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59-617: Auckland Island ( Māori : Mauka Huka ) 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. The island has a land area of about 442.5 km (170.9 sq mi), and is 42 kilometres (26 mi) long. It

118-517: A subpolar oceanic climate ( Cfc according to the Köppen climate classification system), though it exaggerates the features shown in Port Ross, as it is much wetter and a lot more affected by ocean-moderation. The Auckland Islands have a fairly constant cool and wet weather year-round, with neither winter being excessively cold nor summer excessively hot. The climate is most similar to that seen in

177-467: A subpolar oceanic climate ( Cfc according to the Köppen climate classification system). Like many other Subpolar oceanic climates, Port Ross, along with the Auckland Islands in general, are characterised by the near-constant overcast weather and never being too hot or too cold. This borders on an extremely mild-wintered, maritime-influenced tundra climate . Carnley Harbour also features

236-678: A Reef . In 1866, one of New Zealand's most famous shipwrecks, that of the General Grant , occurred on the western coast. Ten survivors waited for rescue on Auckland Island for 18 months. Several attempts have failed to salvage its cargo, allegedly including bullion . Because of the probability of wrecks around the islands, calls arose for the establishment of emergency depots for castaways in 1868. The New Zealand authorities established and maintained three such depots, at Port Ross, Norman Inlet and Carnley Harbour from 1887. They also cached additional supplies, including boats (to help reach

295-534: A breeding site for several species of seabirds as well as eight endemic species or subspecies, including Auckland shag , Auckland teal , Auckland rail , Auckland snipe , Gibson's albatross , Auckland Island banded dotterel , Auckland Island tomtit , and the now extinct Auckland Island merganser . The seabirds include southern rockhopper and yellow-eyed penguins ; Antipodean , southern royal , light-mantled and white-capped albatrosses ; and white-chinned petrel . Several introduced species have come to

354-679: 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. Māori and Moriori settlement continued until 1866, when most of the Māori and some of the Moriori returned to the Chatham Islands ; however, most of the Moriori settled on Stewart Island / Rakiura , where some of their descendants continue to live today. The Auckland Islands were part of

413-693: A fishing trawler. All three survived the crash, and were found the next day with only minor injuries. The rescue effort was led by Richard Hayes . Three independent scientific expeditions visited the Auckland Islands in 1840. These included the United States Wilkes Expedition aboard the USS Porpoise , d'Urville 's second voyage of the Astrolabe (French) , and the British Ross Expedition aboard

472-629: A juvenile but which returns to the rivers as an adult. The islands have 19 species of endemic freshwater invertebrates, including one mollusc , one crustacean , a mayfly , 12 flies and two caddisflies . The Auckland Islands cockle is endemic to the islands. There are two species of seal which haul out on the islands, the New Zealand fur seal and the threatened New Zealand sea lion . Southern elephant seals are frequent migrants in winter, and leopard seals may also appear. A well-recovering population in excess of 2,000 southern right whales

531-560: A minimum. Entry is by permit only and applicants must undergo thorough pre-expedition quarantine checks. When Andrew Fagan made a solo voyage there in a 5.4 metres (18 ft) plywood yacht (and nearly added to the shipwreck tally), he described the DOC permitting process thus: Not just anyone can go to the Auckland Islands. They are now regarded as special environmentally preserved pieces of land, and to be allowed to go there and touch them, you have to be special as well... Not only, me, but

590-481: A population of a species categorized by the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered , Endangered or Vulnerable . In general, the regular presence of a Critical or Endangered species, irrespective of population size, at a site may be sufficient for a site to qualify as an IBA. For Vulnerable species, the presence of more than threshold numbers at a site is necessary to trigger selection. The site forms one of

649-429: A set selected to ensure that all restricted-range species of an Endemic Bird Area (EBA) or a Secondary Area (SA) are present in significant numbers in at least one site and preferably more. The site forms one of a set selected to ensure adequate representation of all species restricted to a given biome, both across the biome as a whole and for all of its species in each range state. The assessment by expert individuals

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708-549: Is a National Nature Reserve, afforded the highest possible level of protection under New Zealand law. In addition, a marine reserve encompasses all of the Auckland Islands territorial sea and internal waterways. All of New Zealand's subantarctic islands are managed by the Southland Conservancy of the Department of Conservation (DOC). Expedition party size, length of stay and landing on the islands are kept to

767-451: Is a tree asterad native to New Zealand which may have arrived with humans in the 19th century. It is spreading from a historic settlement site at Erebus Cove and covers neighbouring Ewing Island. Harakeke Phormium tenax is found at Erebus Cove, Sealer's Creek, Ranui Cove and Tandy Inlet, and was introduced probably by the second wave of sealers to visit the island, to make rope, twine, baskets, mats etc. Kormiko , Veronica salicifolia ,

826-433: Is almost impenetrable and in places is dense enough to walk on top of. An expedition report from 1907 describes the scrub thusly: The subalpine scrub at 400 ft. made our advance extremely toilsome, the thick masses of Suttonia divaricata scrub had to be cut through before any progress could be made. Throughout our stay on the island this scrub was one of the worst drawbacks we had to encounter; from four to six feet high it

885-618: Is completely lacking. In 1985, following a specific request from the European Economic Community , Birdlife International drew up a list of sites to be protected as a matter of priority. In 1989, a repertoire of IBAs of Europe was released. At first the official name of this type of site was Important Bird Area , hence the acronym IBA, then at the BirdLife World Congress held in Canada in 2014 it

944-748: Is found off the islands, and Port Ross area is considered to be the most important and well-established congregating ground for whales in New Zealand waters. Its importance exceeds the Campbell Island ground. The islands hold important seabird breeding colonies , among them albatrosses , penguins and several small petrels , with a million pairs of sooty shearwater . Landbirds include red-fronted and yellow-crowned parakeet , New Zealand falcon , tūī , bellbirds , pipits , and an endemic subspecies of tomtit . The whole Auckland Island group has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of its significance as

1003-409: Is quite impassable with reasonable exertion; walking on the top can be undertaken only by a very light man. Only with the severest exertion can it be pushed aside to enable a man to pass, crawling under it is out of the question. The scrub band breaks into patches and transitions into extensive grassland of Chionochloa antarctica which in turn merges into a sparsely vegetated fellfield community on

1062-722: Is the only island within the New Zealand Subantarctic Island Area with invasive mammalian pests. A project proposed by the Department of Conservation aims to remove these pests from the island, with feasibility trials started in 2018. DNA analysis suggests that mice— Mus musculus —did not colonise Auckland Island from a New Zealand population but instead arrived with whalers or sealers from North America. They eat invertebrates, seeds, other plant material, native fish eggs and can eat bird eggs and chicks. They severely deplete invertebrate populations, reduce

1121-469: 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 main island features many sharply incised inlets, notably Port Ross at the northern end. The group includes numerous other smaller islands, notably Disappointment Island (northwest of the main island) and Enderby Island (off the northern tip of the main island), altogether covering 12 km (4.6 sq mi). Most of

1180-691: The Cape Expedition were stationed on the island from March 1941 to October 1945. Two stations were constructed: One at Ranui Cove in outer Port Ross and another at Tagua, on Musgrave Peninsula in Carnley Harbour. A base at Waterfall Inlet was the mooring point for the Ranui which serviced the stations. Auckland Islands The Auckland Islands ( Māori : Motu Maha "Many islands" or Maungahuka "Snowy mountains") are an archipelago of New Zealand , lying 465 km (289 mi) south of

1239-752: The Colony of New Zealand under the Letters Patent of April 1842, which fixed the southern boundary of New Zealand at 53° south , but they were then excluded by the New Zealand Constitution Act 1846 , which defined the southern boundary at 47° 10' south; however, they were again included by the New Zealand Boundaries Act of 1863, an act of the Imperial Parliament at Westminster that extended

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1298-620: The Erebus and Terror. The Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition of 1907 by the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury , New Zealand, aboard the ship Hinemoa, spent two weeks on the islands conducting a magnetic survey and taking botanical, zoological and geological specimens. From 1941 to 1945, the islands hosted a New Zealand meteorological station as part of a World War II coastwatching programme staffed by scientist volunteers and known for security reasons as

1357-680: The Faroe Islands and Aleutian Islands . 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. This is the most southerly settlement by Polynesians yet known. The whaler Ocean rediscovered the islands in 1806, finding them uninhabited. Captain Abraham Bristow named them "Lord Auckland's" on 18 August 1806 in honour of his father's friend William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland (whose son

1416-776: The South Island . The main Auckland Island , occupying 460 km (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 km (220 sq mi). The islands have no permanent human inhabitants. The islands are listed with the New Zealand Outlying Islands . The islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, but not part of any region or district , but instead Area Outside Territorial Authority , like all

1475-579: The westernmost point of New Zealand. There are distinct vegetation zones. There is a band of Southern rata Metrosideros umbellata around the coast apart from on the western side, the height of which is determined by the shelter, aspect and degree of the slope. The rata forest may extend into the Chionochloa tussock grasslands but in most places merges into a thick band of low, tight scrub dominated by Dracophyllum longifolium , Ozothamnus vauvilliersii and Myrsine divaricata . This scrub band

1534-524: The " Cape Expedition ". Along with their other duties the Cape Expedition staff undertook biodiversity research and collected scientific specimens. The staff of the Cape Expedition included Robert Falla , later an eminent New Zealand scientist. The 1972–1973 Auckland Islands Expedition spent several months studying the fauna and flora of the Auckland Islands. Currently the islands have no inhabitants, although scientists visit regularly and

1593-704: The 19th century. The pigs were intended as a food source for shipwreck survivors and sealers. Auckland Island pigs are a feral race of domestic pigs which are considered a distinct breed by the Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. Pigs have had a severe impact on populations of megaherbs , with populations of these plants on Auckland Island being almost totally depleted by the early 1900s. Dunnocks , common redpolls , Eurasian blackbirds , song thrushes and common starlings which were introduced onto mainland New Zealand have naturally established on Auckland Island. Oleria lyalli

1652-662: The Auckland Island group. Of these only shags are currently breeding on main Auckland Island, in areas where introduced cats and pigs cannot access their nests. The Auckland Island merganser Mergus australis went extinct in 1902. The population is thought to have been 20–30 breeding pairs prior to predation by introduced pigs and cats. The last specimen was collected as a museum specimen in January 1902. general name for shag or cormorant There are currently introduced pigs, cats and mice on Auckland Island. Auckland Island

1711-474: The Earl of Auckland would be namesake of New Zealand's largest city ). Bristow worked for the businessman Samuel Enderby , the namesake of Enderby Island . The following year Bristow returned on Sarah to claim the archipelago for Britain . The explorers Dumont D'Urville and James Clark Ross visited in 1839 and in 1840 respectively. Whalers and sealers set up temporary bases, the islands becoming one of

1770-538: The Tower of Babel (550 m or 1,804 ft). The southern end of the island broadens to a width of 26 km (16 mi). Here, the narrow channel of Carnley Harbour (the Adams Straits on some maps) separates the main island from the roughly triangular Adams Island (97 km (37 sq mi)), which is even more mountainous, reaching a height of 705 m (2,313 ft) at Mount Dick . The channel

1829-451: The Tower of Babel, at 550 m or 1,804 ft. The southern end of the island broadens to a width of 26 kilometres (16 mi), encompassing Carnley Harbour. At the western side a very narrow channel known as Victoria Passage separates the main island from the smaller Adams Island . Adams Island and the southern part of the main island form the crater rim; three kilometres (1.9 mi) north of Carnley Harbour's mouth lies Cape Lovitt ,

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1888-506: The authorities allow limited tourism on Enderby Island and Auckland Island. The marine environment surrounding the archipelago became a marine mammal sanctuary in 1993 and, unusually, also a marine reserve in 2003, measuring 4,980 km (1,920 sq mi). The Subantarctic Islands marine reserves around the Auckland, Antipodes, Bounty and Campbell Islands combined form the largest natural sanctuary in New Zealand. The botany of

1947-553: The boat as well… I had been directed to Bluff or Dunedin (the choice was mine) to have the bottom of SW inspected by divers to ensure no nasty invasive seaweeds like Undaria were hitching a ride south to set up an environmentally unwanted colony, like the humans had done in 1850. Important Bird Area IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International . There are over 13,000 IBAs worldwide. These sites are small enough to be entirely conserved and differ in their character, habitat or ornithological importance from

2006-587: The boundaries of the colony once more. The Grafton , captained by Thomas Musgrave , was wrecked in Carnley Harbour in 1864. Madelene Ferguson Allen's narrative about her great-grandfather, Robert Holding, and the wreck of the Scottish sailing ship Invercauld , wrecked in the Auckland Islands a few months later in 1864, counterpoints the Grafton story. François Édouard Raynal wrote Wrecked on

2065-491: The depots) and 40 finger-posts (which had smaller amounts of supplies), around the islands. A further maritime tragedy occurred in 1907, with the loss of the Dundonald and 12 of her crew, off Disappointment Island. The 15 survivors lived off the supplies in the Auckland Island depot. In 2019, a helicopter with three people on board crashed into the ocean near Enderby Island, when they were en route to uplift an ill man on

2124-402: The feral cats.". Gut content and scat analysis show that cats are feeding on small passerines and seabirds. A cat was seen feeding on a pre-fledging juvenile white-capped mollymawk at South West Cape. Goats were introduced to the Auckland Islands several times in the second half of the nineteenth century, to serve as a source of food for castaway sailors , with at least one liberation in 1865 on

2183-457: The flora. The islands host the largest communities of subantarctic invertebrates, with 24 species of spider, 11 species of springtail and over 200 insects. These include 57 species of beetle , 110 flies and 39 moths . The islands also boast an endemic genus and species of wētā , Dendroplectron aucklandensis . The freshwater environments of the islands host a freshwater fish, the kōaro or climbing galaxias , which lives in saltwater as

2242-443: The islands have a volcanic origin, with the archipelago dominated by two 12-million-year-old Miocene shield volcanoes , subsequently eroded and dissected. These rest on older volcanic rocks 15–25 million years old with some older granites and fossil-bearing sedimentary rocks from around 100 million years ago. The following table includes named islands according to Land Information New Zealand . Port Ross features

2301-481: The islands sub-divides into distinct altitudinal zones. Inland from the salt-spray zone, the fringes of the islands predominantly feature forests of southern rātā Metrosideros umbellata , and in places the subantarctic tree daisy ( Olearia lyallii ), probably introduced by sealers. Above this exists a subalpine shrub zone dominated by Dracophyllum , Coprosma and Myrsine (with some rātā). At higher elevations tussock grass and megaherb communities dominate

2360-588: The islands until its extinction. The New Zealand Department of Conservation plans to remove the last remaining introduced mammals from Auckland Island, making the entire island group pest-free, in what would be one of the largest multi-species eradication plans in the world. This project started in November 2018, with NZ$ 2 million of initial scoping work. The total cost for the eradication could stretch to NZ$ 40–50 million over 10 years. The Auckland Islands – as with all of New Zealand's subantarctic islands –

2419-600: The islands was first described in the Flora of Lord Auckland and Campbell's Islands , a product of the Ross expedition of 1839–43, written by Joseph Dalton Hooker and published by Reeve Brothers in London between 1843 and 1845. Since then, many other botanists have studied the flora of the Auckland Islands, which comprises 228 vascular plant species, of which over 80% are indigenous and about 20% are introduced. The vegetation of

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2478-423: The islands, in spite of numerous visits and shipwrecks and their ubiquity on other islands. Introduced species have significantly negatively altered habitats and ecosystem processes, suppressed vegetation, and reduced or extirpated birds on many of the islands. They have, for example, caused the extinction of the New Zealand merganser , a duck formerly widespread in southern New Zealand, and ultimately confined to

2537-491: The islands; goats, other useful animals and seed were brought to the islands by Captains Musgrave and Norman 1865, returning to search for castaways; ecologists eliminated or allowed to go extinct cattle , sheep, goats, dogs, possums and rabbits in the 1990s, but feral cats , pigs and mice remain on Auckland Island. The last rabbits on Enderby Island were removed in 1993 through the application of poison, also eradicating mice there. Curiously, rats have never colonised

2596-435: The latitudes 50° 30' and 50° 55' S and longitudes 165° 50' and 166° 20' E. They include Auckland Island , Adams Island , Enderby Island , Disappointment Island , Ewing Island , Rose Island , Dundas Island, and Green Island, with a combined area of 570 km (220 sq mi). The islands are close to each other, separated by narrow channels, and the coastline is rugged, with numerous deep inlets. Auckland Island,

2655-407: The main Auckland Island. By the 1970s, only one population remained, a group of about 100 based on the northwest side of Port Ross , in the north-east of the main island. Browsing by goats caused significant damage to lowland tussock Chinochloa antarctica in particular. In 1986 and 1987, over 60 animals were removed from the island for captive breeding in New Zealand. A decision was made to eradicate

2714-436: The main island, has an approximate land area of 510 km (197 sq mi), and a length of 42 km (26 mi). It is notable for its steep cliffs and rugged terrain, which rises to over 600 m (1,969 ft). Prominent peaks include Cavern Peak (659 m or 2,162 ft), Mount Raynal (635 m or 2,083 ft), Mount D'Urville (630 m or 2,067 ft), Mount Easton (610 m or 2,001 ft), and

2773-421: The most exposed alpine areas. The megaherbs Anisotome antipoda , Anisotome latifolia , Bulbinella rossii , Pleurophyllum criniferum , Pleurophyllum hookeri , Pleurophyllum speciosum and Stilbocarpa polaris were historically found from the coast into the alpine, however the distribution and populations of these species have been severely impacted by the actions of introduced pigs. Port Ross at

2832-510: The north end of Auckland Island is the only breeding site for the New Zealand population of southern right whales . Up to 400 may be found in the harbour during the winter months, and are regularly surveyed by the University of Otago. A breeding population of New Zealand sea lions is found on the island. 80% of the total population live and breed in the archipelago. The New Zealand Department of Conservation has conducted an annual survey of

2891-588: The other outlying islands except the Solander Islands . Ecologically, the Auckland Islands form part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion . Along with other New Zealand Subantarctic Islands , they were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. The Auckland Islands lie 360 km (220 mi) south of Stewart Island , and 465 km (289 mi) from the South Island port of Bluff , between

2950-497: The population on the islands since 1994. The island is part of the Auckland Island group Important Bird Area (IBA), identified as such by BirdLife International because of the significance of the group as a breeding site for several species of seabirds . The Gibson's albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni, Auckland shag Leucocarbo colensoi, Auckland teal Anas aucklandica , Auckland rail Lewinia muelleri and Auckland snipe Coenocorypha aucklandica are all endemic to

3009-622: The principal sealing stations in the Pacific in the years immediately after their discovery. By 1812, so many seals had been killed that the islands lost their commercial importance and sealers redirected their efforts towards Campbell and Macquarie Islands . Visits to the islands declined, although recovering seal populations allowed a modest revival in sealing in the mid-1820s. The sealing era lasted from 1807 till 1894, during which time 82 vessels are recorded as visiting for sealing purposes. Some 11 of these ships were wrecked off-shore. Relics of

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3068-516: The remaining animals, an operation which was completed by 1992. An investigation in 1999 into the fate of the translocated animals in New Zealand found that the breed had become extinct. 50°41′S 166°05′E  /  50.69°S 166.08°E  / -50.69; 166.08 Pigs— Sus scrofa —were first introduced at Port Ross in the north of Auckland Island in 1807 by Captain Abraham Bristow and several further liberations occurred in

3127-409: The sealing period include inscriptions, the remains of huts, and graves. Now uninhabited , the islands saw unsuccessful settlements in the mid-19th century. In 1842, a small party of 70 Māori and their Moriori slaves from the Chatham Islands migrated to the archipelago, surviving for about 20 years or so on sealing and flax growing. Samuel Enderby's grandson, Charles Enderby , proposed

3186-740: The seedbank, eat seedlings & plants and compete with birds for food resources. Domestic cats— Felis catus —were first recorded at Terror Cove in 1840, presumably introduced by sealers, but most likely arrived in the two decades prior to this. The impact of cats on the birds of Auckland Island was first noted by the Coastwatchers, who tamed some for company – the Ranui Station cats were recorded to kill 60 Antarctic prions over three months in 1942. Ornithologist Brian Bell found that prions were confined to cliff faces at Crozier Point in 1962 and noted "any bird landing...[fell] an immediate prey to

3245-578: The surrounding habitat. In the United States the program is administered by the National Audubon Society . Often IBAs form part of a country's existing protected area network, and so are protected under national legislation. Legal recognition and protection of IBAs that are not within existing protected areas varies within different countries. Some countries have a National IBA Conservation Strategy, whereas in others protection

3304-408: Was decided to adopt the name Important Bird and Biodiversity Area , without changing the acronym. IBAs are determined by an internationally agreed set of criteria. Specific IBA thresholds are set by regional and national governing organizations. To be listed as an IBA, a site must satisfy at least one of the following rating criteria: The site qualifies if it is known, estimated or thought to hold

3363-465: Was first reported in 1975 around the Lindley Point farmhouse site at Deas Head, built in 1851. There is archaeological evidence that the Auckland Islands were briefly settled and abandoned by Polynesians around 600–700 years ago. Māori and Moriori from the Chatham Islands settled at Ranui Cove from 1842 till 1856. Auckland Island was the site of the failed settlement of Hardwicke , which

3422-657: Was formed 25 to 10 million years ago from a huge volcanic pile which formed two domes – one centred around Carnley Harbour in the south and another (the Ross Dome) around Disappointment Island to the west. The island is made of volcanic scoria , blanketed in over 2m of peat. It is notable for its steep cliffs and rugged terrain, which rises to over 600 m (1,969 ft). Prominent peaks include Cavern Peak, at 659 m or 2,162 ft; Mount Raynal, at 635 m or 2,083 ft; Mount D'Urville , at 630 m or 2,067 ft; Mount Easton, at 610 m or 2,001 ft; and

3481-760: Was founded in 1849 but survived only three years before being disbanded in 1852. Both the Grafton and the Invercauld were wrecked on Auckland Island in 1864, and groups of survivors lived unaware of each other on opposite ends of the island. The Grafton survivors lived for 18 months on the island before building a boat and sailing to New Zealand; the Invercauld survivors camped in the remains of Hardwicke; and all but three died before being rescued. The German transit of Venus expedition of 1874 made observations from Terror Cove in Port Ross. Coastwatchers from

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