Nightingale Islands

Coordinates: 37°25′16″S 12°28′52″W / 37.421°S 12.481°W / -37.421; -12.481
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nightingale Islands is located in Atlantic Ocean
Nightingale Islands
Nightingale Islands
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Location of the Nightingale Islands in the Atlantic Ocean
Inaccessible Island
.
Nightingale Island

The Nightingale Islands are a group of three islands in the

overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
. The Nightingale Islands are uninhabited.

Nightingale Island is the smallest of the four main islands of the Tristan da Cunha Group, measuring only 4 square kilometres (1.5 sq mi), and lies 30 kilometres (18.6 mi) away from Tristan and 22 kilometres (13.7 mi) from Inaccessible. Stoltenhoff and Alex (also known as Middle Island), are really two large islets rather than conventional islands.

Geology

Nightingale Island is the heavily eroded remnant of a volcano that was once much larger. The oldest

Ma. The youngest volcanic activity on the island is indirectly dated to 39,160+6,090
−3,410 uncalibrated years BP by radiocarbon dates on peat overlain by volcanic tuff.[1]

History

Originally named "Gebrooken (Broken) island" by the Dutch under Jan Jacobszoon in January 1656, they found no safe anchorage and did not make the first landing until 1696 (most likely by Willem de Vlamingh in August of that year). Frenchman D'Etchevery also visited the island in September 1767. Nightingale was renamed after British captain Gamaliel Nightingale in 1760.[2]

Jonathan Lambert temporarily changed the name to "Lovel Island" in his 1811 proclamation in the Boston Gazette, but as with his other proposed changes (i.e. Tristan da Cunha Group to "Isles of Refreshment"), the name did not last.

Wildlife

See also: Wildlife of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

Nightingale, a tiny island, is home to more than three million pairs of seabirds at a density of around 1.3 pairs per square metre; almost the entire vegetated island is occupied. The Nightingale Island finch is found nowhere else in the world.

Important Bird Area

The Nightingale Islands group has been recognised internationally as part of the Tristan da Cunha

Nightingale buntings.[3] The nearby islands of Gough and Inaccessible Island have been recognised as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention.[4]

Aquatic biodiversity

The islanders of Tristan da Cunha depend on the fish resource to a large extent for food and for bait for the local

rock lobster industry. Approximately 61.5 tons of linefish are harvested each year for these purposes. The insular nature of the island ecosystem renders it vulnerable to over-exploitation from commercial fishing operations. Most of the fish species are bound to the islands for the completion of their life cycles; hence, the populations are more or less isolated and not supplemented by recruits from outside of the system.[5]

37°25′16″S 12°28′52″W / 37.421°S 12.481°W / -37.421; -12.481

References

  1. doi:10.1017/S0016756800025681
  2. ^ Faustini, Arnaldo. "The Annals of Tristan da Cunha: The Early History of Tristan da Cunha." https://web.archive.org/web/20061126204533/http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/tristan_da_cunha/images/tristan_annals.pdf[dead link]
  3. ^ "Nightingale Island group". Important Bird Areas factsheet. BirdLife International. 2012. Archived from the original on June 30, 2007. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  4. ^ "The Annotated Ramsar List: United Kingdom". Ramsar.org. Archived from the original on 9 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  5. hdl:10962/d1019889
    .
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