The Bounty Islands ( mi, Moutere Hauriri; "Island of angry wind") are a small group of 13 uninhabited

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underg ...

islets and numerous rocks, with a combined area of , in the South Pacific Ocean. Territorially part of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country ...

, they lie about east-south-east of New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman S ...

, south-west of the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about t ...

, and north of the

Antipodes Islands The Antipodes Islands ( Maōri: Moutere Mahue; "Abandoned island") are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The 21 km2 archipelago lies 860 ...

. The group is a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. The islands are listed with the

New Zealand Outlying Islands The New Zealand outlying islands are nine offshore island groups that are part of New Zealand, with all but Solander Islands lying beyond the 12nm limit of the mainland's territorial waters. Although considered an integral parts of New Zealand, ...

. The islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, but not part of any

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

. Rather, they are listed as an ''Area Outside Territorial Authority'', similar to all other outlying islands except for the Solander Islands / Hautere.

History

Captain

William Bligh Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command; after being set adrift i ...

discovered the Bounty Islands en route from

Spithead Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshir ...

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

in 1788, and named them after his ship HMS ''Bounty'', just months before the famous

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among member ...

. The location of the islands were only roughly marked on charts. In early 1866 Commander W. H. Norman of HMVS Victoria (1855) was tasked with determining more accurately their position. He reported them as being latitude 47ˈ50 South and longitude 179ˈ00 East. Captain George Palmer, during the search for the ''

Matoaka Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...

'' placed the islands at 47ˈ46ˈ24 South 178ˈ56ˈ45 East. Palmer also annexed the islands for New Zealand. During the 19th century the area was a popular hunting-ground for

sealers Sealer may refer either to a person or ship engaged in seal hunting, or to a sealant; associated terms include: Seal hunting * Sealer Hill, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica * Sealers' Oven, bread oven of mud and stone built by sealers around 180 ...

. The islands were also searched from time to time for missing ships and crews, including those from the '' General Grant'' and the ''Matoaka''. The ''Hinemoa'' visited the islands in March 1886 and erected a depot for marooned sailors on the largest island. Captain Fairchild noted that there was no fresh water available on these islands. The depot had been destroyed by the sea by the time the ''Stella'' visited the island in 1887. A new Admiralty chart 1022 was issued for the area in 1888, which took into account survey work undertaken by the ''Hinemoa''. In November 1891 the ''Hinemoa'' returned to the islands and built a fresh provisions storage. Pacificana cockayni adult male Bounty Islands New Zealand

Pacificana cockayni adult male Bounty Islands New Zealand

Flora and fauna

Ecologically, the islands are part of the

Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra The Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion, within the tundra biome, includes five remote island groups in the Pacific Ocean south of New Zealand: the Bounty Islands, Auckland Islands, Antipodes Islands and Campbell Island groups of New ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

. Plants include Cook's scurvy grass. The group is home to an endemic spider, endemic insects, and large numbers of

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same envir ...

Important Bird Area

The Bounty group has been identified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because of its significance as a breeding site for

erect-crested penguin The erect-crested penguin (''Eudyptes sclateri'') is a penguin endemic to the New Zealand region and only breeds on the Bounty and Antipodes Islands. It has black upper parts, white underparts and a yellow eye stripe and crest. It spends the win ...

s, Salvin's albatrosses and Bounty shags.

Geography

The whole chain is only across at its longest axis, and comprises three subgroups, the Main Group, the Centre Group, and the East Group. The total area is only . The islands are at the

antipodes In geography, the antipode () of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it. A pair of points ''antipodal'' () to each other are situated such that a straight line connecting the two would pass through Ear ...

of Bouillé-Ménard, in France (

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; ; br, Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" (). ...

). The Main Group is the largest of the three groups, and is located in the northwest of the chain. It includes the group's largest island, Depot Island, which is around 700 metres in length and 400 metres across at its widest point. Proclamation and Tunnel Islands are separated from Depot Island by only a narrow cleft, and are joined to it at low tide. A small islet off the north coast of this group's Spider Island is the chain's northernmost point; the westernmost point is the western tip of Penguin Island.NZMS 272/1+5 (1981) "Snares Islands and Bounty Islands", Wellington:NZ Government Department of Lands and Surveys. The Centre Group is located some 1.5 to 2 kilometres to the southeast of the Main Group, and contains three main islands, arrayed in a north–south line. A smaller islet lies immediately to the west. The northernmost of the Centre Group, Funnel Island, contain's the chain's highest point, at above sea level. A further 1.5 kilometres to the east is the East Group, which is also arrayed roughly in a north–south line. The largest island in this group, Molly Cap, is the group's southernmost island, and contains the chain's second-highest point, above sea level. This group contains two large islets and one small islet, along with several reefs and stacks, one of which is the easternmost point in the chain.

Islands

Main Group In chemistry and atomic physics, the main group is the group of elements (sometimes called the representative elements) whose lightest members are represented by helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine as ...

(): ** Depot Island (largest in the group), named for the

castaway depot A castaway depot is a store or hut placed on an isolated island to provide emergency supplies and relief for castaways and victims of shipwrecks. A string of depots were built by the New Zealand government on their subantarctic islands in the ...

on the island. ** Dog Rock ** Lion Island ** Penguin Island ** Proclamation Island ** Ranfurly Island ** Ruatara Island ** Seal Rock ** Skua Rock ** Spider Island ** Tunnel Island *

Centre Group da, Midtergruppen no, Midtengruppen is, Flokkahópur miðjumanna , logo = Logo of the Centre Group.svg , logo_size = 200px , colorcode = , abbreviation = MG , chairperson = Linda Modig , general_secretary = Terhi Tikkala , founded = ...

(): ** Coronet Island ** Funnel Island (main islet) ** Prion Island * East Group (): ** Con Island ** Molly Cap (main islet) ** North Rock

References