Cheeseman Island

Cheeseman Island

Cheeseman Island (right) and Curtis Island from north.

Map
Geography
Coordinates 30°32′12″S 178°34′05″W / 30.53667°S 178.56806°W / -30.53667; -178.56806
Archipelago Kermadec Islands
Area 7.6 ha (19 acres)
Country
Demographics
Population 0

Cheeseman Island is a 7.6 ha (19-acre) rocky volcanic island in the southwest Pacific Ocean (located at 30°32′12″S 178°34′05″W / 30.53667°S 178.56806°W / -30.53667; -178.56806). It is named after Thomas Frederick Cheeseman of the Auckland Museum - who was on board the New Zealand Government steamer 'Stella' when it visited the island in 1887. It neighbours Curtis Island to the east and lies about 20 km (12 mi) south of Macauley Island. They are part of the Kermadec Islands, a straggling outlying island group of New Zealand. The Kermadec Islands lie halfway between the North Island of New Zealand and Tonga at approximately the latitude of the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Flora and fauna

Apart from a short stretch of its west coast, the island is bordered by cliffs, making access from the sea difficult. It is rugged and rocky, with little woody vegetation. Between the two high points of the island is a central valley where the vegetation is dominated by the sedge Cyperus ustulatus, while the surrounding slopes are dominated by a mix of Parietaria debilis and Disphyma australe. The island forms part of the Kermadec Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because it is an important site for nesting seabirds.[1] Seabirds breeding on the island include Kermadec and black-winged petrels, Kermadec little shearwaters and sooty terns.

See also

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Kermadec Islands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-02-03.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, May 04, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.