 Map of Prince Edward Islands | |
.png) Orthographic projection centred on the Prince Edward Islands | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Indian Ocean |
| Coordinates | 46°52′48″S37°45′00″E / 46.88000°S 37.75000°E /-46.88000; 37.75000 |
| Area | 343 km2 (132 sq mi)[1] |
| Highest elevation | 1,230 m (4040 ft) |
| Highest point | Mascarin Peak |
| Administration | |
| Province | Western Cape |
| Municipality | City of Cape Town |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 0 (permanent) 50 (non-permanent research staff) |
| Designations | |
|---|---|
| Designated | 24 January 1997 |
| Reference no. | 1688[2] |
ThePrince Edward Islands are two small uninhabitedsubantarctic[3][4][5]volcanic islands in the southernIndian Ocean that are administered bySouth Africa. They are namedMarion Island (named afterMarc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, 1724–1772) andPrince Edward Island (named afterPrince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, 1767–1820).
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.[6][7] Further protection was granted when the area was declared amarine protected area in 2013.[8][9] The only human inhabitants of the islands are the staff of ameteorological andbiological research station run by theSouth African National Antarctic Programme on Marion Island.
Barent Barentszoon Lam of theDutch East India Company reached the islands on 4 March 1663 on the shipMaerseveen. They were namedDina (Prince Edward) andMaerseveen (Marion),[10] but the islands were erroneously recorded to be at 41° South, and neither were found again by subsequent Dutch sailors.[11][12]
In January 1772, the French frigateLe Mascarin, captained byMarc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, visited the islands and spent five days trying to land, thinking they had foundAntarctica (then not yet proven to exist).[13] Marion named the islandsTerre de l'Espérance (Marion) andIle de la Caverne (Prince Edward).[11] After failing to land,Le Mascarin continued eastward, discovering theCrozet Islands and landing at New Zealand, where Marion du Fresne and some of his crew were killed by local Māori.
Julien Crozet, navigator and second in command ofLe Mascarin, survived the disaster, and happened to meetJames Cook atCape Town in 1776, at the onset of Cook'sthird voyage.[14] Crozet shared the charts of his ill-fated expedition, and as Cook sailed from Cape Town, he passed the islands on 13 December, but was unable to attempt a landing due to bad weather.[13] Cook named the islands afterPrince Edward, the fourth son of KingGeorge III; and though he is also often credited with naming the larger island Marion, after Captain Marion, this name was adopted by sealers and whalers who later hunted the area, to distinguish the two islands.[15]
The first recorded landing on the islands was in 1799 by a group of Frenchseal hunters of theSally.[15] Another landing in late 1803 by a group of seal hunters led by American captain Henry Fanning of theCatharine found signs of earlier human occupation.[16] The islands were frequented by sealers until about 1810, when the local fur seal populations had been nearly eradicated.[15] The first scientific expedition to the islands was led byJames Clark Ross, who visited in 1840 during hisexploration of the Antarctic, but was unable to land.[15] Ross sailed along the islands on 21 April 1840. He made observations on vast numbers of penguins ("groups of many thousands each"), and other kinds of sea-birds. He also sawfur seals, which he supposed to be of the speciesArctocephalus falklandicus.[17] The islands were finally surveyed during theChallenger Expedition, led by CaptainGeorge Nares, in 1873.[18]
The sealing era lasted from 1799 to 1913. During that period, visits by 103 vessels are recorded, seven of which ended in shipwreck.[19] Sealing relics include irontrypots, the ruins of huts and inscriptions. The occasional modern sealing vessel visited fromCape Town,South Africa, in the 1920s.
The islands have been the location of other shipwrecks. In June 1849, the brigRichard Dart, with a troop of Royal Engineers under Lt. James Liddell, was wrecked on Prince Edward Island; only 10 of the 63 on board survived to be rescued by elephant seal hunters from Cape Town.[20] In 1908, the Norwegian vesselSolglimt was shipwrecked on Marion Island, and survivors established a short-lived village at the north coast, before being rescued.[16][21][22] The wreck of theSolglimt is the best-known in the islands, and is accessible to divers.[16]
TheBritish government never officially claimed ownership of the islands; however it did manage economic activities on the islands in the early 20th century.[23] In 1908, the British government granted a guano lease on Marion Island.[11] Following the Second World War, technological advancements made the islands more strategically important, and as no further economic activity was taking place, the UK was concerned other countries might claim the islands.[23] In late 1947 and early 1948, South Africa, with Britain's agreement,annexed the islands and installed themeteorological station on Transvaal Cove on the north-east coast of Marion Island.[11]
On 22 September 1979, a United States surveillance satellite known as Vela 6911 noted an unidentified double flash of light, known as theVela incident, in the waters off the islands. There was and continues to be considerable controversy over whether this event was perhaps an undeclared nuclear test carried out bySouth Africa and Israel or some other event.[24] The cause of the flash remains officially unknown, and some information about the event remainsclassified.[25] Today, most independent researchers believe that the 1979 flash was caused by a nuclear explosion.[25][26][27][28]
In 2003, the South African government declared the Prince Edward Islands a Special Nature Reserve, and in 2013 it declared 180,000 km2 (69,000 sq mi) of ocean waters around the islands a Marine Protection Area, thus creating one of the world's largestenvironmental protection areas.[9]
Marion Island Base | |
|---|---|
Location in Prince Edward Islands | |
| Coordinates:46°52′32″S37°51′31″E / 46.875460°S 37.858540°E /-46.875460; 37.858540 | |
| Country |  South Africa |
| Operator | SANAP |
| Established | 1948 (1948) |
| Elevation | 22 m (72 ft) |
| Population | |
| • Summer | 18 |
| • Winter | 18 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 |
| UN/LOCODE | ZA |
| Active times | All year-round |
| Status | Operational |
| Activities | List
|
| Website | sanap.ac.za |
On 4 January 1948 Marion Island and neighbouring Prince Edward Island were officially annexed intoSouth Africa. A group of 14 sailors stayed on the island until 16 days later a permanent occupying force was left there, soon building ameteorological station.[29] The 1948 research station on Marion Island was soon enlarged and today studies regional meteorology and the biology of the islands, in particular the birds (penguins,petrels,albatrosses,gulls) andseals.[30][31]
A new research base was built from 2001 to 2011 to replace older buildings on the site.[32] The access to the station is either by boat or helicopter.[33] A helipad and storage hangar is located behind the main base structure.[32][34]
In April 2017, scientists fromMcGill University, in collaboration with theSouth African National Antarctic Programme, launched a new astrophysical experiment on Marion Island called Probing Radio Intensity at high-Z from Marion (PRIZM), searching for signatures of thehydrogen line in the early universe.[35] In 2018, another cosmology experiment was launched by the McGill team called Array of Long Baseline Antennas for Taking Radio Observation from Sub-Antarctic (ALBATROS). The new experiment aims to create very high-resolution maps of the low-frequency radio emission from the universe, and take first steps towards detecting the cosmologicalDark Ages.[36]
In April 2024, the South African National Antarctic Programme station on Marion Island was depicted in an ad forKFC South Africa directed by Kim Geldenhuys, Beyond the Sea, which depicted two hungry South Africans determined to get home for some fried chicken.[37]
The island group is about 955 nmi (1,769 km; 1,099 mi) south-east ofPort Elizabeth in mainland South Africa. At 46 degrees latitude, its distance to theequator is only slightly longer than to theSouth Pole. Marion Island (46°54′45″S37°44′37″E / 46.91250°S 37.74361°E /-46.91250; 37.74361 (Marion Island)), the larger of the two, is 25.03 km (15.55 mi) long and 16.65 km (10.35 mi) wide with an area of 297 km2 (115 sq mi)[1] and a coastline of some 72 km (45 mi), most of which is high cliffs. The highest point on Marion Island isMascarin Peak (formerly State President Swart Peak), reaching 1,242 m (4,075 ft) above sea level.[38] Thetopography of Marion Island includes many hillocks and small lakes, andboggy lowland terrain with little vegetation.[39]
Prince Edward Island (46°38′39″S37°56′36″E / 46.64417°S 37.94333°E /-46.64417; 37.94333 (Prince Edward Island)) is much smaller—only 46 km2 (18 sq mi),[1] 10.23 km (6.36 mi) long and 6.57 km (4.08 mi) wide—and lies some 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) to the north-east of Marion Island. The terrain is generally rocky, with high cliffs (490 m (1,608 ft)) on its south western side.[39] At thevan Zinderen Bakker Peak north-west of the center, it reaches a height of 672 m (2,205 ft).[40]
There are a few offshore rocks along the northern coast of Prince Edward Island, like Ship Rock 100 m (328 ft) north of northernmost point, and Ross Rocks 500 m (1,640 ft) from the shore. Boot Rock is about 500 m (1,640 ft) off the northern coast of Marion Island.
Both islands are ofvolcanic origin.[39] Marion Island is one of the peaks of a large underwatershield volcano that rises some 5,000 m (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.[38] While Prince Edward Island may have erupted within the last 10 thousand years.[41]
Despite being located inside thesouth temperate zone at 46 degrees latitude, the islands have atundra climate. They lie directly in the path of eastward-movingdepressions all year round and this gives them an unusually cool and windy climate. Strong regional winds, known as theroaring forties, blow almost every day of the year, and the prevailing wind direction is north-westerly.[39] Annual rainfall averages from 2,400 mm (94.5 in) up to over 3,000 mm (118.1 in) on Mascarin Peak. In spite of its very chilly climate it is located closer to the equator than mild northern hemisphere climates such asParis andSeattle and only one degree farther south than fellow southern hemisphere climates such asComodoro Rivadavia inArgentina andAlexandra in New Zealand. Many climates on lower latitudes in the Northern hemisphere have far colder winters than Prince Edward Islands due to the islands'maritime moderation, even though temperatures in summer are much cooler than those normally found in maritime climates.
The islands are among the cloudiest places in the world; about 1300 hours a year of sunshine occur on the sheltered eastern side of Marion Island, but only around 800 hours occur away from the coast on the wet western sides of Marion and Prince Edward Islands.
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 7.7 °C (45.9 °F) and in August (midwinter) it is 3.9 °C (39.0 °F).[42][43]
| Climate data for Marion Island (1991–2020, extremes 1949–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 25.6 (78.1) | 22.9 (73.2) | 22.2 (72.0) | 19.3 (66.7) | 18.4 (65.1) | 18.2 (64.8) | 18.6 (65.5) | 16.5 (61.7) | 17.0 (62.6) | 17.7 (63.9) | 19.2 (66.6) | 21.9 (71.4) | 25.6 (78.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 11.4 (52.5) | 11.9 (53.4) | 11.0 (51.8) | 9.9 (49.8) | 8.6 (47.5) | 7.3 (45.1) | 7.1 (44.8) | 6.8 (44.2) | 7.0 (44.6) | 8.1 (46.6) | 9.3 (48.7) | 10.4 (50.7) | 9.0 (48.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 8.3 (46.9) | 8.8 (47.8) | 8.0 (46.4) | 7.2 (45.0) | 5.9 (42.6) | 4.8 (40.6) | 4.5 (40.1) | 4.2 (39.6) | 4.3 (39.7) | 5.3 (41.5) | 6.3 (43.3) | 7.3 (45.1) | 6.2 (43.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 5.2 (41.4) | 5.7 (42.3) | 5.2 (41.4) | 4.3 (39.7) | 3.2 (37.8) | 2.2 (36.0) | 1.9 (35.4) | 1.6 (34.9) | 1.6 (34.9) | 2.5 (36.5) | 3.2 (37.8) | 4.2 (39.6) | 3.4 (38.1) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −1.5 (29.3) | −1.4 (29.5) | −2.5 (27.5) | −2.2 (28.0) | −3.0 (26.6) | −6.0 (21.2) | −6.0 (21.2) | −5.5 (22.1) | −6.9 (19.6) | −4.7 (23.5) | −3.9 (25.0) | −1.5 (29.3) | −6.9 (19.6) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 163.6 (6.44) | 155.4 (6.12) | 160.9 (6.33) | 153.3 (6.04) | 169.3 (6.67) | 162.7 (6.41) | 161.9 (6.37) | 144.9 (5.70) | 155.0 (6.10) | 139.7 (5.50) | 142.6 (5.61) | 158.5 (6.24) | 1,857 (73.11) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 17.9 | 15.1 | 17.1 | 16.0 | 18.8 | 19.7 | 21.0 | 18.3 | 18.3 | 15.9 | 16.8 | 17.8 | 212.6 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 83 | 84 | 84 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 85 | 84 | 83 | 82 | 82 | 83 | 84 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 158.9 | 135.4 | 125.8 | 98.3 | 82.0 | 59.1 | 66.9 | 88.2 | 106.0 | 133.6 | 150.8 | 164.4 | 1,311.7 |
| Source 1: NOAA (humidity 1961–1990)[44][45] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Meteo Climat (record highs and lows)[46] | |||||||||||||
The islands are part of theSouthern Indian Ocean Islands tundraecoregion that includes a small number ofsubantarctic islands. Because of the paucity of land masses in theSouthern Ocean, the islands host a wide variety of species and are critical toconservation.[9] In the cold subantarctic climate, plants are mainly limited to grasses,mosses, andkelp, whilelichens are the most visiblefungi. The main indigenous animals are insects (such as the seaweed-eating weevilPalirhoeus eatoni) along with large populations ofseabirds,seals[47] andpenguins.[48]
The islands have been designated anImportant Bird Area (IBA) byBirdLife International for their significant seabird breeding populations.[49] At least thirty different species of birds are thought to breed on the islands, and it is estimated the islands support upwards of 5 million breeding seabirds, and 8 million seabirds total.[9] Five species ofalbatross (of which all are eitherthreatened orendangered) are known to breed on the islands, including thewandering albatross,dark-mantled,light-mantled,Indian yellow-nosed andgrey-headed albatross.[9]
The islands also host fourteen species ofpetrel, four species ofprion, theAntarctic tern, and thebrown skua, among other seabirds.[9][48] Four penguin species are found:king penguins,Eastern rockhoppers,gentoos andmacaroni penguins.[48]
Three species of seal breed on the islands: thesouthern elephant seal, theAntarctic fur seal, and theSubantarctic fur seal.[9] The waters surrounding the islands are often frequented by several species of whale, especiallyorcas, which prey on penguins and seals.[50] Large whales such assouthern rights andsouthern humpbacks, andleopard seals are seen more sporadically, and it remains unclear how large or stable their current local populations are, though it is thought their numbers are significantly down compared to the time of first human contact with the islands.[51]
The area saw heavy sealing and whaling operations in the nineteenth century and continued to be subject to mass illegal whaling until the 1970s, with theSoviet Union andJapan allegedly continuing whaling operations into the 1990s.[52] Currently, the greatest ecological threat is thelongline fishing ofPatagonian toothfish, which endangers a number of seabirds that dive into the water after baited hooks.[9]
Like all subantarctic islands, Marion has a small number of native plant species. The isolation of the island and the cold, wet, windy weather conditions filtered out many potential plants from reaching and successfully establishing populations. Only 22 vascular plants were native to the island prior to human arrival. One of them,Ranunculus moseleyi, a species also found in theKerguelen Islands, is of uncertain status with no records of it being found since 1969 and no specimens in archives to unambiguously prove its presence prior to that date.[53]
There are seven species of fern and fern allies includeAntarctic hard-fern (Austroblechnum penna-marina),alpine filmy-fern (Hymenophyllum peltatum),Magellanic clubmoss (Lycopodium magellanicum),Notogrammitis crassior,Phlegmariurus saururus,Polystichum marionense, andElaphoglossum randii.[53]
The island has five species of cushion and mat forming flowering plantsAzorella selago,Callitriche antarctica,Colobanthus kerguelensis,Crassula moschata,Leptinella plumosa. Other herbaceous plants includeKerguelen cabbage (Pringlea antiscorbutica),Antarctic buttercup (Ranunculus biternatus),Limosella australis, andblinks (Montia fontana).[53]
Several grass-like species grow on Marion including the rushJuncus scheuchzerioides,Cook's tussock-grass (Poa cookii),Polypogon magellanicus.[53] The sedge speciesCarex dikei is endemic to Marion and Prince Edward Island, but was only scientifically described in 2015.[54] Further research is needed to determine if records ofCarex austrocompacta on other subantarctic islands might be this species.[53]
The wildlife is particularly vulnerable tointroduced species and the historical problem has been with cats and mice.House mice arrived to Marion Island with whaling and sealing ships in the 1800s and quickly multiplied, so much so that in 1949, five domestic cats were brought to the research base to deal with them.[55] The cats multiplied quickly, and by 1977 there were approximately 3,400 cats on the island, feeding on burrowing petrels in addition to mice, and taking an estimated 455,000 petrels a year.[56] Some species of petrels soon disappeared from Marion Island, and a cat eradication programme was established.[55] A few cats were intentionally infected with the highly specificfeline panleukopenia virus, which reduced the cat population to about 600 by 1982.[57] The remaining cats were killed by nocturnal shooting, and in 1991 only eight cats were trapped in a 12-month period.[55][58][59]
It is believed that no cats remain on Marion Island today, and with the cats gone, the mouse population has sharply increased to "plague like" levels.[56] In 2003,ornithologists discovered that in the absence of other food sources, the mice were attacking albatross chicks and eating them alive as they sat helplessly on their nests.[56] A similar problem has been observed onGough Island, where a mouse eradication programme began in 2021.[60] A programme to eradicate invasiverats onSouth Georgia Island was completed in 2015, and as of 2016 the island appears to be completely rat free.[61] The geography of Marion Island presents certain obstacles not found on either Gough or South Georgia islands, particularly its large size, high elevations and variable weather.[56] An assessment of the island was completed in May 2015, led by notedinvasive speciesecologist John Parkes, with the general conclusion that an eradication programme is feasible, but will require precise planning.[62]
Both Gough Island and the Prince Edward Islands also suffer from invasiveprocumbent pearlwort (Sagina procumbens), which is transforming the uplandecosystem and is now considered beyond control.[63]
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Marion Island and Prince Edward Island were claimed for South Africa on 29 December 1947 and 4 January 1948 respectively, by aSouth African Navy force fromHMSASTransvaal under the command ofJohn Fairbairn.[16] On 1 October 1948 the annexation was made official whenGovernor-GeneralGideon Brand van Zyl signed thePrince Edward Islands Act, 1948. In terms of the Act, the islands fall under the jurisdiction of theCape TownMagistrate's Court, andSouth African law as applied in theWestern Cape applies on them. The islands are also deemed to be situated within the electoral district containing thePort of Cape Town; as of 2016[update], this isward 115 of theCity of Cape Town.
As of 2014[update], Marion Island, prefix ZS8, was the third-most wantedDXCC "entity" by theamateur radio community. By the end of 2014, it had dropped to 27th, after simultaneous activity by three licencees in the 2013/2014 team. However, their activity was mainly on voice. On Morse telegraphy, the Islands remain the second-most wanted entity afterNorth Korea, while on data they are sixth out of 340.[64]
