Geography | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 50°36.25′S 165°58.38′E / 50.60417°S 165.97300°E |
Archipelago | Auckland Islands |
Area | 3.0 km2 (1.2 sq mi) |
Length | 3.35 km (2.082 mi) |
Width | 1.53 km (0.951 mi) |
Demographics | |
Pop. density | 0/km2 (0/sq mi) |
Disappointment Island is one of seven uninhabited islands in the Auckland Islands archipelago, in New Zealand. It is 475 kilometres (295 mi) south of the country's main South Island and 8 kilometres (5 mi) from the northwest end of Auckland Island. It is home to a large colony of white-capped albatrosses: about 65,000 pairs – nearly the entire world's population – nest there.[1] Also on the island is the Auckland rail, endemic to the archipelago; once thought to be extinct, it was rediscovered in 1966.[2]
On 7 March 1907, the Dundonald, a steel, four-masted barque, sank after running ashore on the west side of Disappointment Island. Twelve men drowned and seventeen men made it ashore.[3] Two of the men died, and fifteen survivors waited seven months for rescue.[4] They survived by eating mainly white-capped albatrosses (mollymawks), seals, and roots of the plant Azorella polaris, and, later, supplies at the castaway depot on Auckland Island.[3] The island was visited by a scientific expedition aboard the Hinemoa in November 1907, after the crew rescued the Dundonald survivors from Auckland Island.[5][3]
British mariner Abraham Bristow, who was the first European to reach the Auckland Islands, named the island Disappointment Island.[6][7] Whilst aboard the ship Sarah in 1807, he unsuccessfully surveyed the island for fur seals and a base to reach the nearby fur seal rookeries on the western cliffs of Auckland Island.[6][7]
The island is part of the Auckland Island group Important Bird Area (IBA), identified as such by BirdLife International because of the significance of the group as a breeding site for several species of seabirds, including the white-capped mollymawk and white-chinned petrel, as well as the endemic Auckland shag, Auckland teal, Auckland rail, and Auckland snipe.[8][9]