Campbell Island, New Zealand

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Meteorological station at Beeman Cove (unmanned/automatic since 1995)
Photo courtesy John Baxter and www.aspen-ridge.net

Campbell Island (Motu Ihupuku) is a remote, sub-Antarctic island of New Zealand and the main island of the Campbell Island group. Campbell Island is located at 52°32.4′S 169°8.7′E. Campbell Island covers 115 km² and is surrounded by numerous stacks, rocks and islets like Dent Island, Folly Island (or Folly Islands) and Jacquemart Island, the latter being the southernmost extremity of New Zealand. Campbell Island is mountainous, rising to over 500 metres in the south. A long fiord, Perseverance Harbour, nearly bisects the island, exiting to the sea on the east coast.

Campbell Island was discovered in 1810 by Captain Frederick Hasselburgh and his sealing brig Perseverance, which was owned by the Sydney-based company Campbell & Co. (thence the island's name). It became a seal hunting base, and the island's seal population was almost totally eradicated.

During World War II a coast guard station was operative at Tucker Cove at the north shore of Perseverance Harbour. After the end of the war, the facilities were used as a meteorological station until 1958, when a new station was established at Beeman Cove, just a few hundred meters further east of the old station. This station was manned permanently until 1995 when a fully automatic station was established. Today, human presence is limited to periodical visits of research and conservation expeditions.

In 2001 brown rats (Norway rats) were eradicated from the island 200 years after they were introduced. This was the world's largest rat eradication. The island's rat-free status was confirmed in 2003. [1] Since the eradication, vegetation and invertebrates have been recovering, seabirds have been returning and the Campbell Island Teal, the world's rarest duck, has been reintroduced. [2]