The Perth coastline is bustling, even midweek. Jetskis and fishing boats create scooping white lines of wake across the flat surface of the ocean. Snorkellers and young families dot the shallows, surfers wait beyond the breaking waves. The sky is bright and cloudless, a hot day for the end of March.

The smoky outline of Rottnest Island is just visible on the horizon, two lighthouses peeping out of the sea mist. Nearly 4000 kilometres beyond it, sits another group of islands. Smaller, but vastly wilder. The last frontier between Western Australia and Antarctica.

Heard Island and McDonald Islands

The Heard and McDonald island group is home to a plethora of marine life, as well as an active volcano taller than mainland Australia’s highest peak, Mount Kosciusko.

Fiona Maxwell, Oceans Campaign Manager for Save Our Marine Life, says the islands are overlooked in their importance to understanding the Southern Ocean and the life it supports.

“Heard and McDonald Islands, and the waters surrounding those islands, are globally significant for their conservation values,” she says. “And they’re Australian.”

Ms Maxwell says all Australian ocean territories need to be protected, even sub-Antarctic regions like the Heard and McDonald Islands that are far from the mainland.  

The islands remained undiscovered until 1853, almost a century after the discovery of the neighbouring French territory of Iles Kerguelen, due to their location in a section of the Southern Ocean nicknamed the ‘furious 50s.’ According to the Australian Antarctic Division, consistently harsh conditions contributed to the islands’ late discovery and their lack of human disturbance in the centuries since.

The islands are surrounded by a marine reserve, established in 2002. Ms Maxwell says continuing to review ocean sanctuaries is integral to supporting marine life populations.

“Those sanctuaries were world-leading at the time but over the years, as our understanding of the value of those waters and also the pressures that are on them grows, they need to change over time,” she says.

In preparation for the Australian Government’s upcoming 10-year review of the marine protected area surrounding Heard and McDonald islands, the Australian Marine Conservation Society released a new report on the islands’ marine ecosystems and the state of their protection.

“The science says that we need to put in place better sanctuaries to help this marine life survive and thrive into the future. What we’re doing with Heard and McDonald Islands is making sure that we provide the right amount of protection in the right parts of the area,” Ms Maxwell says of the new information released.

Two of the scientists behind the report, which was launched in Parliament on March 27, are Dr Ian Creswell and Dr Andrew Constable. They both agree it’s the uniqueness and wildness of the islands’ ecosystems that make them worth protecting.

“This is one of the last truly wild parts of the planet. It’s particularly important that we try and maintain that,” Dr Creswell says.

The 2024 report focussed on analysing multiple aspects of the island system’s ecosystem to determine whether the current Marine Protected Area remains adequate.

Report author Dr Andrew Constable says: “We were able to come up with key conservation areas and then look at whether these areas are actually inside the current protected area.”

Undeniable threat

Dr Constable has been studying the Heard and McDonald Island group for more than 20 years and has seen it change over the course of time. He says climate change is an ever-growing factor impacting the islands’ ecosystems.

Dr Creswell adds, “We’re definitely seeing a rise in temperatures, which could lead to a loss of species.”

Dr Constable explains that sea temperatures rising by one or even half a degree may seem inconsequential, but for animals adapted to cold waters, half a degree warmer every year can be catastrophic. Recommendations in the new report suggest expanding the marine reserve, protecting areas important for the island’s ability to survive the effects of climate change.

Dr Constable says, “Our analysis looked at where climate change was already having an impact, and which areas were likely to be most important for maximising resilience.”

Analysing the resilience of certain areas helped Dr Constable’s team decide where was most important to protect by limiting human pressures, like commercial fishing.

Fishing in Australian sub-Antarctic territories focusses mainly on Patagonian toothfish and mackerel icefish. Data from the 2021 State of the Environment Report shows the haul of Patagonian toothfish in Australian territories was on the rise in 2020. The new AMCS report states in the 2020-21 season, four license holders operating fisheries reported hauling the total catch allowance of 3000 tonnes of toothfish and 400 tonnes of mackerel icefish.

Bycatch is another issue outlined in the new report: it is the accidental haul-in of untargeted species including protected fish and occasionally birdlife. Data from the 2024 report shows that bycatch puts both Patagonian toothfish and mackerel icefish over the prescribed catch limit.

“They used to catch huge numbers of seabirds, they hardly kill a seabird anymore. So they’re mitigating some threats to the system, but there still is bycatch,” Dr Creswell says.

He says despite decreases, there is still damage to other species, particularly bottom feeders like skates.

Dr Constable also notes that these unnecessary catches only increase pressure on the islands’ ecosystems and biodiversity.

Government and goals

One of Australia’s environmental goals, backed by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, is to have a nationally representative system of marine reserves to preserve marine ecosystems long-term. The review of the Heard and McDonald Islands protected area, Dr Creswell says, is an important part of keeping marine reserves adequate and comprehensive.

“Having a system of protected areas where you’re not exploiting the ecosystem but protecting it, is the best safeguard to ensuring that species and ecosystems are able to maintain their integrity and their resilience to change,” he says.

The new Heard and McDonald Islands report was launched in Parliament House on March 27, ahead of the official government review of the Heard and McDonald Islands protection area. The goal of taking the report to Parliament, Dr Constable says, was to open channels of communication between policy-makers and scientists.

“It enables parliamentarians to interact with scientists about the data in the report. It’s very good to have that dialogue, because you don’t necessarily include every bit of information in the report, so that face-to-face dialogue with scientists is very important,” he says.

Dr Creswell says he has confidence in Australian politicians’ ability to see beyond party stances and politics to understand the importance of protecting Australia’s natural environment.

“I was quite impressed that we had a diversity of different politicians that came to the launch. It was good to see what I’d call a cross-section of interest that’s not party-related. It’s actually about what’s important to Australia, so that to me is the best outcome. This isn’t a political issue at all, this is about Australia and protecting those areas that we have custodianship over.”

Ms Maxwell agrees. She says says protecting Antarctic regions often feels like a hopeless case because of the difficulty of multi-country governance and the geo-political factors that impede environmental discussions. However, she says it’s important to protect what is ours, to safeguard Australia’s and the world’s ecological future.

“That’s why it’s so important that Australia increases protection for our waters in the Southern Ocean, because it can show the rest of the world that we will continue to do what we can to protect our incredible Southern Ocean marine life,” she says. “While it’s important to continue progress in Antarctica, we will make sure we do what we can in our own backyard.”