Fulmarus glacialoides in flight - SE Tasmania

Eadie Island is an island long which lies between Aspland Island and

O'Brien Island O'Brien Island is a small rocky island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It lies south-west of Aspland Island and rises to 540 m. A strong marine channel, named Tasman Rip, runs between O'Brien Island and Eadie Island. The ...

, in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 1 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

. A strong marine channel, named Tasman Rip, runs between Eadie Island and O'Brien Island. The island was first charted with its neighbours in February 1820, as the three 'O'Brien Islands', during a survey of the South Shetlands carried out by

Edward Bransfield Edward Bransfield (c. 1785 – 31 October 1852) was an Irish sailor who became an officer in the British Royal Navy, serving as a master on several ships, after being impressed into service in Ireland at the age of 18. He is noted for his par ...

and

William Smith (mariner) William Smith (c. 1790–1847) was an English captain born in Blyth, Northumberland, who discovered the South Shetland Islands, an archipelago off the Graham Land in Antarctica. His discovery was the first ever made south of 60° south ...

. A year later they were rediscovered by a Russian expedition under

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (russian: Фадде́й Фадде́евич Беллинсга́узен, translit=Faddéy Faddéevich Bellinsgáuzen; – ) was a Russian naval officer, cartographer and explorer, who ultimatel ...

, who used the name "Ostrova Tri Brata" (Three Brothers) for the present Aspland, Eadie and O'Brien Islands. Eadie Island was then named for the dockyard manager of the

Melbourne Harbor Trust The Melbourne Harbor Trust was established in 1877 to improve and operate port facilities for the growing city of Melbourne. It was superseded by the Port of Melbourne Authority in 1978 and later by the Port of Melbourne Corporation. Creation ...

of Williamstown, Australia, by Lieutenant L. C. Hill of the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

, captain of the '' Discovery II'', which engaged in survey work in the area in 1936–37.

Birds

The island forms part of the Aspland Island and Eadie Island Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because both islands support large

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

of chinstrap penguins and

southern fulmar The southern fulmar (''Fulmarus glacialoides'') is a seabird of the Southern Hemisphere. Along with the northern fulmar, ''F. glacialis'', it belongs to the fulmar genus ''Fulmarus'' in the family Procellariidae, the true petrels. It is also kno ...

References

Islands of the South Shetland Islands Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Penguin colonies Seabird colonies {{SouthShetlands-geo-stub

Birds

See also

References