FORTY YEARS LATER

Royal Navy sailors clear tonnes of 

waste abandoned on Antarctic island

after 1984 expedition

7th February 2024 

Protector returned to Brabant Island for her second clean-up effort as part of the One Tonne Challenge (Picture: Royal Navy)

Royal Navy sailors have removed three tonnes of rubbish from a remote island in Antarctica to help preserve its natural beauty.

Icebreaker HMS Protector returned to Brabant Island, on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, for the first time since 2017 to continue the work to remove abandoned equipment from an expedition in 1984.

Waste that had been previously been frozen in place was now able to be removed after subsequent thaw and freeze cycles made it accessible.

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Under the watchful eye of the island's inhabitant chinstrap penguins, 29 members of HMS Protector headed ashore on the ship's Zodiac boats.

The operations officer, Lieutenant Commander Hannah Lee, was one of those taking part.

She said: "It was rewarding for the ship’s company to be able to conduct a clean-up and preserve the natural beauty of Antarctica.

"I was part of the team that did the initial clean-up in 2016/17 and it was interesting to see how much the snow had melted and how much more equipment had been exposed.

"Unfortunately, we were not able to get everything off the island due to permafrost and the severity of the landscape, however we have made it as safe as possible for the wildlife living there."

Brabant Island is a remote British Antarctic Territory which was discovered in 1898 and is home to the chinstrap penguin

The waste had been left over from a scientific mission by a Joint Services Expedition to Brabant Island in 1984.

Brabant, the second-largest island of the Palmer Archipelago within the British Antarctic Territory, has only been visited on six very brief occasions since its discovery in 1898.

HMS Protector's clean-up effort was part of the One Tonne Challenge.

First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key, asked personnel to give up their spare time to get one tonne's worth of rubbish off beaches around the globe.

HMS Protector is the Royal Navy’s polar research ship and is currently deployed in the Antarctic region promoting British interests and enforcing the Antarctic Treaty.

She works with partners including the British Antarctic Survey, United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust and the governments of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.