Isla Salas y Gomez

March 26th

Arrived at Isla Salas & Gomez at dawn, 8am. There was too much swell to use the zodiacs and so the ship circumnavigated the island 3 times: lots of boobies, Christmas sheer waters, terns, etc.

 

Isla Salas y Gomez is the tip of an underwater mountain range some 390 kilometres east-northeast of Easter Island. Although the small island of 0.15 square kilometres was never inhabited, it was known to Easter Islanders as the site of Hau Maka, their Creator God. The Isla Smodern name refers to the two Spanish explorers who either discovered (Salas) or first visited it (Gomez) in the late 18th and early 19th century.

The inhospitable rocky shore makes landings extremely difficult. The highest elevation is 30 meters above sea level, yet the Chilean Navy has built a small lighthouse to warn seafarers of its existence. Several bird species have made Sala y Gomez their home and among the Christmas Shearwater, Masked Boobies, and Brown Noddies the Sooty Terns and Great Frigatebirds are of special interest -they are the two bird species relating to the birdman ceremonies on Easter Island. In 2010 the Chilean government created the Salas y Gomez Marine Park, which in 2018 was joined with the Marine and Coastal Protected Area of Easter Island to form one of the largest no-take marine reserves in the Pacific.

Isla Salas y Gómez is located 3,210 km west of the Chilean mainland, 2,490 km west of Chile's Desventuradas Islands, 3,226 km south of the Galápagos Islands and 391 km east-northeast of Easter Island, the closest landmass. Salas y Gómez consists of two rocks, a smaller one in the west measuring 4 hectares in area (270 meters north–south, 200 meters east–west), and a larger one in the east measuring 11 ha (500 meters north–south, 270 meters east–west), which are connected by a narrow isthmus in the north, averaging approximately 30 meters in width. The total area is approximately 15 hectares (0.15 km2), and the total length northwest–southeast is 770 meters. Its highest point, 30 meters above sea level, is in the south of the eastern rock, less than 30 meters from the shore, above a 10 meter high cliff. The highest elevation on the western rock is 26 meters.

The island is showered with saltwater, and the shoreline is dotted with countless tidepools. Because the shoreline consists primarily of cliffs, landing on the island is difficult in all but the calmest of conditions. There are no permanent sources of freshwater on the island, but there is an intermittent rainwater pool in a depression on the eastern rock, which often forms a cache of freshwater 75 meters in diameter. This is essential for the survival of the large population of seabirds. Even when this area appears dry at the surface, the sand is still moist just a few inches below the surface. This flat sandy area is also the only place on the island suitable for landing helicopters.In 1994, the Chilean Navy installed an automated beacon and a tsunami warning system. The island has since been declared a nature sanctuary.

 

Lea gave a talk on the Depths of the ocean, what wildlife there was at different  depth, and how deep people had dived, damaging their health!!. Went up on deck for lunch and found it deserted, as there had been a couple of sharp showers. So we had lunch there all by ourselves. Afternoon talks were one by Mila on Easter Island archaeology: she had done her thesis on the obsidian tools, haha. And a most boring talk by Jamie on Ocean Deserts.  Ate in the restaurant