Sims Island is a small but conspicuous, largely ice-free, volcanic island lying south of

Smyley Island Smyley Island is an Antarctic island lying off the Antarctic Peninsula. The island is long and from wide, and lies about north of Case Island. It connects to the Stange Ice Shelf and is separated from Alexander Island by the Ronne Entran ...

, between the

Rydberg Peninsula Rydberg Peninsula is a broad ice-covered peninsula, long, between Fladerer Bay and Carroll Inlet, Palmer Land. Rydberg Peninsula is located at . Rydberg Peninsula was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. N ...

and Case Island, in the southern part of

Carroll Inlet Carroll Inlet () is an inlet, long and wide, trending southeast along the coast of Antarctica between the Rydberg Peninsula and Smyley Island. The head of the inlet is divided into two arms by the presence of Case Island and is bounded to the e ...

, off the coast of

Palmer Land Palmer Land () is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica that lies south of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This application of Palmer Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the Advisory Committee on Antarctic N ...

in the

Bellingshausen Sea The Bellingshausen Sea is an area along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula between 57°18'W and 102°20'W, west of Alexander Island, east of Cape Flying Fish on Thurston Island, and south of Peter I Island (there the southern ''Vostokkyste ...

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 contine ...

. It was discovered by pilot Ashley Snow of the

United States Antarctic Service Expedition The United States Antarctic Service Expedition (1939–1941), often referred to as Byrd’s Third Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition jointly sponsored by the United States Navy, State Department, Department of the Interior and The Treasu ...

(1939–1941) on an aircraft flight on December 22, 1940. It was named for Lieutenant L.S. Sims of the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

(USMC), a surgeon on the expedition.

Important Bird Area

The whole of the 70 ha island has been designated 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 it supports a colony of about 15,000 pairs of

Adélie penguin The Adélie penguin (''Pygoscelis adeliae'') is a species of penguin common along the entire coast of the Antarctic continent, which is the only place where it is found. It is the most widespread penguin species, and, along with the emperor p ...

s, based on 2012 satellite imagery, which breed along the beach on the north-eastern coast.

South polar skua The south polar skua (''Stercorarius maccormicki'') is a large seabird in the skua family, Stercorariidae. An older name for the bird is MacCormick's skua, after explorer and naval surgeon Robert McCormick, who first collected the type specimen. ...

s also breed on the island.

References

Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Penguin colonies Seabird colonies Islands of Palmer Land {{PalmerLand-geo-stub

Important Bird Area

See also

References