As I write this, we are drenched. There were lots of warnings this morning about the difficulties of getting onto our next destination – Ducie Island. One piece of information I read said this uninhabited island is ‘sufficiently off the beaten track to avoid the interest of all but the very determined!’ The more we travel along this mammoth trip from Tahiti to Valparaiso the more determined we are to get onto all our proposed destinations.
The warnings given today included: wear tough shoes because this would be a very wet landing from the Zodiac inflatable boats into knee-deep water, prior to walking some yards over rocks. Oh – and did we mention – there will be some swell. A bit nerve-wracking as such warnings do not come lightly from the highly experienced Expedition Team. For once I thought: shall I/shan’t I go? I nearly chose the latter but with thoughts that I shall only have this once-in-a-lifetime chance to get onto this remote land, that had the Expedition Team so excited, I just had to attempt it. And while we waited it started to rain… and rain, and rain.
The fewer numbers than usual who did brave it, managed to land. Particularly helpful was the assistance given by two team members each grabbing one of my arms to ensure I did not fall face first into the ocean. Whoosh, before I knew it, I was off the Zodiac and into knee-deep water – just how those team members keep their balance while trying to stabilise ours, I’ll never know.
Once landed, we removed our rather heavy and wet life jackets and admired the beaches that welcomed us – but not for long. Led by an enthusiastic Expedition Team leader we headed across land to a central lagoon.
But to fill in some detail about Ducie. This is an atoll comprising four islets forming a circle with a lagoon in the centre. The largest (of these very small islets) is Acadia, upon which we landed. The land is impoverished comprising coral rubble and sea shells. Knowing this, one might think that nothing grows, but remarkably it does. Just two plant species survive: the Beach Heliotrope (also known as the octopus bush, photo below) and the Pemphis acidula. There is no soil on this island, the plant roots instead are supported by the dead coral and shell, but fed by water in a similar way to hydroponics.
Ducie has quite some history, being discovered by a Spanish expedition in 1606 who named it Luna Puesta. It was later visited in 1791 by the HMS Pandora, captained by Edward Edwards, who had been sent from Britain to arrest the Bounty mutineers. He named the island in honour of the 3rd Baron Ducie, Francis Reynolds-Moreton, under whom he had served. It has a chequered history of governance, but in 2010 a new constitution was established that Ducie and the remainder of the Pitcairn Islands would be ruled by a governor designated by the British monarch, hence it is a British Overseas Territory.
Also part of its history is the wreck of the ship Acadia which ran aground in 1881, fortunately without the loss of lives. It is said that on occasions parts of the wreck can still be seen.
In 1989 divers discovered the wreckage and the following year a major expedition to recover its huge anchor took place involving the leading bird man on our ship, Peter Harrison. This turned out to be a major undertaking. The anchor was originally in 20 metres of water, but dragging the mighty beast to its destination on Pitcairn Island resulted in the anchor being dropped, by that stage in 120 metres of water. It eventually got to its resting place, now overlooking the harbour on Pitcairn Island. Moving it up to its very steep final destination on Pitcairn was a feat in itself and took much manpower to achieve.
So back to our activities. Our walk took us from the shore to the central lagoon. This involved walking through vegetation, ducking from the overhead octopus bush branches, while continually watching where we trod. This was not only because underfoot was extremely uneven and loose, but because there are an estimated minimum 500,000 ground nesting seabirds here which are so well camouflaged that it is easy to step on them.
We tip-toed across the land, with all trekkers saying to one another frequently words to the effect of: “Oops, don’t step back, there is a chick behind you,” or “Ooh, look at that little one, it can hardly be seen”. Camouflage at its finest!
Most of the birds we saw nesting were the Murphy’s petrel, of which we must have seen hundreds, many drenched in the rain. This is considered one of the largest colonies of the bird in the world. This Petrel (Pterodroma Ultima) has a wingspan of 35 inches and was described by ornithologist Robert Cushman Murphy in 1949, from which the seabird gained its name.
There was also the beautiful red-tailed tropicbird with its eye-catching bright white body with black flecks when young (pictured below), the masked booby, white terns and great frigatebirds.
Ducie Island is one of the bird breeding success sites. In 1997 a rat eradication programme was undertaken resulting in the elimination of all the rats. Until that time the bird eggs were eaten, and any chicks that did survive did not live more than five days. If this low lying island becomes submerged, as it is predicted to do as water levels rise, the only nearby land for the nesting birds will be Henderson Island, currently rat infested which is why there is a fundraising programme to undertake further rat baiting in 2023/2024.
Studies on the island in the 1990s found a variety of crustaceans including hermit crabs, some of which had not been identified at the time; more than 80 species of molluscs; starfishes, sea urchins and sea cucumbers; and 127 species of reef fishes.
During our walk I spotted a beetle. I asked how that might have arrived at this remote island. One plausible suggestion was that it could have travelled on a piece of drifting wood. To my upset I did not get a photo, although I tried. The beetle scrambled into a shell which I picked up so as to photograph for identification. But the little critter managed to find a shell with a broken base. When I got it to a clearing to take the photograph, it had escaped. To think, it might have been a species that had not be recorded before!
During our voyage we had many discussions of an ecological nature and with it the perils of plastic waste. This island did not have too much plastic (although any is too much, of course). It is not dropped by visitors to the island, but drifts in the sea and is washed ashore. Particularly evident was plastic from fishing sources. Of concern is that some birds gather brightly-coloured pieces for their nests. One piece we found on the shoreline was a clear-coloured straw. Our bird man Peter explained that items such as this are pecked by the birds and then fed to their young who cannot, of course, digest them. Seeing this close up brings to life the dreadful problem of plastic litter. People do occasionally visit these islands to litter-pick.
We then headed back to our inflatable crafts and our awaiting small ship, but not before another soaking! It was worth it, however. Ducie is described as an exceptionally undisturbed atoll and ‘sufficiently off the beaten track to avoid the interest of all bar the very determined’. That’s us!
Copyright: Words and photographs Sue Barnard 2022