Auckland Islands

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Auckland Islands Native name: Motu Maha
Topographical map of the Auckland Islands
Geography
Location	Southern Pacific Ocean
Coordinates	50°42′S, 166°5′E
Archipelago	Auckland Islands
Total islands	7
Major islands	Auckland Island, Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Dundas Island, Green Island
Highest point	Mount Dick 660 m
Administration
New Zealand
Area Outside Territorial Authority	New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands
Demographics
Population	0

The Auckland Islands (Motu Maha) (50°42′S, 166°5′E) form an archipelago of the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands and include the following: Auckland Island, Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Dundas Island and Green Island. They lie 465 km from the South Island port of Bluff, between the latitudes 50° 30' and 50° 55' S and longitudes 165° 50' and 166° 20' E. The islands have no permanent human inhabitants.

Contents 1 Geography 2 History 2.1 Discovery and early exploitation 2.2 Settlement 2.3 Shipwrecks 2.4 Scientific research and reserve 3 Ecology 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] Geography

The main island (Auckland Island) has an approximate land area of 510 km², and a length of 42 km. It is notable for its steep cliffs and rugged terrain, which rises to over 600 m. Prominent peaks include Cavern Peak (650 m), Mount Raynal (635 m), Mount D'Urville (630 m), Mount Easton (610 m), and the Tower of Babel (550 m).

The southern end of the island broadens to a width of 26 km. Here, a narrow channel known as Carnley Harbour (on some maps: the Adams Straits) separates the main island from the roughly triangular Adams Island (area approximately 100 km²), which is even more mountainous, reaching a height of 660 m with Mount Dick. The channel is the remains of the crater of an extinct volcano, and Adams Island and the southern part of the main island form the crater rim.

The group includes numerous other smaller islands, notably Disappointment Island (10 km northwest of the main island) and Enderby Island (1 km off the northern tip of the main island), each covering less than 5 km².

The main island features many sharply-incised inlets, notably Port Ross in the northern end of the island.

In geologic terms, most of the islands originated volcanically, with the archipelago dominated by two 12 million year old Miocene volcanoes, which have been eroded and dissected.^[1] These rest on older volcanic rocks dating to between 15-25 million years old with some older granites and fossil-bearing sedimentary rocks from around 100 million years ago.^[2]

[edit] History

[edit] Discovery and early exploitation

Some evidence exists that Polynesian voyagers first discovered the Auckland Islands. Traces of Polynesian settlement, possibly dating to the 13th century, have been found by archaeologists on Enderby Island. [2] This is the most southerly settlement by Polynesians ever discovered. [3]

A whaling vessel, Ocean, rediscovered the islands in 1806, finding them uninhabited.^[3] Captain Abraham Bristow named them "Lord Auckland's" on 18 August 1806 in honour of his father's friend William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland. Bristow was employed by businessman Samuel Enderby, for whom Enderby Island is named. The following year Bristow returned on the Sarah in order to claim the archipelago for Britain. The explorers Dumont D'Urville in 1839, and James Clark Ross visited in 1839 and in 1840 respectively.

Whalers and sealers set up temporary bases, the islands providing one of the principal sealing stations in the Pacific in the years immediately after their discovery.^[3] By 1812 so much sealing had occurred on the islands that they were no longer commercially important and the efforts of sealers were redirected towards Campbell and Macquarie Islands. Visits to the islands declined, although recovering seal populations allowed a modest revival in sealing in the mid 1820s.

[edit] Settlement

Now uninhabited, the islands saw unsuccessful settlements in the mid-19th century. In 1842 a small party of Māori and their Moriori slaves from the Chatham Islands migrated to the archipelago, surviving for some 20 years on sealing and flax-growing. Charles Enderby proposed to set up a community based on agriculture and whaling in 1846. This settlement, established at Port Ross in 1849 and named Hardwicke, lasted only two and a half years.

The Imperial Parliament at Westminster included the Auckland Islands in the extended boundaries of New Zealand in 1863.

[edit] Shipwrecks

The rocky coasts of the islands have proved disastrous for several ships. The Grafton suffered shipwreck off the coast of the islands in 1864, and in 1866, one of New Zealand's most famous shipwrecks, that of the General Grant occurred on the western coast. Several attempts have failed to salvage cargo from the General Grant, which allegedly carried bullion. A further maritime tragedy occurred in 1907, with the loss of the Dundonald and twelve crew off Disappointment Island. Because of the probability of wrecks around the islands, calls arose for the establishment of emergency depots for castaways in 1868, although these depots were not established until 1887. The New Zealand authorities established and maintained a network of three emergency supply depots at Port Ross, Norman Inlet and Carnley Harbour. Additional supplies, including boats (to help reach the depots) and 40 finger posts (which had smaller caches of supplies), were also set up around the islands.

[edit] Scientific research and reserve

From 1942 to 1945 the Auckland Islands hosted a New Zealand meteorological station, as part of a coastwatch program staffed by scientist volunteers and known for security reasons as "The Cape Expedition". One of the staff was R.A. Falla, later to become an eminent New Zealand scientist. Currently the islands are uninhabited, although there are regular visits by scientists and limited tourism is allowed on Enderby Island and Auckland Island.^[4]

[edit] Ecology

The vegetation of the Auckland Islands sub-divides by distinct altitudinal zones. Past the salt spray zone the fringes of the islands are dominated by forests of southern rata Metrosideros umbellata, and in places the subantarctic tree daisy (Olearia lyallii), which was probably introduced by sealers.^[5] Above this exists a subalpine shrub zone dominated by Dracopyllum, Coprosma and Myrsine (with some rata). At higher elevations the plant communities are dominated by tussockgrass and megaherb communities.

The Auckland Islands hold important seabird-colonies, among them several species of albatross, two species of penguin and numerous smaller petrel species.^[1] The rare Yellow-eyed Penguin breeds here, as does the endemic Auckland Shag, and around a million pairs of Sooty Shearwater. They are also home to several landbirds as well including the of the Auckland Island Snipe, the Red-crowned and Yellow-crowned Parakeet, the Tui, the New Zealand Bellbird, the New Zealand Pipit, a subspecies of the Tomtit, the Double-banded Plover, the New Zealand Falcon and the endemic Auckland Rail (Lewinia muelleri) and Auckland Islands Teal.

The Auckland Islands host the largest communities of subantarctic invertebrates, with 24 species of spider, 11 species of springtail and over 200 insects.^[6] Of these there are 57 species of beetle, 110 flies and 39 moths. The islands also boasts an endemic genus and species of weta, Dendroplectron cryptacanthus. The freshwater communities of the islands are home to a freshwater fish, the Koaro or Galaxias brevipinnis, the juvenile stage of which lives in saltwater but which returns to the rivers as an adult. 19 species of freshwater invertebrates are endemic to the Auckland Islands, including one mollusc, one crustacean, a mayfly, 12 flies and two caddis flies.

A number of introduced species have come to the islands; cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, Common Brushtail Possums and rabbits were eliminated in the 1990s or went extinct naturally but feral cats, and pigs remain. Rabbits were removed from Enderby Island in 1993 by the application of poison, during the project mice were also eradicated.^[7] Curiously, rats have never managed to colonise the islands, in spite of numerous visits and shipwrecks and their ubiquity on other islands.^[8] These introduced species impact on the native vegetation and bird life, and caused the extinction of the Auckland Islands Merganser (a duck species formerly widespread in southern New Zealand, the last stronghold of which was the Auckland Islands).

Only two native mammals exist: two species of sea lion which haul out on the islands, the New Zealand Fur Seal and the threatened New Zealand Sea Lion.

[edit] See also

• New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Shirihai, H (2002) A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife. Alua Press:Degerby, Finland ISBN 951-98947-0-5
2. ^ Denison, R.E.; Coombs, D.S. (1977). "Radiometric ages for some rocks from Snares and Auckland Islands, Campbell Plateau". Earth and Planetary Science Letters 34 (1): 23-29. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(77)90101-7. 
3. ^ ^{a b} McLaren, F.B. (1948) The Auckland Islands: Their Eventful History A.H and A.W Reed:Wellington
4. ^ BirdLife International (2003) "Auckland Islands" BirdLife's online World Bird Database: the site for bird conservation. Version 2.0. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International. Available: http://www.birdlife.org (accessed 13/7/2007)
5. ^ Campbell, D & Rudge, M (1976) "The case for controlling the distribution of the tree daisy Olearia lyallii Hook. F. in its type locality, Auckland Islands" Proceedings of the New Zealand Ecological Society 23 109-115 [1]
6. ^ Department of Conservation (1999) New Zealand's Subantarctic Islands. Reed Books:Auckland ISBN 0-7900-0719-3
7. ^ Torr, N (2002) "Eradication of rabbits and mice from subantarctic Enderby and Rose Islands", Turning the tide: the eradication of invasive species (Proceedings of the international conference on eradication of island invasives; Occasional Paper of the IUCN Species Survival Commission No. 27. Veitch, C. R. and Clout, M.N., eds
8. ^ C. Chimera, M. C. Coleman and J. P. Parkes (1995) "Diet of feral goats and feral pigs on Auckland Island, New Zealand" New Zealand Journal of Ecology 19(2): 203–207

[edit] Further reading

• Wise's New Zealand Guide (4th ed.) (1969). Dunedin: H. Wise & Co. (N.Z.) Ltd.
• Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand (1863, Session III Oct-Dec) (A5)

[edit] External links

• Auckland Islands Marine Reserve (New Zealand Department of Conservation)
• High Resolution Map
• A Map of the Islands
• Island Information

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