travelling to many parts of the island in search for Southern Giant Petrel chicks, and fur seals along the coast.
Antarctic fur seals learn to swim and socialise in the protected coastal pools
Albatross breeding on the steep coastal slopes were counted, Rockhopper penguins scattered amongst caves and boulders along rugged sections of the wild west coast, rarely visited, were monitored, and Royal penguin colonies photographed for remote counts.
All this occurred alongside other ranger tasks, which included carefully managing educational tourist visitors, long-term flora and coastal monitoring, historic heritage management, marine debris collection and critical ongoing biosecurity.
As the nights seem to be rapidly growing longer and the wildlife departs, we find ourselves left with a mountain of data and photos to sort, tired legs, and a head full of fond memories from what was the 'greatest summer of our lives'.