Doubtful Sound / Patea
Doubtful Sound / Patea | |
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Patea ( Elizabeth Island |
Doubtful Sound / Patea is a
At 40 kilometres (25 mi) long, Doubtful Sound / Patea is the second longest, and with a depth of up to 421 metres (1,381 ft) the deepest of the South Island's fiords.[2] In comparison with Milford Sound, it is more widespread, with the cliffs not as dramatically tall and near vertical. However, the U-shaped profile of the fiord is obvious, in particular on the two innermost of the main fiord's arms and the hanging side valleys along the main fiord.
Like most of Fiordland, Doubtful Sound receives a high amount of rainfall, ranging from an annual average of 3,000–6,000 millimetres (120–240 in).[3] The vegetation on the mountainous landscape surrounding the fiord is dense native rainforest.
History
Doubtful Sound was named 'Doubtful Harbour' in 1770 by
A Spanish scientific expedition commanded by
Following the passage of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the fiord was officially altered to Doubtful Sound / Patea.[8]
Geography
Doubtful Sound lies deep within the Fiordland National Park, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the nearest inhabited place, the small town of Manapouri, and is surrounded by mountainous terrain with peaks typically reaching 1,300–1,600 metres (4,300–5,200 ft). Along the coast, there are no settlements for about 200 kilometres (120 mi) in either direction.
There are three distinct arms to the sound, which all extend to the south from the main fiord. From the major conflux of water just south of Secretary Island, these arms are:
- First Arm, the shortest at 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) long,
- Crooked Arm, roughly halfway along the sound and the longest at 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) long,
- Hall Arm (8 kilometres (5.0 mi) long), which branches off from the Sound's terminus at Deep Cove next to the prominent Commander Peak.[9]
Crooked Arm reaches to within 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) of
The Sound is the site of several large
Doubtful Sound contains about a dozen smaller islands, with the more notable ones being
The last quarter of the sound closest to the sea is dominated by islands, the major one being Secretary Island to the north. At the southernmost tip of the island, Doubtful Sound opens up as a confluence of 5 bodies of water. From the western seaward end and going clockwise, these are:
- Seaward end of Doubtful Sound, often referred to as "The Gut"
- Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound
- Kaikiekie / Bradshaw Sound
- Continuation of Doubtful Sound to Deep Cove (Malaspina Reach[14])
- First Arm
The narrow, shallower area of the sound between Bauza Island and Secretary Island ("The Gut") offers more shelter than areas further to the west and towards the sea. It is a popular fishing and mooring location and is a haven for crayfish.
Thompson Sound and Bradshaw Sound join in a short stretch named "Pendulo Reach"[15] southeast of Secretary Island, and containing the tiny Seymour Island.[16]
Access to the sound is either by sea or via the isolated Wilmot Pass road from the Manapouri Power Station. Most areas of the sound itself are accessible only by sea, however, as the road network in this area of New Zealand is sparse or nonexistent, as is the human population.
- "There are just a few areas left in the world where no human has ever set foot. That one of them should be in a country so civilized and so advanced as New Zealand may seem incredible, unless one has visited the south-west corner of the South Island. Jagged razor backed mountains rear their heads into the sky. More than 200 days of rain a year ensure not a tree branch is left bare and brown, moss and epiphytes drape every nook. The forest is intensely green. This is big country... one day peaceful, a study in green and blue, the next melancholy and misty, with low cloud veiling the tops... an awesome place, with its granite precipices, its hanging valleys, its earthquake faults and its thundering cascades."
Flora and fauna
Doubtful Sound (like many of the fiords in the area) is unusual in that it contains two distinct layers of water that scarcely mix. The surface layer 2–10 metres (5–35 ft), referred to as the Low Salinity Layer or LSL, consists of diluted seawater with a typical salinity value of less than 10 psu. This layer receives fresh water fed from the high inflows from the surrounding mountains, and stained brown with tannins from the forest. The outflow of freshwater from the tailrace discharge from the Manapouri Power Station also influences the thickness of the LSL. Below the LSL is a layer of warmer, undiluted seawater with a salinity value of around 35 psu.[17] The dark tannins in the fresh water layer make it difficult for light to penetrate. Thus, many deep-sea species grow in the comparatively shallow depths of the Sound.[18] Such species include black coral Antipathes fiordensis,[19] which is normally found at depths of 30–40 metres (100–130 ft) but can be found at just 10 metres (35 ft) in Doubtful Sound and is within the range of qualified recreational divers.
The catchment basin of Doubtful Sound is generally steep terrain that is heavily forested except for locations where surface rock exposures are extensive.
The fiord is home to one of the southernmost populations of bottlenose dolphins. The Doubtful Sound bottlenoses have formed a very insular subgroup of only about 70 individuals, with none having been observed to leave or enter the Sound during a multi-year monitoring regime. Their social grouping is thus extremely close, which is also partly attributed to the difficult and unusual features of their habitat, which is much colder than the habitats of other bottlenose groups and is also overlaid by the freshwater layer.[21] Recently (2000s), there has been growing concern that the population is in significant decline, with calf survival rates having halved, as well as being noticeably lower than in captivity or in other New Zealand environments. The reasons for this are unclear, though increased tourism and the fresh-water discharge from the Manapouri Power Station (see Hydroelectricity section below) are considered potential causes.[18]
Other wildlife to be found in Doubtful Sound includes
Hydroelectricity
The small wharf at Deep Cove is on rare occasion also used to unload any equipment for the Manapouri Power Station that is too large to be ferried across Lake Manapouri. From Deep Cove, such equipment then has to be hauled over Wilmot Pass to the power station.[27]
Tourism
Unlike the more easily accessible Milford Sound, it is not possible to drive to Doubtful Sound, as the Wilmot Pass road is not connected to the road network and only connects the Manapouri Hydro Power Station with Deep Cove.
The only options for visitors to visit Doubtful Sound are boat cruises. The less common way to access Doubtful Sound is by sea. However, there are some boat cruises that operate out of the small town of Manapouri. These day trips first take a boat across Lake Manapouri and then a bus on the gravel road across Wilmot Pass to the Sound, where the Doubtful Sound tour boats berth at a small wharf in Deep Cove. The tour companies offer a day option out of Te Anau/Manapouri or an overnight option.
References
- ^ Real Journeys rapt with Kiwi Must-Do's – Scoop Independent News, Tuesday 13 February 2007
- ^ "Doubtful Sound, New Zealand". Tourism New Zealand. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ "Southland Climate" (PDF). National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. p. 16. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ Cook's Voyages (from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Accessed 2008-09-12.)
- ^ "Puerto del Pendulo, Doubtful Sound: The Malaspina Expedition's Visit to New Zealand in Quest of the True Figure of the Earth", The Globe, no.65, 2010, pp.1–18. Downloadable at: http://search.informit.com.au
- ^ Doubtful Sound (from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Accessed 2008-09-12.)
- ^ Science and Spycraft: The Malaspina Expedition in New Zealand and New South Wales, 1793 Archived June 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine – Robert J. King, via Mains’l Haul, A Journal of Pacific Maritime History, San Diego, Vol 41 No. 4 & 42, No. 1, Fall/Winter 2006, Pages 76–87
- ^ "Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998". Retrieved 28 March 2016.
- ^ "Commander Peak, Southland – NZ Topo Map". NZ Topo Map. Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ "Dagg Sound, Southland – NZ Topo Map". NZ Topo Map. Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ "Narrow Neck, Southland – NZ Topo Map". NZ Topo Map. Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ "Fergusson Island, Southland – NZ Topo Map". NZ Topo Map. Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ "Shelter Islands, Southland – NZ Topo Map". NZ Topo Map. Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ "Malaspina Reach, Southland – NZ Topo Map". NZ Topo Map. Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ "Pendulo Reach, Southland – NZ Topo Map". NZ Topo Map. Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ "Seymour Island, Southland – NZ Topo Map". NZ Topo Map. Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
- ^ McCully, D R; Vennell, R; Mladenov, P V (1994). "Hydrology of a New Zealand fiord". Recent Advances in Marine Science and Technology: 263–271.
- ^ a b c A Doubtful future Archived 2008-10-15 at the Wayback Machine – New Zealand Listener, 27 September 2008
- .
- ^ C. Michael Hogan. 2009. Crown Fern: Blechnum discolor, Globaltwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg Archived February 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Bottlenose dolphins (from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Accessed 2008-09-12.)
- ^ http://www.backpackersnews.co.nz/index.php?page=whale-sightings-up/[permanent dead link]
- ^ "A whale watcher's dream". 13 November 2015.
- ^ "The Humpback Whale Migration | Fiordland Marine Guardians". Archived from the original on 2016-07-16. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
- ^ "Fiordland Kindergarten: Whales at Doubtful Sound". Archived from the original on 2014-05-04. Retrieved 2010-03-06.
- ^ BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Doubtful Sound. Downloaded from "BirdLife International - conserving the world's birds". Archived from the original on 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2013-04-20. on 2012-02-18.
- ^ Brittany Pickett (23 December 2014). "New transformers for Manapouri station". The Southland Times. Retrieved 2016-11-07.