Halifax Island is a small rocky island about from the mainland, near

Lüderitz Lüderitz is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island. The town is known for its colonial architecture, includi ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. It is the third most important breeding site for

African penguin The African penguin (''Spheniscus demersus''), also known as Cape penguin or South African penguin, is a species of penguin confined to southern African waters. Like all extant penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body and wings stiff ...

s in Namibia.

History

Captain Charles C. Forsyth of the

Cape of Good Hope Station The Commander-in-Chief, Africa was the last title of a Royal Navy's formation commander located in South Africa from 1795 to 1939. Under varying titles, it was one of the longest-lived formations of the Royal Navy. It was also often known as the C ...

was ordered to take possession of the

Penguin Islands The Penguin Islands ( af, Pikkewyn-eilande, german: Pinguininseln) are a historical group of mostly scattered islands and rocks situated along a stretch of along the coastline of Namibia. Not forming a geographic whole, the Namibian governm ...

and the

Lüderitz Bay Lüderitz Bay or Lüderitzbaai (german: Lüderitzbucht), also known as Angra Pequena (, "small cove"), is a bay in the coast of Namibia, Africa. The city of Lüderitz is located at the edge of the bay. Geography The bay is indented and comple ...

. Captain Forsyth proclaimed British sovereignty over the islands on 5 May 1866. He landed on the Halifax Island two days later on and erected a board claiming the island in the name of the British ruler.

Philip Edmond Wodehouse Sir Philip Edmond Wodehouse (27 February 1811 – 25 October 1887) was a British colonial administrator. Biography Wodehouse was the eldest child of Edmond Wodehouse and his wife and first cousin Lucy Wodehouse. His paternal grandfather Tho ...

leased the Penguin islands in 1867 to De Pass, Spence & Co. and Robert Granger until 1895. They were given exclusive rights to mine guano and hunt seals.S Akweenda Penguin

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

on the island was thick in the early 19th century and mining continued until 1949. The penguin population in the island has halved in the 30 years between 1970 and 2000. Houses and sheds used by guano miners and the local headman are currently in various stages of deterioration. The uninhabited buildings are now used by penguins for breeding. The Namibian Government's Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources currently manages the island and monitors the seabird population.

Location

The island is serviced by a catamaran tour from Lüderitz. The island itself is out of bounds for the public, even though the catamarans are allowed to sail past the island to offer a view of the penguins.

Fauna

The island is also home to colonies of

Kelp gull The kelp gull (''Larus dominicanus''), also known as the Dominican gull, is a gull that breeds on coasts and islands through much of the Southern Hemisphere. The nominate ''L. d. dominicanus'' is the subspecies found around South America, par ...

s, with around 350 nests recorded in the summer of 2000. Their numbers are bolstered by the nearby dump in Lüderitz. Increase in gull population has been problematic to penguin eggs which are eaten by the gulls.

Crowned cormorant The crowned cormorant (''Microcarbo coronatus'') is a small cormorant that is endemic to the waters of the cold Benguela Current of southern Africa. It is an exclusively coastal species and is not found more than 10 km (6 mi) away fro ...

Greater crested tern The greater crested tern Retrieved 28 February 2012 (''Thalasseus bergii''), also called crested tern or swift tern, is a tern in the family Laridae that nests in dense colonies on coastlines and islands in the tropical and subtropical Old World ...

and

Hartlaub's gull Hartlaub's gull (''Chroicocephalus hartlaubii''), also known as the king gull, it is a small gull. It was formerly sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the silver gull (''C. novaehollandiae''), and, as is the case with many gulls, it has t ...

are also found to breed in the island. A pilot project in May 2001 led to three

African oystercatcher The African oystercatcher or African black oystercatcher (''Haematopus moquini''), is a large charismatic wader resident to the mainland coasts and offshore islands of southern Africa. This near-threatened oystercatcher has a population of over ...

fledgling successfully in the island.

Cape cormorant The Cape cormorant or Cape shag (''Phalacrocorax capensis'') is a bird endemic to the southwestern coasts of Africa. It breeds from Namibia south to southern Western Cape. In the nonbreeding season, it may be found as far north as the mouth of t ...

and

White-breasted cormorant The white-breasted cormorant (''Phalacrocorax lucidus'') is much like the widespread great cormorant and if not a regional variant of the same species, is at least very closely related. It is distinguished from other forms of the great cormorant ...

are also observed to roost on the island.

Cape wagtail The Cape wagtail (''Motacilla capensis''), also known as Wells's wagtail, is a small insectivorous bird which is widespread in southern Africa. It frequents water's edge, lawns and gardens. It is a mostly resident, territorial species, but has be ...

Turnstone Turnstones are two bird species that comprise the genus ''Arenaria'' in the family Scolopacidae. They are closely related to calidrid sandpipers and might be considered members of the tribe Calidriini. The genus ''Arenaria'' was introduced by t ...

Greater flamingo The greater flamingo (''Phoenicopterus roseus'') is the most widespread and largest species of the flamingo family. It is found in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and in southern Europe. Taxonomy The greater flamingo was desc ...

and Whimbrel have also been sighted in the island.

Heaviside's dolphin Heaviside's dolphin (''Cephalorhynchus heavisidii'') is one of four dolphins in the genus ''Cephalorhynchus''. The small cetacean is endemic to the Benguela ecosystem along the southwest coast of Africa. Taxonomy and evolution Nomenclature E ...

are also occasionally spotted in the bay.

Brown fur seal The brown fur seal (''Arctocephalus pusillus''), also known as the Cape fur seal, South African fur seal and Australian fur seal, is a species of fur seal. Description The brown fur seal is the largest and most robust member of the fur seals. ...

also come over to hunt the penguins.Pablo Garcia Borboroglu

References

{{reflist Lüderitz Geography of ǁKaras Region Islands of Namibia Nature conservation in Namibia