Funk Island - Scientific Expeditions

Scientific Expeditions

By 1800 the Great Auk was probably extinct on Funk Island, and by 1844, in the world.

Naturalists and scientists had become interested in the plight of the great auk and by June 1841 a Norwegian naturalist, Dr. Peter Stuvitz visited Funk Island with the hope of obtaining specimens of the birds, but was forced to leave due to weather conditions on the island.

The second visit of a scientific nature occurred in 1863, when Thomas Molloy, the United States Consul to Newfoundland, received permission from the Government of Newfoundland to go to the Funk Island to mine remains of the Great Auk. Thirty-five tons of the decomposed organic material was secured by Molloy's expedition. Of these five tons was sold locally at nineteen dollars a ton while the other thirty tons was shipped to Boston, Baltimore and Washington D.C., where it was used to fertilize the gardens of wealthy Americans.

In July 1873 seismologist and naturalist John Milne went to the island and was successful in retrieving partial skeletons and miscellaneous bones before inclement weather cut short his stay. He reported that there was an abundance of terns on Funk Island but that the murre and razorbill population had been almost destroyed by egg gatherers. In a hazardous landing and in only the one hour that was allowed by the dangerous tides and high waves surrounding the island, Milne discovered in a small, grassy hollow, the skeletal remains of no fewer than fifty birds. Some of them exceeded in size any that had before been known. His collection of Great Auk skeletons subsequently found its way into various public museums. In a scientific paper he wrote in 1875 describing his trip he included a detailed collection of facts relating to the extinct bird that covered five geographical regions, including prehistoric kitchen middens of Caithness.

The most successful of the early scientific expeditions to Funk Island occurred in 1887. It was sponsored by the United States Fish Commission and was under the direction of Frederick A. Lucas. After a brief sojourn in St. John's, the group's ship, the Grampus, arrived at Funk Island on July 22, 1887. They found in their search area, roughly one quarter of the land surface of the island was covered with between .6 and 1.2 m of earth. The earth contained egg shells mixed with granite pebbles in depths ranging from 5 to 30 cm. Many more skeletons were unearthed and taken away for other scientific study.

This expedition did other scientific work on Funk Island, including the collection of rock specimens. During their search of the island they also discovered several iron kettles, rusted and broken, which were believed to have been used to scald the bodies of the Great Auks to make removal of the feathers easier. Near the western edge of the Auks' breeding grounds they discovered enclosures made of granite blocks. The Auks had been herded into these compounds to make slaughtering easier.

There have been many other expeditions since, right up to 1982. In 1964 the island became a Provincial Wildlife Sanctuary and landing there was prohibited without a permit. With the creation of the sanctuary, the bird population began to be protected and monitored.