Disappointment Island
| File:FMIB 50815 Disappointment Island.jpeg A photo taken of the island in 1909. | |
| File:NZOffshoreIslandsMap.png Position of the Auckland Islands relative to New Zealand and other outlying islands | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | Lua error in Module:Coordinates at line 489: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
| Archipelago | Auckland Islands |
| Area | 3.0 km2 (1.2 sq mi) |
| Length | 3.35 km (2.082 mi) |
| Width | 1.53 km (0.951 mi) |
| Demographics | |
| Pop. density | 0/km2 (0/sq mi) |
Disappointment Island is one of seven uninhabited islands in the Auckland Islands archipelago, in New Zealand. It is 475 kilometres (295 mi) south of the country's main South Island and 8 kilometres (5 mi) from the northwest end of Auckland Island.
It is home to a large colony of white-capped albatrosses: about 65,000 pairs – nearly the entire world's population – nest there.[1] Also on the island is the Auckland rail, endemic to the archipelago; once thought to be extinct, it was rediscovered in 1993.[2] The island is known for being one of the least-modified subantarctic islands in New Zealand.
History
[edit | edit source]On 7 March 1907, the Dundonald, a steel, four-masted barque, sank after running ashore on the west side of Disappointment Island. Twelve men drowned and seventeen men made it ashore.[3] Two of the men died, and fifteen survivors waited seven months for rescue.[4] They survived by eating mainly white-capped albatrosses (mollymawks), seals, and roots of the plant Azorella polaris.[3] They built coracles out of veronica trees and used it to paddle to the mainland, where they eventually found the supplies and boat at Port Ross, a castaway depot, on Auckland Island.[5]
The island was visited by a scientific expedition aboard the Hinemoa in November 1907, after the crew rescued the Dundonald survivors from Auckland Island.[6][3] It was this ship which took the stranded men of the Dundonald home.[5]
Etymology
[edit | edit source]British mariner Abraham Bristow, who was the first European to reach the Auckland Islands, named the island Disappointment Island.[7][8] Whilst aboard the ship Sarah in 1807, he unsuccessfully surveyed the island for fur seals and a base to reach the nearby fur seal rookeries on the western cliffs of Auckland Island.[7][8]
Important Bird Area
[edit | edit source]The island is part of the Auckland Island group Important Bird Area (IBA), identified as such by BirdLife International because of the significance of the group as a breeding site for several species of seabirds, including the white-capped mollymawk and white-chinned petrel, as well as the endemic Auckland shag, Auckland teal, Auckland rail, and Auckland snipe.[9][10]
Over 150,000 pairs of white-chinned petrel breed there.[5]
See also
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- Composite Antarctic Gazetteer
- Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
- New Zealand subantarctic islands
- List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands
- List of islands of New Zealand
- List of islands
- Desert island
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ BBC – Science and Nature Archived 5 December 2004 at the Wayback Machine.
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- ^ Wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1907.
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- ^ BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Auckland Islands. Downloaded from Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). on 2012-01-23.
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