 Mode of Shipping the Guano, Ichaboe Island, Namibia (1844) | |
  Ichaboe Island | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Atlantic Ocean |
| Coordinates | 26°17′20″S14°56′12″E / 26.288889°S 14.936667°E |
| Area | 0.065 km2 (0.025 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 7 m (23 ft) |
| Administration | |
Namibia | |
| Region | ǁKaras Region |
| Constituency | Lüderitz Constituency |
Ichaboe Island is a small rocky island off Namibia's Diamond Coast. It is recognised by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBAs) for its seabird breeding colonies.
There are twelve small islands on the Namibian coast between Walvis Bay and the Orange River. [1] Due to the Benguela Current, the seas on the west coast of southern Africa are some of the most productive in the world. The current flows north from the Southern Ocean and offshore winds drive the surface water away from the coast. Water rises from depths of hundreds of metres and at speeds of up to 12 m per minute bringing nutrients to the surface. A combination of sunlight and nutrients provide the conditions for phytoplankton which are the foundation for other life in the Benguela marine ecosystem. Feeding on the phytoplankton are Zooplankton, which attract an abundance of shoaling pelagic fish and this is the reason why southern Africa is home to one of the richest seabird communities in the world. The islands off the west coast of southern Africa provide refuge from predators. Cape gannet (Morus capensis) and Cape cormorants (Phalacrocorax capensis) are the region's most abundant seabirds with tens of thousands on the islands during the nesting season. The birds' guano also provide nutrients that flow back into the surrounding sea when large waves hit the island or when it rains. The guano enriches the rocky shore with carpets of seaweed grazed by goat's-eye limpets, which are predated by spiny starfish. [2]
Ichaboe Island is a 6.5 ha low-lying island, approximately 1.5 km off the Diamond Coast of Namibia and 48 km north of Lüderitz. On the western side of the island is a reef which offers some protection from Atlantic waves, although sea spay covers the island during storms. The island was once covered in over 7 m of bird-droppings (guano), which was quarried in the 19th and 20th-centuries for sale as manure. The rocky ground is now entirely exposed and the eastern side has some sandy areas. Annual rainfall is less than 10 mm and coastal fog is frequent. [3] [4]
Bird Life International recognizes Ichaboe Island along with other islands such as Mercury Island and the nearby coast as an Important Bird Area for their seabird colonies. [3]
In the early 19th-century Ichaboe and other islands of the South African coast witnessed the guano rush, equivalent of the American gold rush. [2] The island was once used for sealing and following a visit in 1828 by Captain Benjamin Morrell and the discovery of bird manure to depths of more than 7 m, the focus turned to the quarrying of guano. [3] At one time more than 400 ships anchored off the island and shanty towns housed thousands of workers. Large-scale scraping and bagging of ′white gold′ began in 1843 and peaked two years later. The value was so great that competition was fierce; murder was committed over harvesting rights, and two British warships were dispatched to restore order over what became known as the ′Great Guano War′. [3] [2] Britain took possession of the island on 21 June 1861. [5] Guano has been taken off the island regularly, and in 1880 and 1881, Ichaboe Guano was claimed to be the ″richest and most fertilising guano imported into England″ containing 12 to 13% ammonia and 27 to 30% guano phosphates. [6] The island was administered by the Cape Provincial Administration of South Africa and became a nature reserve in 1987. The islands were returned to Namibia in 1994 and are managed by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR). Ichaboe, along with Mercury and Possession Islands, have permanent residents who partake in research and conservation of the seabirds. [1] Scraping of guano continues with concessions granted during the 1980s and in 2000 a wall was put up around the perimeter of the island. The wall was built to prevent winds blowing the guano into the sea and has a few entry points for penguins’ to access the breeding areas. [3]
Ichaboe regularly supports over 50,000 seabirds of at least eight species and is consequently one of the most important and densely packed seabird breeding in the world. The island holds 65% of the world's endangered, Cape cormorant (Phalacrocorax capensis), despite the global population falling from 9,000 to less than 5,000 pairs over twenty years. Namibia is home to 4,000 of those pairs. The island is the most important location in the world for the near-threatened, crowned cormorant (Phalacrocorax coronatus), having 4% of the world's breeding population. Ichaboe also has large numbers of endangered African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) and the bank cormorant (Phalacrocorax neglectus), as well as the vulnerable Cape gannet (Morus capensis). Smaller numbers of kelp gull (Larus dominicanus) and African oystercatcher (Haematopus moquini) also breed here. Thousands of common tern (Sterna hirundo) and black tern (Chlidonias niger) may roost on the island. [4]
Whales sighted off the island include the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and southern right whale (Eubalaena australis). The cetaceans include, dusky dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obscurus), common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and the endemic, Heaviside's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus heavisidii). [4]
Seabirds are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations. The first seabirds evolved in the Cretaceous period, and modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene.
Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus Morus in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies.
The northern gannet is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. It is the largest seabird in the northern Atlantic. The sexes are similar in appearance. The adult northern gannet has a mainly white streamlined body with a long neck, and long and slender wings. It is 87–100 cm long with a 170–180 cm (67–71 in) wingspan. The head and nape have a buff tinge that is more prominent in breeding season, and the wings are edged with dark brown-black feathers. The long, pointed bill is blue-grey, contrasting with black, bare skin around the mouth and eyes. Juveniles are mostly grey-brown, becoming increasingly white in the five years it takes them to reach maturity.
The European shag or common shag is a species of cormorant. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Gulosus. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mainly wintering in its breeding range except for the northernmost birds. In Britain this seabird is usually referred to as simply the shag. The scientific genus name derives from the Latin for glutton. The species name aristotelis commemorates the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
The Benguela Current is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre. The current extends from roughly Cape Point in the south, to the position of the Angola-Benguela front in the north, at around 16°S. The current is driven by the prevailing south easterly trade winds. Inshore of the Benguela Current proper, the south easterly winds drive coastal upwelling, forming the Benguela Upwelling System. The cold, nutrient rich waters that upwell from around 200–300 m (656–984 ft) depth in turn fuel high rates of phytoplankton growth, and sustain the productive Benguela ecosystem.
The KwaZulu-Natal sardine run of southern Africa occurs from May through July when billions of sardines – or more specifically the Southern African pilchard Sardinops sagax – spawn in the cool waters of the Agulhas Bank and move northward along the east coast of South Africa. Their sheer numbers create a feeding frenzy along the coastline. The run, containing millions of individual sardines, occurs when a current of cold water heads north from the Agulhas Bank up to Mozambique where it then leaves the coastline and goes further east into the Indian Ocean.
The bank cormorant, also known as Wahlberg's cormorant, is a medium-sized cormorant that is endemic to Namibia and the western seaboard of South Africa, living in and around coastal waters; it is rarely recorded more than 15 km offshore.
The Cape gannet is a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae.
The guanay cormorant or guanay shag is a member of the cormorant family found on the Pacific coast of Peru and northern Chile. After breeding it spreads south to southern parts of Chile and north to Ecuador, and has also been recorded as far north as Panama and Colombia – probably a result of mass dispersal due to food shortage in El Niño years. Its major habitats include shallow seawater and rocky shores.
Algoa Bay is a maritime bay in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is located in the east coast, 683 kilometres (424 mi) east of the Cape of Good Hope.
The Cape cormorant or Cape shag is a bird endemic to the southwestern coasts of Africa.
The terrestrial fauna of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands is unsurprisingly depauperate, because of the small land area of the islands, their lack of diverse habitats, and their isolation from large land-masses. However, the fauna dependent on marine resources is much richer.
The red-legged cormorant, also known as the red-legged shag, red-footed cormorant, red-footed shag, Gaimard's cormorant and grey cormorant, is a species of cormorant resident to the coastline of South America. It is the only member of the genus Poikilocarbo. It is non-colonial unlike most seabirds. The red-legged cormorant has not been observed wing-spreading, which is unusual among cormorant species.
Mercury Island is a small rocky island off The Diamond Coast, Namibia. Despite its small size it is recognised by BirdLife International and other global conservation groups as an Important Bird Area (IBA) for its significant coastal seabird breeding.
The Namibian Coast Conservation and Management Project (NACOMA) is a conservation and wildlife monitoring project operating in Namibia. NACOMA, as it is known, was officially launched in March 2006 as a five-year project co-funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the Namibian government with the support of the World Bank.
Dana Bay can really be considered as a sort of village with a mini supermarket, bakery, butchery, eating establishments, fuel station and liquor outlets amongst other small businesses and forms part of the greater Mossel Bay municipality. The village forms the west boundary of the Garden Route District, Western Cape, South Africa. Dana Bay lies approximately halfway between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town and is a mere 4 kilometers off the N2 highway. The central part of Mossel Bay is about 12 kilometers from Dana Bay.
The order Suliformes is an order recognised by the International Ornithologist's Union. In regard to the recent evidence that the traditional Pelecaniformes is polyphyletic, it has been suggested that the group be divided to reflect the true evolutionary relationships, a 2017 study indicated that they are most closely related to Otidiformes (bustards) and Ciconiiformes (storks).
Malgas Island is a small, 8.3 hectares, uninhabited island lying in the northern part of the entrance to Saldanha Bay, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It lies about 800 metres (2,600 ft) from the mainland in the Benguela upwelling system. It is circular in shape and flat, with the highest point about 9 metres (30 ft) above sea level. It is known for its large breeding colony of Cape gannets.
The Guañape Islands form an island group off the coast of northern Peru. The group consists of four islands: Isla Guañape Norte, Isla Guañape Sur, Islotes Cantores, and Islotes Los Leones.
Halifax Island is a small rocky island about 100 m (330 ft) from the mainland, near Lüderitz in Namibia. It is the third most important breeding site for African penguins in Namibia.
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