The Gosling Islands are a scattered group of islands and rocks lying close south and west of
Meier Point, off the south coast of
Coronation Island
Coronation Island is the largest of the South Orkney Islands, long and from wide. The island extends in a general east–west direction, is mainly ice-covered and comprises numerous bays, glaciers and peaks, the highest rising to .
History
T ...
in the
South Orkney Islands of
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 ...
. They were first charted and named "Gestlingen" by
Petter Sorlle
Petter may refer to:
People:
*Petter (given name)
* W. E. W. Petter, English aircraft designer
*Arlie Petters, a Belizean-American mathematical physicist
*Tom Petters, former CEO and chairman of Petters Group Worldwide
Place names:
*Petter Bay, a ...
in 1912–13. This was corrected to "Gjeslingene" (the goslings) on a later chart by Sorlle. The approved name is an anglicized form recommended by the
UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee
The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and ...
.
Important Bird Area
The islands, with a nearby ice-free headland on the south-western coast of Coronation Island, has been identified as an
Important Bird Area (IBA) by
BirdLife International because it supports a large
breeding colony of about 10,000 pairs of
chinstrap penguins, as well as over 8000 pairs of
Adélie penguins.
See also
*
List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands
References
Islands of the South Orkney Islands
Important Bird Areas of Antarctica
Penguin colonies
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