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 subantarctic, sub-Antarctic region. They are among the Extremes on Earth#Remoteness, most i ...

. 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. 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 Exploration, explorer, from Lorient in Brittany, who carried out surveys of the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean in the early 20th century. ...

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 departments of France, department of Morbihan in southern Brittany, France. Its English name is taken from the French language, French version, ''le golfe du Morbihan'', t ...

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

(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 ''y môr bychan''), as opposed to the

Ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

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 Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

. 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 i ...

as a 280 km²

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) because of their value as breeding sites for

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s and for Eaton's pintails. Of the 20 islands and numerous islets included in the IBA, the largest is the 20 km² 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 ther ...

, but others are infested by

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...

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 are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

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 color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

and grey petrels. Other birds breeding in the IBA include Kerguelen, great-winged, white-chinned and white-headed petrels,

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

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 is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...

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 Atlanti ...

s, Kerguelen shags,

black-faced sheathbill The black-faced sheathbill (''Chionis minor''), also called the lesser sheathbill or paddy bird, is one of only two species of sheathbills, aberrant wader, shorebirds which are terrestrial (land)scavengers of subantarctic islands. Description ...

s, brown skuas and Kerguelen terns.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