Prince Edward Islands
Encyclopedia
The Prince Edward Islands are two small islands in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean
that are part of South Africa
. The islands, named Marion Island and Prince Edward Island, are located at 46°46′23"S 037°51′09"E.
The islands in the group have been declared Special Nature Reserves under the South African Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, No. 57 of 2003, and activities on the islands are therefore restricted to research and conservation management. The only human inhabitants of the islands are the staff of a meteorological
and biological
research station run by the South African National Antarctic Programme
on Marion Island.
. Marion Island (46°54′45"S 37°44′37"E), the larger of the two, is 25.03 km (15.6 mi) long and 16.65 km (10.3 mi) wide with an area of 290 km² (112 sq mi) and a coastline of some 72 km (44.7 mi), most of which is high cliffs. The highest point on Marion Island is Mascarin Peak
(formerly State President Swart Peak), reaching 1242 m (4,075 ft) above sea level. Boot Rock is about 150 metres (492 ft) off the northern coast.
Prince Edward Island (46°38′39"S 37°56′36"E) is much smaller — only about 45 km² (17 sq mi), 10.23 km (6.4 mi) long and 6.57 km (4.1 mi) wide — and lies some 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) to the north-east. At the Von Zinderen Bakker Peak north-west of the center, it reaches a height of 672 metres (2,205 ft). There are a few offshore rocks along the northern coast, like Ship Rock (100 m (328 ft), north of northernmost point) and Ross Rocks (500 m (1,640 ft), from the shore).
Both islands are of volcanic origin. Marion Island is one of the peaks of a large underwater shield volcano
that rises some 5000 metres (16,404 ft) from the sea floor to the top of Mascarin Peak. The volcano is active, with eruptions having occurred between 1980 and 2004.
Summer and winter have fairly similar climates with cold winds and threat of snow or frost at any time of the year. However, the mean temperature in February (midsummer) is 8.3 °C (46.9 °F) and in August (midwinter) it is 3.9 °C (39 °F).
ecoregion
that includes several subantarctic
islands. In this cold climate, plant life is mainly limited to grasses, moss
es and lichen
s, while the main indigenous animals are insects along with large populations of seabird
s, seal
s and penguin
s. The waters surrounding the islands are often frequented by several species of whale, especially orca
s which prey on penguins and seals.
The wildlife is particularly vulnerable to introduced species
and one particular problem has been cats. In 1949, five domestic cat
s were brought to Marion Island to deal with a mouse
problem in the station. The cats multiplied quickly, and by 1977 there were approximately 3,400 cats on the island, feeding on burrowing petrel
s instead of mice, threatening to drive the birds to extinction on the island. Some species of petrels became extinct on Marion Island, and a "cat eradication program" was established. A few cats were infected with the highly specific feline panleukopenia
virus, which reduced the cat population to about 600 by 1982. The remaining cats were killed by nocturnal shooting, and in 1991 only eight cats were trapped in a 12 month period. It is believed that no cats remain on Marion Island today.
The islands were discovered in 1663 by the Dutch
ship Maerseveen and were named Dina (Prince Edward) and Maerseveen (Marion). In 1772, Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne
visited the islands and spent five days trying to land, thinking he had found Antarctica (then not yet proven to exist). In 1776, his expedition, now headed by his second-in-command, Jules Crozet, after the death of du Fresne, met James Cook
in Cape Town
. Cook subsequently set sail for the islands, but was unable to attempt a landing due to bad weather conditions. Cook named the smaller island after Prince Edward
, the fourth son of King George III
, and to the larger gave the name of Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne
.
The first recorded landing was in 1803 and was made by a group of seal hunters. These sealers, however, found signs of earlier human occupation, probably other sealers. James Clark Ross
also visited the islands in 1840 but was also unable to land. Finally, the islands were surveyed by Captain George Nares
in 1873.
In 1908, the British government, assuming ownership of the islands, granted William Newton the rights to exploit guano
deposits for the next twenty-one years. Also in 1908, shipwrecked hunters established a village at the north coast, called Fairbairn Settlement. A ten-year grant for seal exploitation was issued by the British to a sealing company in 1926.
In late 1947 and early 1948, South Africa
, with Britain's agreement, annexed the islands and installed the meteorological
station on Transvaal Cove on the north-east coast of Marion Island. The research station was soon enlarged and today researches the biology
of the islands, in particular the birds (penguin
s, petrel
s, albatross
es, gull
s) and seals. Today, the research station is called RSA Marion Station.
On September 22, 1979, one of the US
Vela
spy satellites recorded an activity near the Prince Edward Islands, which was initially interpreted as the "double flash" of a small nuclear test. The event is still controversial and is known as the Vela Incident
.
force from the HMSAS Transvaal on 29 December 1947 and 4 January 1948 respectively. On 1 October 1948 the annexation was made official when Governor-General
Gideon Brand van Zyl
signed the Prince Edward Islands Act, 1948. Because the United Kingdom
relinquished its claims on the islands to South Africa, no other nation has made a claim on the islands, and they have been occupied continuously since 1948 by South Africa, the status of the islands is not in dispute.
In terms of the Act, the islands fall under the jurisdiction of the Cape Town
Magistrate's Court, and South African law
as applied in the Western Cape
applies on them. The islands are also deemed to be situated within the electoral district containing the Port of Cape Town
; this is ward 55 of the City of Cape Town
.
ZS8, was the third most wanted DXCC "entity" by the amateur radio
community. It was hoped that a new radio operator at the meteorological station would meet some of this demand.
.
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
that are part of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. The islands, named Marion Island and Prince Edward Island, are located at 46°46′23"S 037°51′09"E.
The islands in the group have been declared Special Nature Reserves under the South African Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, No. 57 of 2003, and activities on the islands are therefore restricted to research and conservation management. The only human inhabitants of the islands are the staff of a meteorological
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
and biological
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
research station run by the South African National Antarctic Programme
South African National Antarctic Programme
The South African National Antarctic Programme is the South African government's program for research in the Antarctic and Subantarctic. Three research stations fall under this program, the Antarctica research station SANAE IV, and two stations named after the subantartic island that they can be...
on Marion Island.
Geography and geology
The island group is about 955 nmi (1,768.7 km; 1,099 mi) south-east of Port Elizabeth in mainland South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Marion Island (46°54′45"S 37°44′37"E), the larger of the two, is 25.03 km (15.6 mi) long and 16.65 km (10.3 mi) wide with an area of 290 km² (112 sq mi) and a coastline of some 72 km (44.7 mi), most of which is high cliffs. The highest point on Marion Island is Mascarin Peak
Mascarin Peak
Mascarin Peak , is the highest mountain on Marion Island, with a height of . Marion Island is the largest island of the Prince Edward Islands in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean. The islands belong to South Africa and are administered by the South African National Antarctic Programme....
(formerly State President Swart Peak), reaching 1242 m (4,075 ft) above sea level. Boot Rock is about 150 metres (492 ft) off the northern coast.
Prince Edward Island (46°38′39"S 37°56′36"E) is much smaller — only about 45 km² (17 sq mi), 10.23 km (6.4 mi) long and 6.57 km (4.1 mi) wide — and lies some 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) to the north-east. At the Von Zinderen Bakker Peak north-west of the center, it reaches a height of 672 metres (2,205 ft). There are a few offshore rocks along the northern coast, like Ship Rock (100 m (328 ft), north of northernmost point) and Ross Rocks (500 m (1,640 ft), from the shore).
Both islands are of volcanic origin. Marion Island is one of the peaks of a large underwater shield volcano
Shield volcano
A shield volcano is a type of volcano usually built almost entirely of fluid lava flows. They are named for their large size and low profile, resembling a warrior's shield. This is caused by the highly fluid lava they erupt, which travels farther than lava erupted from more explosive volcanoes...
that rises some 5000 metres (16,404 ft) from the sea floor to the top of Mascarin Peak. The volcano is active, with eruptions having occurred between 1980 and 2004.
Climate
The islands lie directly in the path of eastward-moving depressions all year round and this gives them an unusually cool and windy climate. Strong winds blow almost every day of the year and the prevailing wind direction is north-westerly. Annual rainfall averages from 2400 mm (94.5 in) up to over 3000 mm (118.1 in) on Mascarin Peak. It rains on average about 320 days a year (about 28 days a month) and the islands are among the cloudiest places in the world – about 1300 hours a year on the sheltered eastern side of Marion island but falling to around 800 hours away from the coast and on the wet western sides of Marion and Prince Edward Island.Summer and winter have fairly similar climates with cold winds and threat of snow or frost at any time of the year. However, the mean temperature in February (midsummer) is 8.3 °C (46.9 °F) and in August (midwinter) it is 3.9 °C (39 °F).
Flora and fauna
The islands are part of the Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundraSouthern Indian Ocean Islands tundra
The Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra is a tundra ecoregion that includes several subantarctic islands in the southern Indian Ocean.-Location and description:...
ecoregion
Ecoregion
An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...
that includes several subantarctic
Subantarctic
The Subantarctic is a region in the southern hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° – 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands in the southern parts of the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and...
islands. In this cold climate, plant life is mainly limited to grasses, 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 and 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, while the main indigenous animals are insects along with large populations of seabird
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have 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...
s, seal
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
s and penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
s. The waters surrounding the islands are often frequented by several species of whale, especially orca
Orca
The killer whale , commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas...
s which prey on penguins and seals.
The wildlife is particularly vulnerable to introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
and one particular problem has been cats. In 1949, five domestic cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
s were brought to Marion Island to deal with a mouse
Mouse
A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
problem in the station. The cats multiplied quickly, and by 1977 there were approximately 3,400 cats on the island, feeding on burrowing petrel
Petrel
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group...
s instead of mice, threatening to drive the birds to extinction on the island. Some species of petrels became extinct on Marion Island, and a "cat eradication program" was established. A few cats were infected with the highly specific feline panleukopenia
Feline panleukopenia
Feline panleukopenia virus , also known as Feline infectious enteritis, Feline distemper, feline ataxia, or cat plague, is a viral infection affecting cats, both domesticated and wild feline species. It is caused by feline parvovirus, a close relative of both type 2 canine parvovirus and mink...
virus, which reduced the cat population to about 600 by 1982. The remaining cats were killed by nocturnal shooting, and in 1991 only eight cats were trapped in a 12 month period. It is believed that no cats remain on Marion Island today.
History
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
ship Maerseveen and were named Dina (Prince Edward) and Maerseveen (Marion). In 1772, Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne , with the surname sometimes spelt Dufresne, was a French explorer who made important discoveries in the south Indian Ocean, in Tasmania and in New Zealand, where he died...
visited the islands and spent five days trying to land, thinking he had found Antarctica (then not yet proven to exist). In 1776, his expedition, now headed by his second-in-command, Jules Crozet, after the death of du Fresne, met 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...
in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. Cook subsequently set sail for the islands, but was unable to attempt a landing due to bad weather conditions. Cook named the smaller island after Prince Edward
Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
The Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn was a member of the British Royal Family, the fourth son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria...
, the fourth son of King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
, and to the larger gave the name of Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne , with the surname sometimes spelt Dufresne, was a French explorer who made important discoveries in the south Indian Ocean, in Tasmania and in New Zealand, where he died...
.
The first recorded landing was in 1803 and was made by a group of seal hunters. These sealers, however, found signs of earlier human occupation, probably other sealers. James Clark Ross
James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross , was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry, and later led his own expedition to Antarctica.-Arctic explorer:...
also visited the islands in 1840 but was also unable to land. Finally, the islands were surveyed by Captain George Nares
George Nares
Vice-Admiral Sir George Strong Nares KCB FRS was a British naval officer and Arctic explorer. He commanded both the Challenger Expedition and the British Arctic Expedition, and was highly thought of a leader and a scientific explorer...
in 1873.
In 1908, the British government, assuming ownership of the islands, granted William Newton the rights to exploit 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...
deposits for the next twenty-one years. Also in 1908, shipwrecked hunters established a village at the north coast, called Fairbairn Settlement. A ten-year grant for seal exploitation was issued by the British to a sealing company in 1926.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, with Britain's agreement, annexed the islands and installed the meteorological
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
station on Transvaal Cove on the north-east coast of Marion Island. The research station was soon enlarged and today researches the biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
of the islands, in particular the birds (penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
s, petrel
Petrel
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group...
s, albatross
Albatross
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes . They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific...
es, gull
Gull
Gulls are birds in the family Laridae. They are most closely related to the terns and only distantly related to auks, skimmers, and more distantly to the waders...
s) and seals. Today, the research station is called RSA Marion Station.
On September 22, 1979, one of the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Vela
Vela (satellite)
Vela was the name of a group of satellites developed as the Vela Hotel element of Project Vela by the United States to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty by the Soviet Union, and other nuclear-capable states. It means vigil or "watch" in Spanish.Vela started out as a small...
spy satellites recorded an activity near the Prince Edward Islands, which was initially interpreted as the "double flash" of a small nuclear test. The event is still controversial and is known as the Vela Incident
Vela Incident
The Vela Incident was an unidentified "double flash" of light that was detected by an American Vela Hotel satellite on September 22, 1979....
.
Legal status
Marion Island and Prince Edward Island were claimed for South Africa by a South African NavySouth African Navy
The South African Navy is the navy of the Republic of South Africa.-Formation:The South African Navy can trace its official origins back to the SA Naval Service, which was established on 1 April 1922....
force from the HMSAS Transvaal on 29 December 1947 and 4 January 1948 respectively. On 1 October 1948 the annexation was made official when Governor-General
Governor-General of the Union of South Africa
The Governor-General of the Union of South Africa was the representative of the British and later South African Crown in the Union of South Africa between 31 May 1910 and 31 May 1961...
Gideon Brand van Zyl
Gideon Brand van Zyl
Gideon Brand van Zyl was Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 1945 to 1950. He was the first South African-born holder of the office....
signed the Prince Edward Islands Act, 1948. Because the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
relinquished its claims on the islands to South Africa, no other nation has made a claim on the islands, and they have been occupied continuously since 1948 by South Africa, the status of the islands is not in dispute.
In terms of the Act, the islands fall under the jurisdiction of the Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
Magistrate's Court, and South African law
Law of South Africa
South Africa has a 'hybrid' or 'mixed' legal system, made of the interweaving of a number of distinct legal traditions: a civil law system inherited from the Dutch, a common law system inherited from the British, and a customary law system inherited from indigenous Africans...
as applied in the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
applies on them. The islands are also deemed to be situated within the electoral district containing the Port of Cape Town
Port of Cape Town
The Port of Cape Town is the port of the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated in Table Bay.Because of its position along one of the world's busiest trade routes it is one of the busiest ports in South Africa, handling the largest amount of fresh fruit and second only to Durban as a...
; this is ward 55 of the City of Cape Town
City of Cape Town
The City of Cape Town is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of 2007, it had a population of 3,497,097....
.
Amateur Radio
As of 2009 Marion Island, prefixPrefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
ZS8, was the third most wanted DXCC "entity" by the amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
community. It was hoped that a new radio operator at the meteorological station would meet some of this demand.
Fiction
Prince Edward Island features as the setting for the climax of the maritime adventure story "Southtrap" by Geoffrey JenkinsGeoffrey Jenkins
-Early life:Jenkins was born Pretoria. At the age of 17 he wrote and had published A Century of History which received a special eulogy from General Jan Smuts at the centenary of Potchefstroom....
.
See also
- Crozet IslandsCrozet IslandsThe Crozet Islands are a sub-antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.-Geography:...
- Protected areas of South Africa
- List of Antarctic islands north of 60° S
- List of sub-Antarctic islands
External links
- South African Research station on Marion Island - Official website
- Marion Island
- No Pathway Here - an account of the annexation of the islands
- Earth Observatory Image of the Day 18 October 2009