Seal Islands (Antarctica)
| Seal Islands | ||
|---|---|---|
 (top left on the map) |
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| Waters | Drake Street | |
| archipelago | South Shetland Islands | |
| Geographical location | 60 ° 59 ′ S , 55 ° 23 ′ W | |
|
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| Number of islands | 11 | |
| Total land area | 5.1 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
The Seal Islands ( English for seals islands , in Argentina Islas Foca ; in Chile Farallones Foca for seals cliffs ) are a group of small, up to 60 m (in another indication 125 m ) high islands and rocks in the archipelago of South Shetland Islands . They are located between 5 and 10 km north to northwest of Cape Yelcho of Elephant Island in the Drake Strait and represent the northernmost land masses of the archipelago.
Discovery and naming
The Irish-British navigator Edward Bransfield discovered and mapped it on February 13, 1820. In the same year his superior William Smith named the largest of the islands as Seal Island after the seals found here in large numbers . In later years this name was first transferred to the entire group as Seal Rocks and finally in the form that is valid today. British scientists carried out the last survey so far in 2008. Currently, none of the islands or cliffs in the group have a recognized individual name.
biology
The archipelago is one of the Important Bird Areas in Antarctica (IBA Ant075). Around 20,000 chinstrap penguins in a total of 60 colonies breed here. The same applies to 350 pairs of the golden crested penguin in five colonies. Other bird species native to the area are the giant petrel , blue-eyed shag , Cape petrel , spotted petrel , white-faced sheathbill and the Dominican gull .
Among the encountered on the islands include seal species of Antarctic fur seal , the Southern elephant seal , the Weddell seal , the leopard seal and the crab-eater . Only the Antarctic fur seal with 600 births per year and probably also the southern elephant seal give birth to their young here.
Web links
- Seal Islands in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (English)
- Seal Islands on geographic.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . Vol. 2, McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , p. 1386 (English).
- ↑ a b c Harris CM, Carr R., Lorenz K. and Jones S .: Important Bird Areas in Antarctica - Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, South Orkney Islands. Prepared for BirdLife International and the Polar Regions Unit of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office . Environmental Research & Assessment Ltd., Cambridge, 2011, p. 190 (English).