Funk Island
Encyclopedia
Funk Island is a small, barren, isolated, uninhabited island approximately 60 kilometres (37.3 mi) northeast of Wesleyville
, Newfoundland
, Canada
.
granite
and is traversed by two distinct fault lines which cross the island in a northwesterly direction, almost parallel to each other. The fault lines divide the island into three separate entities. The northeastern portion consists mainly of bare rock; the central portion has scattered vegetation; and the largest portion of the island, the southwestern, which occupies over half of the land surface, is covered with grasses, lichen
s and moss
es.
Landing on the Funk Island is extremely difficult and dangerous, though in calm weather there are three points where a safe landing can be effected. Gannet Head, the southwestern corner of the island, and Landing Rock, just north of Gannet Head, are two such places. On the north side, approximately 0.17 km west of Escape Point, the easternmost tip of the island, there is a steep clift. Set in the clift is a natural shelf, called The Bench, approximately 1.2 m wide, which slopes up the clift face which allow relatively easy access to the surface.
The cold Labrador Current provides good breeding ground for cold water fish which in turn support the large breeding sea-bird population of the island. At high tide the seas break widely against the cliffs and in particularly high seas waves break over the island.
There are two large rock bunkers which lie off the southwest side of the island. The two bunkers are washed over by the sea, and provide roosting but not nesting areas for many of the sea birds, particularly the gannets. The island and the bunkers make up what is known as the "Funks."
There are no navigational aids or lighthouses on the island despite the number of shipwrecks and the loss of life which have occurred in the area.
and phosphate
concentrations found in the guano
deposited by the many millions of birds which have nested there over the centuries.
Some contend that the name may be traced to a Norse
or Iceland
ic word for a haycock
which the island resembles. This hypothesis appears unlikely, since the name Funk did not often appear on maps until the late 18th century. Before that time the island was usually referred to as Penguin
Island.
It is believed that Gaspar Corte-Real
visited the island in 1501. Shortly after that date it appears on two maps by Pedro Reinel
as Y Dos Saues (1504) and Ylhas das aves (1520), both of which refer to an island of birds. A 1626 map by Pierre Mortier labels the place I des Penguins, while an Italian
map dated 1661 has the island marked as I Penguin Abonda di Vecelli (Penguin Island abounding with birds). One the earliest British maps by cartographer
Herman Moll
, dated 1716, refers to it as Penguin Island. The name Funk Island appears on James Cook
's 1775 map as it does in the charts and surveys compiled in 1765. According to the book Pioneers in Canada (Blackie and Sons 1912) Jacques Cartier in 1534 commented on the great number of birds and Polar Bears on Funk island
Funk Island was probably called Penguin Island after the Great Auk
which nested on the islands in thousands, and possibly tens of thousands, up to the late 18th century when its numbers declined drastically.
, who visited Newfoundland and Labrador in 1766 told of a type of pudding the Beothuk
made from eggs which had been collected from Penguin (Funk) Island. In earlier times, The Great Auk
was also known as the garefowl, from the Norse, "Geirfugl".
Many explorers and fishing nations made trips to the Funks to acquire sea birds for food and oil for their lamps. The Great Auk
s were flightless birds that were an easy prey. In 1578, 350 Spanish
and French
vessels and fifty English
vessels were reported fishing nearby. Later settlers along the northeast coast of Newfoundland often made the short trip to the Funks to kill birds for food and lamp oil; they also used the feathers for pillows and mattresses and gathered the eggs for food.
In 1622 Sir Richard Whitbourne
told of how the birds were driven up the gang planks into the boats. He remarked that it was "as if God had made the innocency of so poore a creature to become such an admirable instrument for the sustenation of man."
Naturalists and scientists had become interested in the plight of the great auk and by June 1841 a Norwegian naturalist, Dr. Peter Stuvitz visited Funk Island with the hope of obtaining specimens of the birds, but was forced to leave due to weather conditions on the island.
The second visit of a scientific nature occurred in 1863, when Thomas Molloy, the United States Consul to Newfoundland, received permission from the Government of Newfoundland to go to the Funk Island to mine remains of the Great Auk. Thirty-five tons of the decomposed organic material was secured by Molloy's expedition. Of these five tons was sold locally at nineteen dollars a ton while the other thirty tons was shipped to Boston
, Baltimore
and Washington D.C., where it was used to fertilize the gardens of wealthy Americans.
In July 1873 seismologist and naturalist
John Milne
went to the island and was successful in retrieving partial skeletons and miscellaneous bones before inclement weather cut short his stay. He reported that there was an abundance of terns on Funk Island but that the murre and razorbill
population had been almost destroyed by egg gatherers. In a hazardous landing and in only the one hour that was allowed by the dangerous tides and high waves surrounding the island, Milne discovered in a small, grassy hollow, the skeletal remains of no fewer than fifty birds. Some of them exceeded in size any that had before been known. His collection of Great Auk
skeletons subsequently found its way into various public museums. In a scientific paper he wrote in 1875 describing his trip he included a detailed collection of facts relating to the extinct bird that covered five geographical regions, including prehistoric kitchen middens of Caithness
.
The most successful of the early scientific expeditions to Funk Island occurred in 1887. It was sponsored by the United States Fish Commission
and was under the direction of Frederick A. Lucas. After a brief sojourn in St. John's, the group's ship, the Grampus, arrived at Funk Island on July 22, 1887. They found in their search area, roughly one quarter of the land surface of the island was covered with between .6 and 1.2 m of earth. The earth contained egg shells mixed with granite pebbles in depths ranging from 5 to 30 cm. Many more skeletons were unearthed and taken away for other scientific study.
This expedition did other scientific work on Funk Island, including the collection of rock specimens. During their search of the island they also discovered several iron kettles, rusted and broken, which were believed to have been used to scald the bodies of the Great Auks to make removal of the feathers easier. Near the western edge of the Auks' breeding grounds they discovered enclosures made of granite blocks. The Auks had been herded into these compounds to make slaughtering easier.
There have been many other expeditions since, right up to 1982. In 1964 the island became a Provincial Wildlife Sanctuary and landing there was prohibited without a permit. With the creation of the sanctuary, the bird population began to be protected and monitored.
In 1972 the largest population on the Funk Island was that of the Thin-Billed or Common Murre, the population count was 396,461 pairs. That number accounts for 80% of the breeding population in eastern North America and makes Funk Island one of the most important of the sea bird colonies in the world. In 1982 the sea bird population on Funk Island was estimated at over 1,000,000 birds.
Wesleyville, Newfoundland and Labrador
Wesleyville is a small coastal community in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is located on the Straight Shore of the northeast coast of Newfoundland, near the communities of Greenspond and Newtown...
, Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Geography
The island is roughly trapezoidal in shape, with a maximum length of 0.8 km and a maximum width of 0.3 km and is nearly flat, rising 14 m out of the North Atlantic. The island is composed of feldspathicFeldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and is traversed by two distinct fault lines which cross the island in a northwesterly direction, almost parallel to each other. The fault lines divide the island into three separate entities. The northeastern portion consists mainly of bare rock; the central portion has scattered vegetation; and the largest portion of the island, the southwestern, which occupies over half of the land surface, is covered with grasses, lichen
Lichen
Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...
s and moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
es.
Landing on the Funk Island is extremely difficult and dangerous, though in calm weather there are three points where a safe landing can be effected. Gannet Head, the southwestern corner of the island, and Landing Rock, just north of Gannet Head, are two such places. On the north side, approximately 0.17 km west of Escape Point, the easternmost tip of the island, there is a steep clift. Set in the clift is a natural shelf, called The Bench, approximately 1.2 m wide, which slopes up the clift face which allow relatively easy access to the surface.
The cold Labrador Current provides good breeding ground for cold water fish which in turn support the large breeding sea-bird population of the island. At high tide the seas break widely against the cliffs and in particularly high seas waves break over the island.
There are two large rock bunkers which lie off the southwest side of the island. The two bunkers are washed over by the sea, and provide roosting but not nesting areas for many of the sea birds, particularly the gannets. The island and the bunkers make up what is known as the "Funks."
There are no navigational aids or lighthouses on the island despite the number of shipwrecks and the loss of life which have occurred in the area.
History
The name Funk, which means evil odor or vapour, is thought to have been given to the island because of the foul odor which predominates there. The smell arises from the nitrateNitrate
The nitrate ion is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. It is the conjugate base of nitric acid, consisting of one central nitrogen atom surrounded by three identically-bonded oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement. The nitrate ion carries a...
and phosphate
Phosphate
A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...
concentrations found in the guano
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...
deposited by the many millions of birds which have nested there over the centuries.
Some contend that the name may be traced to a Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
or Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic word for a haycock
Haycock
Haycock may refer to:* Haycock Township, Pennsylvania* Haycock , a hill in the English Lake District...
which the island resembles. This hypothesis appears unlikely, since the name Funk did not often appear on maps until the late 18th century. Before that time the island was usually referred to as Penguin
Great Auk
The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, was a large, flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean...
Island.
It is believed that Gaspar Corte-Real
Gaspar Corte-Real
Gaspar Corte-Real was a Portuguese explorer.He was the youngest of three sons of João Vaz Corte-Real, also a Portuguese explorer, and had accompanied his father on his expeditions to North America...
visited the island in 1501. Shortly after that date it appears on two maps by Pedro Reinel
Pedro Reinel
Pedro Reinel was a Portuguese cartographer of the 16th century, author of one of the oldest signed Portuguese nautical chart . That is a portolan type of chart, covering western Europe and part of Africa, and already reflecting the explorations made by Diogo Cão in 1482-1485. With his son Jorge...
as Y Dos Saues (1504) and Ylhas das aves (1520), both of which refer to an island of birds. A 1626 map by Pierre Mortier labels the place I des Penguins, while an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
map dated 1661 has the island marked as I Penguin Abonda di Vecelli (Penguin Island abounding with birds). One the earliest British maps by cartographer
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
Herman Moll
Herman Moll
Herman Moll , was a cartographer, engraver, and publisher. Moll moved to England in 1678 and opened a book and map store in London...
, dated 1716, refers to it as Penguin Island. The name Funk Island appears on James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
's 1775 map as it does in the charts and surveys compiled in 1765. According to the book Pioneers in Canada (Blackie and Sons 1912) Jacques Cartier in 1534 commented on the great number of birds and Polar Bears on Funk island
Funk Island was probably called Penguin Island after the Great Auk
Great Auk
The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, was a large, flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean...
which nested on the islands in thousands, and possibly tens of thousands, up to the late 18th century when its numbers declined drastically.
Demise of The Great Auk
It is believed that Funk Island was visited shortly after the first native peoples settled in northeastern Newfoundland. Joseph BanksJoseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
, who visited Newfoundland and Labrador in 1766 told of a type of pudding the Beothuk
Beothuk
The Beothuk were one of the aboriginal peoples in Canada. They lived on the island of Newfoundland at the time of European contact in the 15th and 16th centuries...
made from eggs which had been collected from Penguin (Funk) Island. In earlier times, The Great Auk
Great Auk
The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, was a large, flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean...
was also known as the garefowl, from the Norse, "Geirfugl".
Many explorers and fishing nations made trips to the Funks to acquire sea birds for food and oil for their lamps. The Great Auk
Great Auk
The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, was a large, flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean...
s were flightless birds that were an easy prey. In 1578, 350 Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
vessels and fifty English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
vessels were reported fishing nearby. Later settlers along the northeast coast of Newfoundland often made the short trip to the Funks to kill birds for food and lamp oil; they also used the feathers for pillows and mattresses and gathered the eggs for food.
In 1622 Sir Richard Whitbourne
Richard Whitbourne
Sir Richard Whitbourne was an English colonist, author and mariner.Richard Whitbourne was born near Teignmouth in Devon, England. Whilst apprenticed to a merchant adventurer of Southampton, he sailed extensively around Europe and twice to Newfoundland. He served in a ship of his own against the...
told of how the birds were driven up the gang planks into the boats. He remarked that it was "as if God had made the innocency of so poore a creature to become such an admirable instrument for the sustenation of man."
Scientific Expeditions
By 1800 the Great Auk was probably extinct on Funk Island, and by 1844, in the world.Naturalists and scientists had become interested in the plight of the great auk and by June 1841 a Norwegian naturalist, Dr. Peter Stuvitz visited Funk Island with the hope of obtaining specimens of the birds, but was forced to leave due to weather conditions on the island.
The second visit of a scientific nature occurred in 1863, when Thomas Molloy, the United States Consul to Newfoundland, received permission from the Government of Newfoundland to go to the Funk Island to mine remains of the Great Auk. Thirty-five tons of the decomposed organic material was secured by Molloy's expedition. Of these five tons was sold locally at nineteen dollars a ton while the other thirty tons was shipped to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
and Washington D.C., where it was used to fertilize the gardens of wealthy Americans.
In July 1873 seismologist and naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
John Milne
John Milne
For other uses, see John Milne .John Milne was the British geologist and mining engineer who worked on a horizontal seismograph.-Biography:...
went to the island and was successful in retrieving partial skeletons and miscellaneous bones before inclement weather cut short his stay. He reported that there was an abundance of terns on Funk Island but that the murre and razorbill
Razorbill
The Razorbill is colonial seabird that will only come to land in order to breed. It is the largest living member of the Auk family. This agile bird will choose only one partner for life and females will lay one egg per year. Razorbills will nest along coastal cliffs in enclosed or slightly exposed...
population had been almost destroyed by egg gatherers. In a hazardous landing and in only the one hour that was allowed by the dangerous tides and high waves surrounding the island, Milne discovered in a small, grassy hollow, the skeletal remains of no fewer than fifty birds. Some of them exceeded in size any that had before been known. His collection of Great Auk
Great Auk
The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, was a large, flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean...
skeletons subsequently found its way into various public museums. In a scientific paper he wrote in 1875 describing his trip he included a detailed collection of facts relating to the extinct bird that covered five geographical regions, including prehistoric kitchen middens of Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
.
The most successful of the early scientific expeditions to Funk Island occurred in 1887. It was sponsored by the United States Fish Commission
United States Fish Commission
The United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries was established on February 9, 1871 , as an independent commission with a mandate to investigate the causes for the decrease of commercial fish and aquatic animals in U.S...
and was under the direction of Frederick A. Lucas. After a brief sojourn in St. John's, the group's ship, the Grampus, arrived at Funk Island on July 22, 1887. They found in their search area, roughly one quarter of the land surface of the island was covered with between .6 and 1.2 m of earth. The earth contained egg shells mixed with granite pebbles in depths ranging from 5 to 30 cm. Many more skeletons were unearthed and taken away for other scientific study.
This expedition did other scientific work on Funk Island, including the collection of rock specimens. During their search of the island they also discovered several iron kettles, rusted and broken, which were believed to have been used to scald the bodies of the Great Auks to make removal of the feathers easier. Near the western edge of the Auks' breeding grounds they discovered enclosures made of granite blocks. The Auks had been herded into these compounds to make slaughtering easier.
There have been many other expeditions since, right up to 1982. In 1964 the island became a Provincial Wildlife Sanctuary and landing there was prohibited without a permit. With the creation of the sanctuary, the bird population began to be protected and monitored.
Breeding Colonies
Eleven marine bird species have been known to breed on Funk Island.- the Great AukGreat AukThe Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, was a large, flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean...
- the Arctic TernArctic TernThe Arctic Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America...
- the Northern GannetNorthern GannetThe Northern Gannet is a seabird and is the largest member of the gannet family, Sulidae.- Description :Young birds are dark brown in their first year, and gradually acquire more white in subsequent seasons until they reach maturity after five years.Adults are long, weigh and have a wingspan...
- the Northern FulmarNorthern FulmarThe Northern Fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis, Fulmar, or Arctic Fulmar is a highly abundant sea bird found primarily in subarctic regions of the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans. Fulmars come in one of two color morphs: a light one which is almost entirely white, and a dark one which is...
- the Great Black-backed GullGreat Black-backed GullThe Great Black-backed Gull is the largest gull in the world, which breeds on the European and North American coasts and islands of the North Atlantic...
- the Herring GullAmerican Herring GullThe American Herring Gull or Smithsonian Gull is a large gull which breeds in North America. It is often treated as a subspecies of the European Herring Gull but is now regarded as a separate species by some authorities.Adults are white with gray back and wings, black wingtips with white spots,...
- the Black-legged KittiwakeBlack-legged KittiwakeThe Black-legged Kittiwake is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae.This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Larus tridactylus....
- the RazorbillRazorbillThe Razorbill is colonial seabird that will only come to land in order to breed. It is the largest living member of the Auk family. This agile bird will choose only one partner for life and females will lay one egg per year. Razorbills will nest along coastal cliffs in enclosed or slightly exposed...
- the Thick Billed MurreBrünnich's GuillemotThe Thick-billed Murre or Brünnich's Guillemot is a bird in the auk family . This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich...
- the Atlantic PuffinAtlantic PuffinThe Atlantic Puffin is a seabird species in the auk family. It is a pelagic bird that feeds primarily by diving for fish, but also eats other sea creatures, such as squid and crustaceans. Its most obvious characteristic during the breeding season is its brightly coloured bill...
and - the Common MurreCommon GuillemotThe Common Murre or Common Guillemot is a large auk. It is also known as the Thin-billed Murre in North America. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North-Atlantic and North Pacific...
In 1972 the largest population on the Funk Island was that of the Thin-Billed or Common Murre, the population count was 396,461 pairs. That number accounts for 80% of the breeding population in eastern North America and makes Funk Island one of the most important of the sea bird colonies in the world. In 1982 the sea bird population on Funk Island was estimated at over 1,000,000 birds.