In between bouts of wild weather at Heard Island, work continued on land and at sea this week.
Seal biologists walked from Skua Beach to Fairchild Beach, counting fur seal pups at Fairchild - finding more than a thousand pups in total.
The HPAI team have continued wildlife monitoring using drone surveillance and on-island sampling. Targeted surveys of threatened and endemic species have been a high priority for V2, following the confirmed detection of HPAI in southern elephant seals on Heard Island from V1 work.
Conclusive outcomes from the V2 work will not be known until aerial footage and samples collected during V2 have been analysed.
Marine debris was examined and documented, with a pallet of plastic collected and returned to the ship.
Sampling of invertebrates continued, with scientists rapidly acquiring several different species, and a remotely operated underwater vehicle was deployed at multiple sites.
The science tender continued work, retrieving a tide gauge deployed on V1 last year. As a bonus, marine scientists were able to retrieve samples of creatures who'd made a home in the gauge!
Marine science work included the towed camera, midwater and beam trawls, with one particularly big day of operations during the week.
A species of nudibranch was found that was not thought to live in the Heard Island area. Approximately eight species of sea snail were also collected.
Conditions on the island were particularly difficult last weekend, with incredibly high winds. After enduring this, and continuing work where possible, everyone returned to the ship on Sunday.
A weather window on Wednesday allowed all the gear deployed during the voyage, plus debris collected from the island, to be returned to the ship.
On our last night at Heard Island, we had the very rare spectacle of clear skies and a magnificent sunset. Those who stayed up late had the privilege of witnessing a stunning aurora over Big Ben.
Our last day was allocated to the rigorous cleaning of gear, vital to maintaining biosecurity.
Drone and science tender operations continued during the day and at 8pm we started the long journey home.
