The Claymore II offshore Henderson Island waiting to take me home. (R. Adam)
Our man (Andy Schofield) writes:
This was almost the end of my trip, my last morning was spent on Henderson Island before I had to get back on the Claymore and then via Mangareva, Tahiti, Los Angeles and London I would finally be back at home. A journey of nearly 16,000km that would take me nearly a week! I was sad to be leaving such an unbelievably amazing place but the thought of getting home was now turning into 'me getting quite excited'.
Pitcairn and Henderson Islands are truly 'paradise' places with some tremendous wildlife and some genuinely lovely people (on inhabited Pitcairn) but amazingly the one thing that really sticks in my mind is the rubbish. It is a true slap in the face moment when you go to somewhere like Henderson Island, 1000’s of KM from anywhere, literally the middle of nowhere and the debris of plastic, fishing paraphernalia, shoes, hardhats, pallets, plastic and glass bottles, kids' toys and anything else you can possibly imagine is there spread out on the beach in front of you! And in some areas several items deep.
Debris washed ashore on East Beach, Henderson Island (T. Proud)
It wasn’t the impression of a South Pacific paradise that I hoped would be etched into my mind. I have no doubt that discarded plastic will soon be a huge conservation issue, especially with regards to fish and seabirds. We can see it already affecting seabirds such as Northern Fulmar here in the UK and its impacts upon the breeding success of Laysan Albatross on Midway as chicks starve due to their gut being full of indigestible material, they sadly pass away and decay, leaving behind piles of plastic lighters, golf balls, toy soldiers and a myriad of other items in their place in the long abandoned nests.
Decayed Albatross chick on its nest revealing the myriad of plastic fragments inside it. (A. Schofield)
On a more positive note it was great to know that I had left behind on Henderson Island the RSPB’s latest research team to carry on the investigative research into the issues of invasive rats and plants and how this affects Henderson’s native flora and fauna. Two teams will be based there for three months each and will hopefully establish a better understanding of Henderson’s ecology; you can read part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the Henderson Island science expedition here. Part 4 will be coming soon.
Henderson research team (L-R, Lorna, Jen, Angus, Alice, Sue and Pawl from Pitcairn and Steffen) (A. Schofield)
I wish them luck and a safe expedition but for me it’s home time.
"Where next?", you might ask. Well, I’ll be based back at The Lodge for the forthcoming two months and then I’ll be off to visit another UK Overseas Territory I’m heavily involved with - Tristan da Cunha! The most remote and isolated community on earth in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, Penguins and Albatrosses galore (I hope) and undoubtedly it won’t be as warm and sunny as it is as I leave the Pacific, but not an island group without its fair share of challenges and you will be able to read all about it here soon.
But for now 'that’s Pitcairn out'.
My last evening aboard The Claymore II, surrounded by the purple and blue South Pacific as Herald and Murphy’s Petrels escort us back to French Polynesia. (A.Schofield)
We've been working with the UK's amazing Overseas Territories for almost 20 years, but are still only scratching the surface of understanding their wonderful wildlife. One of the most remote and little known Territory environments is found in the Pitcairn Islands, the last remaining British Territory in the Pacific. Home to the extremely friendly descendants of the Mutiny on the Bounty, the Territory is made up of one inhabited island (Pitcairn) and three uninhabited ones.
We have a longstanding programme underway to restore one of these off-islands (Henderson Island World Heritage Site), but were conscious that the environment of Pitcairn itself is in many ways less studied than that of its uninhabited neighbours. Staff members have spent ten days on Pitcairn in consultation with the local community in 2010 and 2012, but as far as we are aware almost no general terrestrial conservationists have spent more than a week or two on the island. No-one therefore really has any idea how big or threatened the population of the unique local bird, the Pitcairn reed-warbler is; several of the island's unique plant species may be down to just a few individuals, and what invertebrate species exist on this fertile volcanic pinnacle is an almost untouched world still awaiting exploration and discovery.
We therefore sent our new Overseas Territories Officer, Andy Schofield, to Pitcairn for three months to work alongside the Pitcairners and try to answer some of these questions and we hope you've enjoyed the series of blogs!