Henderson Island Expedition Summary
24th June 2019
On 8th June (World Ocean Day) a multidisciplinary team arrived on Henderson Island – one of four islands making up the Pitcairn Archipelago – to undertake a two-week research expedition. Although the 42.7 km2 uninhabited island sits thousands of kilometres from the nearest continental landmass and is part of the Pitcairn Island Marine Reserve – over 830,000km2 of fully protected ocean – a 2017 study by Lavers and Bond found that its East Beach was the most densely polluted beach on the planet.
The overarching objective of this 2019 expedition – driven by the Pitcairn Island community and coordinated by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in collaboration with the Pew Trusts – was to study the estimated 10 tonnes of pollution on East Beach and the beautiful ecological hotspot on which it is deposited – so to shine a light on the issue of global ocean pollution and on the beauty and drawer of the Pitcairn Island Marine Reserve.
An immediate and tangible deliverable of the project was a beach clean of the 2.25km East Beach. However impactful this achievement appeared to be – there was an acknowledgement from the outset that the same volume of pollution would likely return to the beach within five years (Lavers and Bond 2017). A key goal moving forward is to amplify this message, in the hope that individuals, businesses and policy makers might begin to make changes, both incremental and wholesale, so that in the future, plastic and other materials will not find their way onto Henderson, a World Heritage Site.
Here is a summary of the work undertaken on Henderson, of the immediate findings and of proposed next steps.
Science
Jennifer Lavers (University of Tasmania) and Alex Bond (Natural History Museum, UK)
Jennifer and Alex sought to build on their previous 2015 fieldwork and focussed predominantly on seabirds and plastics.
Working in collaboration with the beach clean-team, over 500m of high-resolution data was collected on the materials washed up on East Beach using the Tangaroa Blue Foundation methodology. This technique, on East Beach targeting materials which were bottle top sized or bigger, recorded material type (e.g., rope, hard plastic fragments), number, weight, origin and provenance – and allows the team to categorise the materials deposited on Henderson.
Jennifer and Alex sampled feathers from 10 Masked Boobies, five male and five female. The samples will be analysed for genetics and contaminants to give an indication of the interaction between the birds and pollutants and will be combined with data from other sites to look at patterns across the species’ range.
The team also sampled the feathers and blood of 12 Murphy’s Petrels which will be analysed for contaminants as follow up to work undertaken in 2015. The samples will also be stored to allow future analysis on genetics.
Daily Jennifer and Alex measured soil temperature, moisture, thermal resistance and other physical properties of sand from five sites along East Beach. The objective is to evaluate the relationship between these metrics and the amount of plastic debris on the surface. The team also studied micro and nano-plastics from 5cm depth. This work carries important biological implications. East Beach is a nesting ground for Green Turtles and the hatching success of eggs (and the sex of those hatchlings) is dependent on the physical properties of the sand.
Work was also undertaken to evaluate the size distribution of debris (macro, micro, and nano- sized). Initial findings suggest over 2000 items per m2.
Once per day Jennifer and Alex analysed daily accumulation rates of pollution on East Beach – by searching a 10m section after each high-tide. This will allow them to evaluate how many items arrive per day and will build on previous work from 2015. A clear observation from all on East Beach was that large items arrive daily. At least three FADS arrived on the beach over the two- week period that the team was present.
The threat posed to hermit crabs by bottles and containers was evaluated – via a survey for hazardous containers across the beach, and in 20 quadrats located in the beach-back vegetation. Ultimately, over 1500 crabs were collected and measured. The work will be linked with other analysis carried out on tropical islands.
The output from the science team will be via peer reviewed publications (and associated press) – likely published within 3-12 months.
Simeon Archer-Rand (Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science - CEFAS)
Simeon undertook work to feed into the UK Government’s Blue Belt program and his objectives were three-fold:
1. Undertakebiodiversitymapping
Underwater camera videos and images were collected from 35 locations around the north and northwest of Henderson Island. These ranged from a depth of 1 m to >90 m. Over 4,000 images of the seabed were taken across the survey. The images will be returned to the UK for analyses looking at substrate and biota. The results will then feed into a seabed habitat model for the northern part of the island.
Single beam echo sounder data was also collected across the north, north west and east of the island. Along with the spot depths which can feed into new charts for the island these will also feed into a satellite derived bathymetry model which will allow other metrics to be derived such as roughness, bathymetric position index and slope.
2. Study seabed litter
Seabed video and still images will be analysed for seabed litter. Occurrences of litter will be logged along with the substrate type and depth. Results will feed into a model of the litter movements around the island and help to look at the ultimate fate of subtidal litter.
3. Analyse micro-plastics on East Beach
Simeon was unable to sample the sub-tidal zone of East Beach due to weather conditions. However, a corer was used to take samples of the first 5cm of sand from 24 locations on East Beach.
Samples will be returned to the UK and analysed for plastics which are smaller than 5 mm. The methodology will be to use Nile Red solution to stain the plastics so that they are visible under UV light which makes them fluoresce. This allows counting and sorting of particles.
All Sim’s work will be made publicly available on the CEFAS datahub and the UK Government website, likely by the end of 2019.
Beach clean-up
Brett Howell (Howell Conservation Fund), James Beard (Valpak), Robin Shackell (Pitcairn Deputy Governor) and Johnny Briggs (Pew Trusts)
An inability to land on East Beach with a RIB due to prevailing winds and swell posed a significant problem for the clean-up team (and the expedition in general). It was necessary to cut a path from North Beach and to travel to East Beach over the plateaux each day on foot (over 100km was walked in total). This allowed 11 days to clear the 2.25km East Beach of items which were bottle top sized or bigger. With occasional assistance from other members of the expedition team, the clean-up team completed the task of clearing East Beach of these ‘large’ items on the final day. The team alternated between days on which the Tangaroa methodology was applied (see the above science section) and days which data collected encompassed weight, a break-down between key materials and the distance of the beach cleaned.
The team collected 6 tonnes of waste from East Beach in total. Key materials by weight were:
Fishing buoys - 1200 of them – making up approximately 40% of total weight
Rope and fishing nets (approximately 20% of total weight)
Rigid plastics (approximately 35% of weight)
A proportion of the rigid plastics were made up of fishing crates, meaning that it would be fair to state that over 60% of the waste collected, by mass, appears to be associated with the fishing industry.
Approximately a dozen fishing aggregation devices (FADs) were identified on East Beach – some of which washed up whilst the clean-up was undertaken. Pew sanctioned a piece of work which calculated that 121,000 FADs are released by the fishing sector to aggregate target species per year. Washing up on Henderson these FADs are not necessarily an indication of IUU in the MPA. But it is a pollution issue which warrants additional analysis – especially because ownership of FADs is sometimes possible to ascertain via unique IDs. Work is ongoing to analyse feasibility of prosecution.
The team separated items with a bar code and wording – so that an evaluation could ultimately be made of provenance and company source. Only approximately 25 items with barcodes were found. Mandy will analyse these items and feed-back with the exact figures of items found within two weeks.
Due to adverse weather conditions it was not safe to remove collected waste from East Beach. The team has separated materials into sacks of rigid plastics, buoys, rope, PET and glass and a key next step is to partner with the Pitcairn community to remove these materials when conditions permit. In the short-term approximately a quarter of a tonne of rigid plastics have been removed from East Beach and transported to Pitcairn. These will be processed on island before being transported internationally for incorporation in roof tiling. If this concept can be demonstrated using ocean plastics it allows for fantastic publicity for the project and for Pitcairn. In the longer-term the hope is that materials collected from Pitcairn can be directly reused by the Pitcairn community. Fishing buoys could be utilised by the developing Pitcairn hydroponics industry and rigid plastics could perhaps be shredded and incorporated within building materials – if the concept is practically and environmentally feasible upon Pitcairn. New technologies are coming online to support such an effort on small isolated islands.
The clean-up team installed four cameras on Henderson East Beach – one solar powered satellite camera (in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London - ZSL) which will provide a daily image via satellite and three back-up cameras with SD cards and batteries, which will require annual maintenance. The reasoning is to chronicle the litter returning to Pitcairn on a daily basis – generating highly impactful time-lapses intended to influence behaviour.
Art
Mandy Barker
Mandy has gained international recognition photographing marine plastic debris in world locations for the past 10 years by generating highly impactful art to raise awareness of the plastic issue, with the aim to alter public perception and behaviour, ultimately leading to change.
Mandy worked tirelessly on east beach documenting all the different types of plastic objects recovered, whilst at the same time recording bar codes, text and logos that appeared on the plastic pieces.
Her intention is to create several SOUP style images similar to her previous work, but more importantly create images following a new creative direction specific to Henderson. Having created a unique film camera, which is the only one of its kind in the world, which will reflect her working process in parallel with the location of Henderson island itself.
Initial outputs are to encompass publications in key global magazines and journals. In the following months the work will plan to be exhibited alongside a publication of the work.
Video and Images
Jon Slayer (Force Blue) and Luke Hosty (Protect Blue)
Jon and Luke, the dive-team, had dual objectives. The first was to document and ultimately tell the story of the expedition – it’s goals, challenges and deliverables - via a series of interviews combined with aerial drone, terrestrial and underwater video and still footage. Their second crucial goal was to generate beautiful and impactful video and photography content to shine a light on the biological wonder of the Pitcairn Islands archipelago. Specifically, the world renowned 830,000km2 fully protected MPA. This will act to amplify the marine conservation achievements of the Pitcairn Island community and the need to protect the biological hotspots of the ocean within large, fully protected reserves.
Their work encompassed 23 dives, which covered North, East and West side of Henderson Island (20 dives 20 hours underwater) and the South side of Pitcairn Island (3 dives 3 hours underwater). All dives were carried out between 25 – 5 meters depth. They found a diversity of seascapes and each side of the island had its unique characteristics. The East side of Henderson was characterised by 100% coral cover, with prolific, healthy coral formations. The North was a uniform slope with numerous, individual branching corals, interspersed with macro algae and coraline algae. The Western side was a steep and pronounced spur and groove system, indicating a high wave-energy environment, with sandy gullies and rocky spurs covered with assemblages of various corals and macro algae.
Pitcairn was dominated by volcanic rock formations and large boulders, with covering growths of macro algae, interspersed with various encrusting corals.
At all sites prolific fish were encountered with a few sightings of individual shark and green turtle.
Next steps are to produce an overview short documentary film of the Henderson Island Expedition 2019, a Short Film of Pitcairn Islands MPA, an ocean advocate video of each expedition team member, Pitcairn Island Tourism content (Co-ordinate with Heather) and a short film covering Mandy Barkers work.
Additional outputs include:
Google Street View before and after the East Beach plastic clean up and a general update of the Henderson Island and Pitcairn Island Street Views captured in 2013.
Producing 360 VR content of the underwater environment of the Marine Reserve and underwater Street Views.
Jon and Luke’s photos and videos will be made available to the whole team and the Pitcairn community.
Journalism
Andrea Vance and Iain McGregor (Stuff)
Andrea is an internationally acclaimed reporter and Iain an award-winning photojournalist. Their goal on the expedition was to comprehensively capture the story of the participants – their goals, the hardship they faced, planned outputs and long-term aspirations tied to the project. They went about their work via a series of interviews, by embedding within teams and by capturing stunning imagery via video, drone and still photography. Ultimately, the produced work will serve to raise awareness about the problem of marine plastic debris.
Stuff will produce an immediate news story with photos and video in the week following the journalist’s return. A more comprehensive ‘shorthand’ piece, heavily focused on photography and video content will run towards the end of July. In the weeks following that we will also publish another ‘shorthand’ piece on the Pitcairn Islanders.
Explorers Club
Due to the dedication of Brett Howell prior to the expedition – the 2019 Henderson project was selected to be a formally recognized “expedition” of The Explorers Club with Flag #97! Only 850 explorers have ever carried a flag and there are only 222 flags – this means that our expedition is on par with famous missions to the Moon and to the depths of the ocean.
The Explorers Club is a New York City, USA based international organization that dates back to 1904 with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. As a next step, Brett and Johnny will draft and submit an expedition report to the Explorers Club, which will be published on their website.
Pitcairn Island Presentation
The team interacted with the Pitcairn Island community on the way to Henderson and on our return. During the return visit, Johnny Briggs led a meeting for the community, feeding back on findings and next steps. The feedback was extremely positive – specifically Pew’s ongoing community engagement and support
Sponsors
Every member of the team contributed significant resource to help plan, coordinate and deliver the expedition. It is also recognised that specific individuals and institutions made financial donations to the expedition, without which it could not have taken place These include: Valpak, Toughsheet Environmental, the Pew Trusts, CEFAS, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Blue Belt Team and Pitcairn Island Office), Architectural and Community Planning Inc, the Zoological Society of London, Howell Conservation Fund and Schwab International.
A special thanks to the Pitcairn community and its Mayor Shawn Christian, without their support and ambition the expedition would not have been possible.