South Pacific: Alexander Selkirk Island, Juan Fernández archipelago, Chile – just how much more can we discover?

“I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more,” as the Proclaimers and many others have sung since the 1980s. But I would sail 1530 nautical miles (about 1800 miles) from Easter Island to Alexander Selkirk Island to experience what we did today!

Alexander Selkirk Island (previously named Más Afuera) is part of the Juan Fernández archipelago, which also includes the Robinson Crusoe and Santa Clara islands.

Isla Alejandro Selkirk (as it is known to Chileans) is around 400 miles off the coast of Chile. It is just 7 miles long by 4 miles wide and is visually outstanding with its sharp volcanic peaks reaching up 5,500 feet above sea level. These peaks are most often covered in cloud, providing dampness which enables grass and some trees to grow. There is a small sandy landing point on the east side of the island.

Unfortunately we were prohibited from landing – and for good reason. There are a few Chilean people who live on the island during the lobster fishing season. These are mainly the lobster fishermen and their families. Medical support is limited and there isn’t a hospital. Consequently, if the residents caught any illnesses from curious and (let’s be honest) few tourists, especially in these times of Covid, this could have devastating effects.

Instead, never to be put off, we departed our ship and sailed around part of the island in our Zodiacs, which gave us sufficient insight of the inhospitable, as well as interesting, conditions.

But, before I expand on these, a little about the history. The Juan Fernández archipelago was discovered in the 1550s by Spanish navigator named (unsurprisingly) Juan Fernández. He received a grant to live in the archipelago and with this he stocked the islands with goats and pigs. He stayed for some years and when he left other visitors were rare because of the remoteness and difficult land.

Now, in case you are wondering who was Alexander Selkirk after whom the island is named, this is where it gets tricky. Stick with me on this. Selkirk was not of Chilean descent, but a Scottish buccaneer of the 1700s. What might be found puzzling is that he never came onto this island. Instead, he was marooned on the nearby Más a Tierra, which in 1966 was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island. “But why?”, I hear you ask. 

It was thought that Daniel Defoe based the character in his book of the same name on Alexander Selkirk. “But why?”, I hear you ask again. Well you will have to wait for the explanation in the next posting as we will soon be heading to Robinson Crusoe Island. 

What I can say, however, is that the reason Más Afuera became Alexander Selkirk Island, and Más a Tierra became Robinson Crusoe Island was that the Chileans decided in 1966 that a renaming of the islands would attract tourism. Ironic really when we were not given permission to land as tourists onto Alexander Selkirk island. 

So with that totally clear, onto our visit. The archipelago is an ecoregion (defined as such for its natural features). It has a very large amount of rare and endemic sea life, birds and plants.

Studies involving more than 200 hours of diving, plus drone flying, discovered how vast and important this region is. Thousands of urchins were seen around Alexander Selkirk Island, plus yellowtail jack fish, moray eels, 12 species of crab, starfish and two rare species of shark – the shorten mako and blue shark.

Research has discovered 285 native plant species in the archipelago, almost half are endemic. The trees that do exist tend to be tree ferns.

Amongst the birdlife are the pink-footed shearwater and two petrel seabird species – the Stejneger’s and Juan Fernández. Both are considered vulnerable and are the only known breeding populations in the world.

Also found in the region have been the endemic Juan Fernández fur seals. Some sources claim a census in 1797 estimated there was up to three million fur seals in the archipelago. However, numbers were devastated later due to pelt, blubber and meat hunting. It was not until 1965 that this seal species was rediscovered and since, due to marine protection, has grown significantly in numbers but not to the levels of the past.

Today, much of the fishing in the area is restricted and this includes the lobster, which is the main source of revenue for the local people. But, while much is being done to protect these waters, something that is difficult to hold back is the infiltration of microplastics. As if it is not bad enough that we see plastics in our ocean, the microplastics cannot be seen with the naked eye. Even in what looks like a pristine environment, research in these waters has found concerning levels of microplastics.

So on to our trip on the Zodiacs. This was around parts of the island where we viewed two wrecked ships, endemic seals that sat and looked at us or swam around inquisitively close by, ragged inhospitable cliffs, and local people in their fishing boats. 

However, the absolute highlight for me as our Zodiacs constantly bobbed up and down, and one for which I would have (possibly) walked those 500 miles, was an expected close-up view of an Ancanthaster starfish. These are most unusual and not what one would expect a starfish would look like. It is worth looking up, but from the images it seems there are many different species in a wide range of shapes and colours. Because of the wide variety it was difficult (well impossible) to identify just which my brown version with at least 20 tentacles was, but perhaps, just perhaps, it could have been an unidentified new species! Sadly, I guess I’ll never know, but what an opportunity today’s expedition provided.

Copyright: Words and photos Sue Barnard 2022