The Juan Fernández Islands
By Alex Muñoz, vice president for Oceana in South America
Photos: © OCEANA - Maximiliano Bello
Nearly four hundred miles from Chile’s jagged coastline
lies one of the world’s hidden sailing destinations:
the Juan Fernández Islands. This archipelago, composed
of three volcanic islands among a series of seamounts,
has been compared to the Galápagos Islands for its
rugged beauty and incredible biodiversity, including dozens
of endemic species found nowhere else in the world.
But while the Galápagos have become a major destination,
the Juan Fernández Islands remain relatively unknown.
Isolation is a part of the island’s heritage. In 1704, sailor
Alexander Selkirk deserted the Cinque Ports, choosing to
remain on one of the Juan Fernández uninhabited islands
rather than stay on a ship he considered unseaworthy.
(The ship would sink just weeks later.) Selkirk lived on the
island for four years and four months, surviving on the rich
native flora and the meat of feral goats. His story and eventual
rescue would inspire the classic novel Robinson Crusoe.
Today, just 600 people live on Robinson Crusoe Island, the
largest of the islands at 58 square miles. The islands remain
one of the world’s great natural laboratories with a strikingly
high percentage of unique native species. The islands are
also home to the Juan Fernández fur seal, once thought
hunted to extinction, and the incredibly rare Juan Fernández
firecrown, a wildly coloured hummingbird.
22 www.oystermarine.com
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