Australian Antarctic Program prepares for long-awaited voyage to Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Six science teams are set to touch down on an extremely remote island that’s home to Australia’s only volcano as they embark on an important mission to protect the nation from bird flu.
Australia’s flagship icebreaker, the RSV Nuyina, is set to embark on a long-anticipated research voyage to the “natural laboratory” of one of the nation’s most remote sub-Antarctic territories, where scientists will seek to determine if bird flu has reached the remote volcanic shores.
With the assistance of $17m in funding from the Albanese government, the Australian Antarctic Program will send six science teams to Heard Island and McDonald Islands – located about 5300km south-west of Hobart – where they will spend 10 days looking for signs of H5 bird flu by surveying populations of seabirds and seals.
H5 bird flu is a highly contagious and potentially deadly virus primarily affecting birds but it can also infect other animals and humans in rare cases.
Australia is currently the only continent where the disease is not present.
Researchers will also examine glaciers to learn more about the impacts of climate change on the World Heritage-listed Heard and McDonald Islands, which are home to Australia’s only active volcano, known as Big Ben.
After travelling to the islands, the Nuyina will resupply Australia’s Antarctic research station of Davis with 800,000 litres of fuel and 500 tonnes of food.
It’s the first of two voyages to the sub-Antarctic region planned for this research season.
Ben Patrick, the field leader of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands voyage, said water tank huts would be installed in order to shelter the teams from the Furious Fifties winds that are known to batter the territory.
“We’ve got a range of different scientific focus areas this time – the sea birds, seals, mapping, and glaciology,” he said.
“And interestingly, we’re putting ashore eight satellite reflectors … [that] can be seen from various types of satellite imagery, and we’ll place them around the island so that we can then remotely monitor changes in the shape of the island going forward.”
Dr Julie McInnes, a wildlife ecologist who will be working on sea bird population surveys and searching for signs of bird flu, said there were 19 sea bird and three seal species on Heard Island and McDonald Islands, including two that are endemic.
“What we’re trying to do is actually go and have a look for signs and symptoms of H5 bird flu on the island and if there’s any signs of unusual mortality. If there is, the plan is to collect samples on the island to be able to bring back safely to Australia for subsequent processing,” she said.
Researchers will be protected by personal protective equipment, including masks, gloves, outer shells, and safety glasses.
Dr McInnes said scientists were “hoping for the best but preparing for the worst” when it came to the prospect of bird flu being present on the islands.
Associate Professor Justine Shaw, a conservation scientist with Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, participated in the previous Australian voyage to Heard Island and McDonald Islands and described the territory as “one of the most wild environments that people will ever experience”.
“You’re hit with this island rising out of the wild, pounding Southern Ocean, and it’s covered in ice,” she said.
While climate change is affecting the remote territory just as it’s impacting the rest of the world, Associate Professor Shaw said it was otherwise untouched by human influence and feral animals.
“Heard Island is an amazing natural laboratory. We get to study species on the island without all the other pressures and threats that we see elsewhere in the world,” she said.
Australian Antarctic Division head of division Emma Campbell said this latest voyage would be “really important” and the agency had strict protocols in place to protect researchers from bird flu in the event that it had penetrated wildlife populations on the islands.
“Our expeditioners are trained in how to avoid avian influenza, keeping distance from birds, wearing PPE, and we also have a range of medical facilities, should the worst happen,” she said.
“But we’re really focused on avoiding any exposure for humans and people are well trained on that, both on HIMI, but also throughout our Antarctic stations.”
Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt said other sub-Antarctic islands had fallen prey to bird flu and it was vital that Australia understood whether Heard Island and McDonald Islands had suffered a similar fate.
“Beyond that, there’s other important science to be done by these research expeditions, such as measuring the populations of those threatened species, to also understand what impact climate change is having on glaciers and the marine and land environment in these very remote places,” he said.
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