As indicated in the previous review, a “tourist” visit to Surtsey involving a landing is not possible - and even such visits by scientists are strictly limited. We did however achieve a very close viewing from the sea (around half a mile) during a recent voyage from UK to Greenland. Indeed I even feel entirely “vindicated” in claiming a visit to the inscribed area since this includes a significant marine element as well as the island itself. A comparison of my photo of the display screen of our vessel’s navigation system with the map of the inscribed area from the UNESCO site shows clearly our passage within the inscribed boundaries and indeed later included a passage “over” the corner of the now submerged island of Jolnir to the SW of Surtsey. This island, named after another Norse God, emerged with Surtsey in 1963 but rapidly eroded after volcanic activity ceased in 1966.

So what did we see/learn from our “sail by”? Well such a rapid visit to Surtsey made solely for that purpose would certainly be hard to justify in cost terms! But we had been visiting the Westmann Islands and Surtsey was on a natural course from them across the Denmark Strait to Greenland. This visit mainly involved the island/town of Heimaey and encompassed such interests as bird life, Norse history, the Westmann “way of life” and of course the famous eruption of 1973 which led to the evacuation of the entire island, the partial destruction of the town and the near closure of the harbour by lava. A boat trip out to Surtsey as part of such a wider visit would certainly be justifiable – if you are “doing” Iceland you can get to Heimaey by ferry and there are occasional boat trips out to Surtsey from there. If this trip is important to you it might be worth checking with http://www.vikingtours.is/ since, apparently such tours are not common.

The island was a lot smaller and lower than I had expected. There were a few visible human artifacts – a hut for the scientists and a radio mast! The flatter side of the island is, apparently, eroding quite rapidly and the island can be expected to continue to shrink. Grass was clearly visible – it had colonized particularly the well-fertilised sea gull nesting area. Ravens had also moved in quite quickly to take advantage of the available food (Gulls!). We were told that, generally, the colonization by both animal and plant life had progressed more quickly and with greater variety than had originally been expected. But this is no Galapagos or Aldabra 100s of miles from other land. The new land areas of Heimaey created in 1973 may not have been as rigidly free of human influence as Surtsey (parts of the lava near the town received "assisted" plant consolidation) but they too were “sprouting” with life from what were clearly natural causes – and Surtsey is visible from them only a few windy miles across the sea!