Research archipelago
| Research archipelago | |||
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| Location: | Western Australia , Australia | ||
| Specialty: | numerous archipelagos, endemic plants and animals | ||
| Next city: | Esperance , Ceduna | ||
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The Recherche Archipelago , also known as the Archipelago of the Recherche , is made up of 105 islands and around 1,800 cliffs on the south coast of Western Australia . The islands extend 230 kilometers in an east-west direction and are up to 50 kilometers from the coast. The archipelago stretches from the city of Esperance to Israelite Bay , a bay with the ruins of an old telegraph station and a weather station .
history
The Dutch captain François Thijssen and Pieter Nuyts discovered the archipelago in 1627 from the ship Gulden Zeepaert ("Golden Sea Horse"). George Vancouver crossed this archipelago in 1791, followed by the French Joseph Bruny d'Entrecasteaux in 1792 on the admiral ship La Recherche ("search; research"), after which the archipelago was named.
The archipelago was first explored in 1802 by Matthew Flinders . Australia's famous pirate Black Jack Anderson stayed there in the 1830s, as did other pirates.
Archipelagos
All of the islands in the archipelago together cover around 97 square kilometers of land. They are mostly made of granite and some of gneiss . A western group of islands is located near Esperance, Woody Island and opposite the mainland coast of Cape Le Grand National Park , an eastern group of islands is located near Middle Island, opposite the mainland coast of Cape Arid National Park . The Cape Le Grand National Park and the Cape Arid National Park are combined for the Archipelago Nature Reserve research.
At 10.8 square kilometers, Middle Island is the largest island in the archipelago, named by Flinders because he recognized the other islands from the highest mountain in the archipelago. The pirate Black Jack set sail from this island and there is the pink Lake Hillier there . Woody Island is the only island open to the public for camping and hiking from September through April.
Table of the main islands
The largest islands of the Recherche Archipelago, with an area of at least one square kilometer, as well as some other islands:
Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap
Flora and fauna
The fishing grounds are used privately and commercially. Caught abalone , lobster , sardines and sharks . There are also aquacultures and breeding tanks for the southern bluefin tuna . At the beginning of 1991, a ship with 33,000 gross tons was sunk to create an artificial reef . Today it is also visited by wreck divers . Sponges , sea grasses , soft corals and scallops grow in this area.
Hundreds of bird species populate the archipelago. Minke whales , which can grow up to 10 meters long, and seals visit the archipelago. The Australian sea lion and the New Zealand fur seal have also settled on the islands, which are up to 2.5 meters long and weigh 300 kilograms . The research rock wallaby, a subspecies of the black paw rock kangaroo, is just as unique . The derby wallaby , the Australian noseband , the diamond python , the chicken goose and two rare frog species also live in this archipelago.
The first living specimen of the red sea dragon was spotted in the Recherche Archipelago .
Web links
- Information about the archipelago
- Fish in the archipelago
- Location map of the archipelago (PDF; 193 kB)
- Historical map
swell
- ↑ Dataset S01. CSV file, supplement to the scientific article by P. Weigelt, W. Jetz, H. Kreft: Bioclimatic and physical characterization of the world's islands. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Volume 110, No. 2013, pp. 15307-15312, doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1306309110 .
- ↑ Aquacultures in the research archipelago (PDF; 5.1 MB)
- ↑ Research Rock Wallaby
- ↑ Black-flanked Rock Wallaby