95

Geographical Research

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March 2006

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44(1):95–96

doi:10.1111/j.1745-5871.2006.00363.x

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Original ArticleNIGEL WACE and D. WALKER:

Southern Ocean Drift Bottle Launchings and RecoveriesGeographical Research

Research Note

Southern Ocean Drift Bottle Launchings and Recoveries

NIGEL WACE and D. WALKER,

Aranda, Australia

[Editors’ note: Nigel Wace died on 4 February2005 (his obituary was published in

Geograph-ical Research

43(3), 327–328). His friend andcolleague, D. Walker, prepared this note atNigel’s request.]

One of Nigel Wace’s abiding interests was inthe mechanisms by which land plant propagulesare transported about the world and how thesemay have expanded or constrained the geo-graphical boundaries of the parent species. Heinvestigated these on a ‘local’ scale by his anal-yses of the contents of car-wash sumps and thegerminable contents of travellers’ socks. On theinter-continental scale he was an authority onthe history of transplantation for aesthetic, sci-entific and economic purposes. It also led him tothe long-contentious question of the efficiencywith which ocean currents might transport prop-agules over very long distances. Accordingly, in1977, he took advantage of the remnant bottlesfrom a shipboard party in Drake’s Passage totest the possibility that plant material of similar

buoyancy might be carried, initially, westwardand beached on New Zealand and Australia.Some eighty bottles were cast overboard, eachcontaining an address to which a finder wasasked to report. This began a minor traditionon cruise ships visiting the Southern Ocean;between 1977 and 1991 almost one thousandbottles were jettisoned. On occasion, Nigel feltsome regret for initiating such pollution. By2004, fifteen bottles had been recovered andreported, most from New Zealand and Australiabut three or four from remarkably distant places.

Two weeks before he died, Nigel asked me tofind some way of making these data widely andpermanently accessible and, with the assist-ance of the editors, the accompanying Table,drafted by Nigel himself, is intended to fill thatpurpose.

D. Walker

8 Galali Place Aranda A.C.T. 2614Australia

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© 2006 Institute of A

ustralian Geographers

Southern ocean drift bottle launchings and recoveries, January 1977 to July 2004

Jettisoned Recovered Travelled

Leading tosser Place Date Number Type Place Date Finder Months (maximum)

EAST – WEST Traverse

0

Long.

Speed (minimum)

0

Long./month

Wace

(Lindblad Explorer)

Drake Passage 16-Jan-1977 20+60 wwliq

Rakaia River, Sth Isld, N.Z. 17-Sep-1979 Mrs Bain 32 237 7.4Easter Island 19-Sep-1983 Sr Allende 80 316 3.9

Shackleton

(Lindblad Explorer)

Drake Passage 30-Jan-1981 140 ww Strahan Beach, Tas. 26-Mar-1983 Mr L. Voolman 26 210 8.1rw Massacre Bay, Vic. 11-Apr-1983 Mr L. Payn 33 208 6.3

ww Sandy Cape, Tarkine, W. Tas. 8-Feb-1985 Mrs Nicholls 48 210 4.4Shackleton

(Lindblad Explorer)

Drake Passage 5-25 Dec-1983 100 ww D’Estrees Bay, Kangaroo Isld 5-Jul-1990 Mr C. Darling 75 205 2.6rwch ?

Mahinapua, Sth Isld, N.Z.Igoda Beach, Natal, Sth Africa Manawatu coast, Nth Isld, N.Z.

8-Dec-198624-Feb-199011-Jan-1989

Mr AndersonMr Carvounes Mr M. Brown &Mr M. Reader

317460

21168

215

6.80.93.6

Barfield

(Lindblad Explorer)

Drake Passage 4+ Dec-1986 ca 250 wh? Cheynes Beach, Albany, W.A. 8-Mar-1989 Mr B. McDonald 27 186 6.9

Sitwell

(Illiria)

Drake Passage 2-Jan-1988 ca 100 rw Windy Harbour, Augusta, W.A. 1-Oct-1989 Mr A. Loud 21 180 8.6Falkland Isld 28-Jan-1988 ca 100 ? Windy Harbour, Augusta, W.A. 10-Mar-1990 Mr D.R. Beale 24 181 7.5Falkland Isld 29-Jan-1988 ca 100 ww Off Stewart Isld, N.Z. 15-Nov-1990 Mr A. Eade 34 212 6.3South Georgia 10-Feb-1988 ca 100 rw Seychelle Islands 24-Oct-1990 Mr P. Durup 32 114 3.6

Sitwell

(Ocean Princess)

Drake Passage Jan-1991 25 ? Wollaston Isld, nr Cape Horn 18-Mar-1996 Mr A. Parncsn 62 0 or 360 ?

Notes

: Bottle type codes: ch = champagne, liq = liqueur (Grand Marnier), rw = red wine, wh = whisky, ww = white wine, ? = unknown.No bottles retrieved from 169 and 199 jettisoned by Shackleton (Feb 1981) and Wace (Jan 1982) respectively on Ross Sea cruises from New Zealand.Numbers jettisoned by Barfield (1986) and Sitwell (1988) may be exaggerated.Recoveries are those notified to N.M. Wace, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.