Deception Island

Whaling and sealing

Over the next few years, Deception became a focal point of the short-lived fur sealing industry in the South Shetlands; the industry had begun with a handful of ships in the 1819–20 summer season, rising to nearly a hundred in 1821–22. While the island did not have a large seal population, it was a perfect natural harbour, mostly free from ice and winds, and a convenient rendezvous point. It is likely that some men lived ashore in tents or shacks for short periods during the summer, though no archaeological or documentary evidence survives to confirm this. Massive overhunting meant that the fur seals became almost extinct in the South Shetlands within a few years, and the sealing industry collapsed as quickly as it had begun; by around 1825 Deception was again abandoned.^[6]

In 1829, the British Naval Expedition to the South Atlantic under the command of Captain Henry Foster in HMS Chanticleer stopped at Deception. The expedition conducted a topographic survey and scientific experiments, particularly pendulum and magnetic observations.^[9] A watercolour made by Lieutenant Kendall of the Chanticleer during the visit may be the first image made of the island.^[6] A subsequent visit by the American elephant-sealer Ohio in 1842 reported the first recorded volcanic activity, with the southern shore "in flames".^[6]

The second phase of human activity at Deception began in the early twentieth century. In 1904, an active whaling industry was established at South Georgia, taking advantage of new technology and an almost untouched population of whales to make rapid profits. It spread south into the South Shetland Islands, where the lack of shore-based infrastructure meant that the whales had to be towed to moored factory ships for processing; these needed a sheltered anchorage and a plentiful supply of fresh water, both of which could be found at Deception. In 1906, the Norwegian-Chilean whaling company Sociedad Ballenera de Magallanes started using Whalers Bay as a base for a single ship, the Gobernador Bories.^[6]

Other whalers followed, with several hundred men resident at Deception during the Antarctic summers and as many as thirteen ships operating in peak years. In 1908, the British government formally declared the island to be part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies and thus under British control, establishing postal services as well as appointing a magistrate and customs officer for the island. The magistrate was to ensure that whaling companies were paying appropriate licence fees to the Falklands government as well as ensuring adherence to catch quotas. A cemetery was built in 1908, a radio station in 1912, a hand operated railway also in 1912,^[10] and a small permanent magistrate's house in 1914.^[6] The cemetery, by far the largest in Antarctica, held graves for 35 men along with a memorial to 10 more presumed drowned.^[11] These were not the only constructions; as the factory ships of the period were only able to strip the blubber from whales and could not use the carcasses, a permanent on-shore station was established by the Norwegian company Hvalfangerselskabet Hektor A/S in 1912 – it was estimated that up to 40% of the available oil was being wasted by the ship-based system. This was the only successful shore-based industry ever to operate in Antarctica, reaping high profits in its first years.^[6] A number of exploring expeditions visited Deception during these years, including the Wilkins-Hearst expedition of 1928, when a Lockheed Vega was flown from a beach airstrip on the first successful flights in Antarctica.^[6]

The development of pelagic whaling in the 1920s, where factory ships fitted with a slipway could tow aboard entire whales for processing, meant that whaling companies were no longer tied to sheltered anchorages. A boom in pelagic Antarctic whaling followed, with companies now free to ignore quotas and escape the costs of licences. This rapidly led to overproduction of oil and a collapse in the market, and the less profitable and more heavily regulated shore-based companies had trouble competing. In early 1931, the Hektor factory finally ceased operation, ending commercial whaling at the island entirely.^[6]

Scientific research

Deception remained uninhabited for a decade but was revisited in 1941 by the British auxiliary warship HMS Queen of Bermuda, which destroyed the oil tanks and some remaining supplies in order to ensure it could not be used as a German supply base.^[6] In 1942, an Argentinean party aboard the Primero de Mayo visited and left signs and painted flags declaring the site Argentinean territory; the following year, a British party with HMS Carnarvon Castle returned to remove the signs.^[12]

In 1961, Argentina's president Arturo Frondizi visited the island to show his country's interest. Regular visits were made by other countries operating in the Antarctic, including the 1964 visit of the US Coast Guard icebreaker Eastwind, which ran aground inside the harbour.^[13]

However, the volcano returned to activity in the late 1960s, destroying the existing scientific stations. Both British and Chilean stations were demolished, and the island was abandoned for several years. The final major eruption was reported by the Russian Bellingshausen station on King George Island and the Chilean station Arturo Pratt on Greenwich Island; both stations experienced major falls of ash on 13 August 1970.^[14]

Argentine Base Decepción (2016)

In 2000, there were two summer-only scientific stations, the Spanish Gabriel de Castilla Base^[15] and the Argentinian Decepción Station.^[16]

Remains of previous structures at Whalers Bay include rusting boilers and tanks, an aircraft hangar and the British scientific station house (Biscoe House), with the middle torn out by the 1969 mudflows. A bright-orange derelict airplane fuselage, which is that of a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter that belonged to the Royal Air Force, was recovered in 2004. There are plans to restore the airplane and return it to the island.^[16]

The Russian cruise ship MV Lyubov Orlova ran aground at Deception Island on 27 November 2006.^[17] She was towed off by the Spanish Navy icebreaker, Las Palmas and later became a ghost ship in the North Atlantic.

Aguirre Cerda Research Station

President Pedro Aguirre Cerda Station was a Chilean Antarctic base, located at Pendulum Cove in Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, inaugurated in 1955.

Deception Station

Deception Station is an Argentine antarctic base located at Deception Island, South Shetland Islands. The station was founded on January 25, 1948, and was a year-round station until December 1967 when volcanic eruptions forced the evacuation of the base. Since then it is inhabited only during the summer.

Gabriel de Castilla

Gabriel de Castilla Base is a Spanish research station located on Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The station was constructed in 1990.^[18]

Gutiérrez Vargas Refuge

The Gutiérrez Vargas Refuge, so called in memory of the aviation Captain who died on December 30, 1955, was located at 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from Aguirre Cerda Station and was inaugurated on February 12, 1956. Its purpose was to serve as a refuge for the members of the Station in case of fire. On December 4, 1967, the refuge was definitively abandoned, as was the Aguirre Cerda Station, due to a violent volcanic eruption. The remains of the refuge structure can still be seen on the beach where it was located.^[19]

Station B

The island was finally reoccupied in early 1944 by a party of men from Operation Tabarin, a British expedition, who established a permanent scientific base named Station B (62°58′38″S 60°33′50″W / 62.977231°S 60.563809°W / -62.977231; -60.563809)^[20]. This was occupied until 5 December 1967, when an eruption forced a temporary withdrawal. It was used again between 4 December 1968 and 23 February 1969, when further volcanic activity caused it to be abandoned.^[21]

Antarctic Specially Protected Areas

Some 11 terrestrial sites have been collectively designated an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA 140), primarily for their botanic and ecological values, because the island has the greatest number of rare plant species of any place in the Antarctic. This is largely due to frequent volcanic activity creating new substrates for plant colonisation:^[23]

• Collins Point (Site A) contains good examples of long-established vegetation, with high species diversity and several rarities.
• Crater Lake (Site B) has a scoria-covered lava tongue with a diverse cryptogamic flora, and exceptional development of turf-forming mosses.
• An unnamed hill at the southern end of Fumarole Bay (Site C) has several rare species of moss which have colonised the heated soil crust close to a line of volcanic vents.
• Fumarole Bay (Site D) is geologically complex with the most diverse flora on the island.
• West Stonethrow Ridge (Site E) supports several rare mosses, liverworts and lichens.
• Telefon Bay (Site F) has all its surfaces dating from 1967, thus allowing accurate monitoring of colonisation by plants and animals.
• Pendulum Cove (Site G) is another known-age site being colonised by mosses and lichens.
• Mount Pond (Site H) contains exceptional moss, liverwort and lichen communities.
• Perchue Cone (Site J) is an ash and cinder cone with rare mosses.
• Ronald Hill to Kroner Lake (Site K) is another known-age site being colonised by numerous cryptogam species, and with a unique algal community on the lake shore.
• South East Point (Site L) supports the most extensive population of Antarctic pearlwort known in the Antarctic region.

In addition, two marine sites in Port Foster have collectively been designated Antarctic Specially Protected Area 145, to protect their benthic communities.^[24]

Important Bird Area

Baily Head, a prominent headland forming the easternmost extremity of the island, has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a very large breeding colony of chinstrap penguins (100,000 pairs). The 78 ha IBA comprises the ice-free headland and about 800 m of beach on either side of it. Other birds known to nest at the site include brown skuas, Cape petrels and snowy sheathbills.^[25]