Geography | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 52°32′S169°09′E / 52.533°S 169.150°E |
Area | 113 [1] km2 (44 sq mi) |
Highest elevation | 569 m (1867 ft) [1] |
Highest point | Mount Honey |
Administration | |
New Zealand | |
Demographics | |
Population | Uninhabited |
The Campbell Islands (or Campbell Island Group) are a group of subantarctic islands, belonging to New Zealand. They lie about 600 km south of Stewart Island. The islands have a total area of 113 km2 (44 sq mi), [1] consisting of one big island, Campbell Island, and several small islets, notably Dent Island, Isle de Jeanette Marie, Folly Island (or Folly Islands), Jacquemart Island, and Monowai Island (also known as Lion Rock). Ecologically, they are part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion. The islands were gazetted as a nature reserve in 1954, [2] and are one of five subantarctic island groups collectively designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. [3]
The islands are relatively flat; due to tectonic pressure, however, there are mountains in the centre of each island. A sea stack at the southern tip of Jacquemart Island is – with the exception of the country's Antarctic claims – New Zealand's southernmost point.[ citation needed ]
The following table includes named islands according to Land Information New Zealand. [4]
Location | Area (ha) |
---|---|
Campbell Island | 10,906.0 |
Jacquemart Island | 24.7 |
Dent Island | 20.5 |
Isle de Jeanette Marie | 8.4 |
Monowai Island | 6.7 |
Hook Keys | 6.3 |
Wasp Island | 4.5 |
Survey Island | 3.3 |
Gomez Island | 2.1 |
Cossack Rock | 0.9 |
Seagull Rock | 0.1 |
Bull Rock | 0.1 |
Folly Island | unknown |
Total | 10,983.7 |
Since its discovery in 1810, the flora and fauna have been under threat from mammals introduced by humans. Cats (Felis catus) and Norway rats (Rattus novegicus) prey on native birds, and much of the vegetation was destroyed by sheep (Ovis aries) and cattle (Bos taurus). Restoration of the island began in 1970 with the removal of the feral cattle and sheep; subsequently the island's vegetation recovered, becoming denser. In 2001, four helicopters, under instruction from the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) spread 120 tonnes of rodenticide-laced bait across the island over one month. Repeated monitoring has found no signs of rats since. This operation became a template for rat eradication on other islands around the world.[ citation needed ]
The Campbell Islands have been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for several species of seabirds, as well as the endemic Campbell teal and Campbell snipe. The seabirds are southern rockhopper and yellow-eyed penguins, Antipodean, southern royal, light-mantled, black-browed, Campbell and grey-headed albatrosses, northern giant and white-chinned petrels, and the Campbell shag. [5]
The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying 465 km (289 mi) south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying 460 km2 (180 sq mi), is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island, and Green Island, with a combined area of 570 km2 (220 sq mi). The islands have no permanent human inhabitants.
Macquarie Island is a subantarctic island in the south-western Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. It has been governed as a part of Tasmania, Australia since 1880. It became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978 and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
Auckland Island is the main island of the eponymous uninhabited archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the New Zealand subantarctic area. It is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list together with the other New Zealand Subantarctic Islands in the region.
Kapiti Island, sometimes written as Kāpiti Island, is an island nature reserve located 5.6 km (3 mi) off the west coast of the lower North Island of New Zealand and within the Kāpiti Coast District. Parts of the island were previously farmed, but it is now a predator-free sanctuary for endemic birds, including many endangered birds. The island is 10 km (6.2 mi) long, running southwest/northeast, and roughly 2 km (1.2 mi) wide, being more or less rectangular in shape, and has an area of 19.65 km2 (7.59 sq mi).
The Bounty Islands are a small group of uninhabited granite islets and numerous rocks, with a combined area of circa 50 ha in the South Pacific Ocean. Territorially part of New Zealand, they lie about 670 km (420 mi) east-south-east of New Zealand's South Island, 530 km (330 mi) south-west of the Chatham Islands, and 215 km (134 mi) north of the Antipodes Islands. The group is a World Heritage Site.
Campbell Island / Motu Ihupuku is an uninhabited subantarctic island of New Zealand, and the main island of the Campbell Island group. It covers 112.68 square kilometres (43.51 sq mi) of the group's 113.31 km2 (43.75 sq mi), and is surrounded by numerous stacks, rocks and islets like Dent Island, Folly Island, Isle de Jeanette-Marie, and Jacquemart Island, the latter being the southernmost extremity of New Zealand. The island is mountainous, rising to over 500 metres (1,640 ft) in the south. A long fiord, Perseverance Harbour, nearly bisects it, opening out to sea on the east coast.
The Snares Islands, known colloquially as The Snares, is a group of uninhabited islands lying about 200 km (120 mi) south of New Zealand's South Island and to the south-southwest of Stewart Island / Rakiura. The Snares consist of the main North East Island and the smaller Broughton Island and Alert Stack, as well as the Western Chain Islands some 5 km (3.1 mi) to the west-southwest. Collectively, the Snares have a total land area of 3.4 km2 (1.3 sq mi).
The Antipodes Islands are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi) archipelago lies 860 km (530 mi) to the southeast of Stewart Island / Rakiura, and 730 km (450 mi) to the northeast of Campbell Island. They are very close to being the antipodal point of Normandy in France: the city farthest away is Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.
The New Zealand Subantarctic Islands comprise the five southernmost groups of the New Zealand outlying islands. They are collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion, within the tundra biome, includes five remote island groups in the Pacific Ocean south of New Zealand: the Bounty Islands, Auckland Islands, Antipodes Islands and Campbell Island groups of New Zealand, and Macquarie Island of Australia.
Jacquemart Island, one of the islets surrounding Campbell Island in New Zealand, lies 1 km south of Campbell Island and is the southernmost island of New Zealand.
Dent Island is a subantarctic 26-hectare (64-acre) rock stack, lying 3 km west of Campbell Island and belonging to the Campbell Island group. Dent Island is located at 52°31.15′S169°3.75′E. It was named by the French 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Campbell Island because of its resemblance to a tooth.
Enderby Island is part of New Zealand's uninhabited Auckland Islands archipelago, south of mainland New Zealand. It is situated just off the northern tip of Auckland Island, the largest island in the archipelago.
The Campbell albatross or Campbell mollymawk, is a medium-sized mollymawk in the albatross family. It breeds only on Campbell Island and the associated islet of Jeanette Marie, in a small New Zealand island group in the South Pacific. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the black-browed albatross. It is a medium-sized black and white albatross with a pale yellow iris.
Folly Island or the Folly Islands is a subantarctic island located in New Zealand's Campbell Island group.
The Campbell snipe, also known as the Campbell Island snipe, is a rare subspecies of the Subantarctic snipe, endemic to Campbell Island, a subantarctic island south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean. It was not formally described until January 2010. The subspecific name alludes to the name of the sealing brig Perseverance, captained by Frederick Hasselborough, that discovered Campbell Island in 1810, and which probably inadvertently introduced rats to the island when it was wrecked there in 1828.
Azorella polaris, commonly known as the Macquarie Island cabbage, is a species of flowering plant usually placed in the family Araliaceae or Apiaceae and only very distantly related to cabbage. It is a megaherb, growing up to about a metre in height, native to the subantarctic islands of New Zealand and to Australia’s Macquarie Island.
Moutere Ihupuku / Campbell Island Marine Reserve or Campbell Island / Moutere Ihupuku Marine Reserve is a marine reserve around Campbell island in the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands.
Moutere Mahue / Antipodes Island Marine Reserve is a marine reserve covering an area of 217,287 hectares around the Antipodes Islands south of New Zealand's South Island and Stewart Island / Rakiura. It was established in 2014 and is administered by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
Moutere Hauriri / Bounty Islands Marine Reserve is a marine reserve covering an area of 104,626 hectares around New Zealand's Bounty Islands. It was established in 2014 and is administered by the Department of Conservation.