The Îlots des Apôtres or Îles des Apôtres ( en, Apostle Islets or Islands) are a group of small and uninhabited rocky islands in the north-western part of the

Crozet Archipelago The Crozet Islands (french: Îles Crozet; or, officially, ''Archipel Crozet'') are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarcti ...

in the southern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

, north of

Île aux Cochons Île aux Cochons, or Pig Island, is an uninhabited island in the subantarctic Crozet Archipelago. With an area of it is the third largest island of the group. Administratively, it is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Descriptio ...

. Their total area is about .

Description

There are two larger islands (Île Grande - Big Island, and Île Petite - Little Island), together occupying almost 90 percent of the area. The highest peak is Mont Pierre ( on Île Grande. In addition, there are about 20 rocks, with elevations between . The islands are very steep. Despite their small size, Île Grande reaches a height of , and Île Petite .

History

On the night of 1 July 1875, the ''Strathmore'', a three-masted ship sailing between the United Kingdom and New Zealand, was wrecked in the vicinity after striking a reef. Of the 89 passengers on board, 44 survived on Île Grande until 21 January 1876, when they were rescued by another ship.

Important Bird Area

The islets have been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International as a breeding site 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 enviro ...

s, with at least 25 species nesting there. The birds include wandering, grey-headed, light-mantled,

sooty Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in 1955, with the ...

, black-browed and

Indian yellow-nosed albatross The Indian yellow-nosed albatross (''Thalassarche carteri'') is a member of the albatross family, and is the smallest of the mollymawks. In 2004, BirdLife International split this species from the Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross; however Clement ...

es, great-winged, soft-plumaged, white-chinned and

blue petrel The blue petrel (''Halobaena caerulea'') is a small seabird in the shearwater and petrel family, Procellariidae. This small petrel is the only member of the genus ''Halobaena'', but is closely allied to the prions. It is distributed across the So ...

s, medium-billed prions,

northern giant petrel The northern giant petrel (''Macronectes halli''), also known as Hall's giant petrel, is a large predatory seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly, but is slightly north of, the similar southern giant petrel (''Macrone ...

s, common diving petrels, Crozet blue-eyed shags and Kerguelen terns.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Îles des Apôtres. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-01-09.

The islets

References

also see "This barren rock", by Silvie Haisman. , also a radio play on the ABC National radio - tell me a shipwreck

External links