The Golfe du Morbihan (Gulf of Morbihan) is a bay on the eastern coast of Grande Terre, the largest of the
Kerguelen islands
The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a lar ...
. It forms a deep and broad notch in the central section of the island.
Description
It is a relatively protected maritime space constituting a natural shelter for the ships and on the banks of which were established the stations of and
Port-aux-Français
Port-aux-Français is the main settlement of the Kerguelen Islands, and French Southern and Antarctic Lands, in the south Indian Ocean.
Occupancy
The settlement is located on the shore of the Gulf of Morbihan. About 45 residents spend the win ...
. The gulf of Morbihan is strewn with many islands and islets. It was thus so called by
Raymond Rallier du Baty
Raymond Rallier du Baty (30 August 1881 – 7 May 1978) was a French sailor and explorer, from Lorient in Brittany, who carried out surveys of the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean in the early 20th century.
Rallier du ...
at the time of its forwardings of the beginning of the 20th century in the honour of the
Gulf of Morbihan
The Gulf of Morbihan is a natural harbour on the coast of the department of Morbihan in southern Brittany, France. Its English name is taken from the French version, ''le golfe du Morbihan'', though it would be more precisely called 'the Mo ...
in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
(Kerguelen was Breton, and many of the features in the islands have Breton names). "Morbihan" derives directly from the
Breton name which is ''Ar Morbihan'', meaning 'the little sea' (Compare the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
''y môr bychan''), as opposed to the
Ocean
The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wor ...
outside.
The name of Gulf of Morbihan appears on a chart published in 1922. Previously the place was known as Royal Sound, given by
James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...
. This remains in the name of Passe Royale, the entry of the gulf. The name Golfe du Morbihan was confirmed by the French toponymy commission for the Southern and Antarctic Lands, thus respecting the hierarchy of the topographic terms, since the Golfe du Morbihan includes several smaller bays such as the Baie des Aurores Australes, where Port-aux-Français is located. However the name Baie du Morbihan appears on various charts and is often used indifferently even in official writings.
Important Bird Area
The islands of the gulf have been identified 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 ...
as a 280 km
2 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 Inte ...
(IBA) because of their value as breeding sites for
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 ...
s and for
Eaton's pintail
Eaton's pintail (''Anas eatoni'') is a dabbling duck of the genus ''Anas''. It is also known as the southern pintail. The species is restricted to the island groups of Kerguelen and Crozet in the southern Indian Ocean. It resembles a small f ...
s. Of the 20 islands and numerous islets included in the IBA, the largest is the 20 km
2 Île Australia. Some of the islands are free of
introduced species
An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...
, but others are infested by
rats,
mice
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...
and
rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...
s. Some islands still have their original subantarctic vegetation, including
Kerguelen cabbages,
lyallia cushions and
Moseley's buttercups. They are of particular interest because of their large populations of
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
and
grey petrel
The grey petrel (''Procellaria cinerea''), also called the brown petrel, pediunker or grey shearwater is a species of seabird in the Procellariidae, or petrel family. It is pelagic and occurs in the open seas of the Southern Hemisphere, mainly b ...
s. Other birds breeding in the IBA include
Kerguelen
The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...
,
great-winged,
white-chinned and
white-headed petrel
The white-headed petrel (''Pterodroma lessonii''), also known as the white-headed fulmar, is a species of seabird in the petrel family, Procellariidae. It is about in length.
White-headed petrels breed alone or in colonies in burrows dug among ...
s,
Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and othe ...
and
slender-billed prion
The slender-billed prion (''Pachyptila belcheri'') or thin-billed prion, is a species of petrel, a seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is found in the southern oceans.
Taxonomy
The slender-billed prion was species description, formally ...
s,
Wilson's and
grey-backed storm petrels,
South Georgia
South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east� ...
and
common diving petrel
The common diving petrel (''Pelecanoides urinatrix''), also known as the smaller diving petrel or simply the diving petrel, is a diving petrel, one of four very similar auk-like small petrels of the southern oceans. It is native to South Atlant ...
s,
Kerguelen shags,
black-faced sheathbill
The black-faced sheathbill (''Chionis minor''), also known as the lesser sheathbill or paddy bird, is one of only two species of sheathbills, aberrant shorebirds which are terrestrial scavengers of subantarctic islands.
Description
They are ...
s,
brown skua
The brown skua (''Stercorarius antarcticus''), also known as the Antarctic skua, subantarctic skua, southern great skua, southern skua, or hākoakoa (Māori), is a large seabird that breeds in the subantarctic and Antarctic zones and moves furthe ...
s and
Kerguelen tern
The Kerguelen tern (''Sterna virgata'') is a tern of the southern hemisphere.
This seabird mainly breeds colonially in the Kerguelen Islands, as its common name implies. However, smaller colonies are also found in the Prince Edward Islands (i. ...
s.
[BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Islands of the Golfe du Morbihan. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-01-11.]
References
{{Coord, 49, 26, S, 70, 8, E, type:waterbody_region:FR, display=title
Landforms of the Kerguelen Islands
Important Bird Areas of Kerguelen
Gulfs of France