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==History==
===19th century===
[[Frederick Hasselborough]], an Australian, discovered the uninhabited island on 11 July 1810, while looking for new [[seal hunting|sealing]] grounds.<ref name="aga">{{cite book |title=The Australian Geographic book of Antarctica |last=Scott |first=Keith |year=1993 |publisher=Australian Geographic |location=Terrey Hills, New South Wales |isbn=978-1-86276-010-3 |page=14}}</ref> He claimed Macquarie Island for [[United Kingdom|Britain]] and [[annexation|annexed]] it to the colony of [[New South Wales]] in 1810. The island was named for Colonel [[Lachlan Macquarie]], [[Governor of New South Wales]] from 1810 to 1821. Hasselborough reported a wreck "of ancient design", which has given rise to speculation that the island may have been visited before by [[Polynesians]] or others.<ref name="antarctica.gov.au">[http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/history/stations/macquarie-island Macquarie Island: a brief history — Australian Antarctic Division] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120613095506/http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/history/stations/macquarie-island |date=13 June 2012}}. Antarctica.gov.au. Retrieved on 16 July 2013.</ref> In the same year, Captain Smith described in more detail what is presumably the same wreck: "several pieces of wreck of a large vessel on this Island, apparently very old and high up in the grass, probably the remains of the ship of the unfortunate [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse|De la Perouse]]".<ref>{{cite book |last1=McNab |first1=Robert |title=Murihiku: A History of the South Island of New Zealand and the Islands Adjacent and Lying to the South, from 1642 to 1835 |date=1909 |publisher=Whitcombe and Tombs Limited |location=Wellington |page=176 |url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNMuri-t1-body-d1-d14.html}}</ref>
Between 1810 and 1919, seals and then penguins were hunted for their oil almost to the point of extinction.<ref name="aga" /> Sealers' relics include iron [[try pot]]s, casks, hut ruins, graves and inscriptions. During that time, 144 vessel visits are recorded, 12 of which ended in shipwreck.<ref>R.K. Headland, ''Historical Antarctic sealing industry'', Scott Polar Research Institute (Cambridge University), 2018, p. 167. {{ISBN|978-0-901021-26-7}}, p. 167.</ref> The conditions on the island and the surrounding seas were considered so harsh that a plan to use it as a penal settlement was rejected.<ref name="antarctica.gov.au" />
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Macquarie Island is an exposed portion of the [[Macquarie Fault Zone|Macquarie Ridge]] and is located where the [[Australian Plate]] meets the [[Pacific Plate]]. The island lies close to the edge of the [[submerged continent]] of [[Zealandia]], but is not regarded as a part of it, because the Macquarie Ridge is [[oceanic crust]] rather than [[continental crust]].
It is the only place on Earth where rocks from the [[Earth's mantle]] ({{cvt|6|km|disp=comma}} below the [[seabed|ocean floor]]) are being actively exposed above sea-level. {{citation needed|date=March 2024|reason=Mantle magma is common above sea level eg Iceland and other mantle plume situations-the tetonics here are unique but for slightly different reasons that should be referenced and reworded being mainly related to pure mid ocean ridge basalt above sea level}} These unique exposures include excellent examples of [[Basalt#Pillow basalts|pillow basalts]] without any hint of continental crust contamination
==Climate==
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Mammals found on the island include [[subantarctic fur seal]]s, [[Antarctic fur seal]]s, [[New Zealand fur seal]]s and [[southern elephant seal]]s – over 80,000 individuals of this species. Diversities and distributions of [[cetacean]]s are less known; [[southern right whale]]s<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-working/stations/macquarie-island/this-week-at-macquarie-island/2013/8-november-2013/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812142332/http://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-working/stations/macquarie-island/this-week-at-macquarie-island/2013/8-november-2013/2 |url-status=dead |title=Macca Gallery |archive-date=12 August 2016 |website=www.antarctica.gov.au}}</ref> and [[orca]]s are more common followed by other migratory baleen and toothed whales, especially [[sperm whale|sperm]] and [[beaked whale]]s, which prefer deep waters.<ref>Hoyt E., 2011, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QiEK_7D0e08C&dq=macquarie+island+southern+right+whale&pg=PA377 Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises], p. 377, [[Earthscan]], {{ISBN|9781844077625}}</ref><ref>Selkirk P., Seppelt R., Selkirk D., 1990, Subantarctic Macquarie Island - Environment and Biology (Studies in Polar Research), "Appendix 11: Marine Mammals of Macquarie Island" p. 275, [[Cambridge University Press]], {{ISBN|9780521266338}}</ref> So-called "upland seals" once found on [[Antipodes Islands]] and Macquarie Island have been claimed by some researchers as a distinct subspecies of fur seals with thicker furs, although it is unclear whether these seals were genetically distinct.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/03014223.1994.9517473 |volume=24 |issue=3 |title="The upland seal" of the Antipodes and Macquarie Islands: A historian's perspective |year=1994 |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand |pages=289–295 |last1=Richards |first1=Rhys|doi-access=free |bibcode=1994JRSNZ..24..289R }}</ref>
[[Royal penguin]]s and [[Macquarie shag]]s are [[endemism|endemic]] breeders, while [[king penguin]]s, [[southern rockhopper penguin]]s and [[gentoo penguin]]s also breed here in large numbers. The island has been identified by [[BirdLife International]] as an [[Important Bird Area]] because it supports about 3.5 million breeding seabirds of 13 species.<ref>BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Macquarie Island. [http://www.birdlife.org] {{webarchive
===Ecological balance and ongoing threats===
The island ecology was affected by the onset of European visits in 1810. The island's [[fur seal]]s, [[elephant seal]]s and [[penguin]]s were killed for fur and blubber. Rats and mice that were inadvertently introduced from the ships prospered due to lack of predators. Cats were subsequently introduced deliberately to keep them from eating human food stores. In about 1870, rabbits and a species of New Zealand [[Rail (bird)|rail]] ([[weka]]s) were left on the island by sealers to breed for food.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/?base=12997#History |title=Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project |last=Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania |date=14 July 2015 |access-date=28 February 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316005850/http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/?base=12997#History |archive-date=16 March 2017}}</ref> This caused huge damage to the local wildlife, including the extinction of the [[Macquarie Island rail]] (''Gallirallus macquariensis''), the [[Macquarie parakeet]] (''Cyanoramphus erythrotis''), and an as-yet-undescribed species of teal. By the 1970s, 130,000 rabbits were causing tremendous damage to vegetation.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/jan/13/macquarie-cats-conservation Macquarie Island faces 'ecosystem meltdown' after conservation efforts backfire] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202004522/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/jan/13/macquarie-cats-conservation |date=2 February 2017}}. [[The Guardian]]. accessed on 12 January 2009.</ref>
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Research by Australian Antarctic Division scientists, published in the 13 January 2009 issue of the [[British Ecological Society]]'s ''[[Journal of Applied Ecology]]'', suggested that the success of the feral cat eradication program has allowed the rabbit population to increase, damaging the Macquarie Island ecosystem by altering significant areas of island vegetation.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2009/lessons-learned-from-devastating-effects-of-cat-eradication-on-macquarie-island |title=Lessons learned from devastating effects of cat eradication on Macquarie Island |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714181853/http://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2009/lessons-learned-from-devastating-effects-of-cat-eradication-on-macquarie-island |archive-date=14 July 2014}}</ref> However, in a comment published in the same journal other scientists argued that a number of factors (primarily a reduction in the use of the [[Myxoma virus]]) were almost certainly involved and the absence of cats may have been relatively minor among them.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dowding |first1=J.E. |last2=Murphy |first2=E.C. |last3=Springer |first3=K. |last4=Peacock |first4=A.J. |last5=Krebs |first5=C.J. |year=2009 |title=Cats, rabbits, Myxoma virus, and vegetation on Macquarie Island: a comment on Bergstrom ''et al.'' (2009) |journal=[[Journal of Applied Ecology]] |volume=46 |issue=5 |pages=1129–1132 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2664.2009.01690.x |doi-access=free|bibcode=2009JApEc..46.1129D }}</ref> The original authors examined the issue in a later reply and concluded that the effect of the Myxoma virus use was small and reaffirmed their original position.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Management implications of the Macquarie Island trophic cascade revisited: a reply to Dowding et al. (2009) |journal=Journal of Applied Ecology |volume=46 |issue=5 |pages=1133–1136 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2664.2009.01708.x |year=2009 |last1=Bergstrom |first1=Dana M. |last2=Lucieer |first2=Arko |last3=Kiefer |first3=Kate |last4=Wasley |first4=Jane |last5=Belbin |first5=Lee |last6=Pedersen |first6=Tore K. |last7=Chown |first7=Steven L. |bibcode=2009JApEc..46.1133B |hdl=10019.1/120032 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> The original authors did not, however, explain how rabbit numbers were greater in previous periods such as the 1970s before the myxoma virus was introduced and when cats were not being controlled, nor how rabbits had built up to such high numbers when cats were present for some 60 years prior to the introduction of rabbits; suggesting that cats were not controlling rabbit populations before the introduction of the myxoma virus.
On 4 June 2007 a media release by [[Malcolm Turnbull]], Federal Minister for Australia's Environment and Water Resources Board, announced that the Australian and Tasmanian Governments had reached an agreement to jointly fund the eradication of rodent pests, including rabbits, to protect Macquarie Island's
In February 2012, ''[[The Australian]]'' newspaper reported that rabbits, rats and mice had been nearly eradicated from the island.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/natives-thriving-since-pests-were-voted-off-the-island/story-e6frg8y6-1226269129988 |title=Natives thriving since pests were voted off the island |first=Matthew |last=Denholm |work=The Australian |date=13 February 2012 |access-date=27 February 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226213952/http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/natives-thriving-since-pests-were-voted-off-the-island/story-e6frg8y6-1226269129988 |archive-date=26 February 2012}}</ref> In April 2012 the hunting teams reported the extermination of 13 rabbits that had survived the 2011 baiting; the last five were found in November 2011, including a lactating doe and four kittens. No fresh rabbit signs were found up to July 2013.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=13001 |title=Parks & Wildlife Service - Project News & Updates |work=parks.tas.gov.au |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424080012/http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=13001 |archive-date=24 April 2013 |access-date=7 March 2014}}</ref>
===Introduced birds===
Despite being declared pest-free, Macquarie Island is still inhabited by several invasive bird species, such as the Domestic [[mallard]] and [[Common starling|European starling.]] The self-introduction of
==Gallery==
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