The Snares Islands / Tini Heke, known colloquially as The Snares, is a group of uninhabited islands lying about 200 km south of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

's South Island and to the south-southwest of

Stewart Island / Rakiura Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total land ar ...

. The Snares consist of the main North East Island and the smaller Broughton Island as well as the Western Chain Islands some to the west-southwest. Collectively, the Snares have a total land area of . The islands are listed with the

New Zealand Outlying Islands The New Zealand outlying islands are nine offshore island groups that are part of New Zealand, with all but Solander Islands lying beyond the 12nm limit of the mainland's territorial waters. Although considered an integral parts of New Zealand ...

. The islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, not part of any

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

, but instead ''Area Outside Territorial Authority'', like all the other outlying islands except the

Solander Islands The Solander Islands / Hautere are three uninhabited volcanic islets toward the western end of the Foveaux Strait just beyond New Zealand's South Island. The Māori name ''Hautere'' translates into English as "flying wind". The islands lie so ...

History

The island group was first sighted by Europeans on 23 November 1791 independently by the two ships HMS ''Discovery'' under Captain George Vancouver, and HMS ''Chatham'', commanded by Lieutenant William R. Broughton, both of the

Vancouver Expedition The Vancouver Expedition (1791–1795) was a four-and-a-half-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy, commanded by Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy. The British expedition circumnavigated the globe and made contact with five continen ...

. Vancouver named the islands "The Snares" because he considered them a shipping hazard; an islet east of the Western Chain bears the name Vancouver Rock, and the second largest island is named after Broughton. In contrast to Vancouver, Broughton proposed the name "Knight's Island". The islands were already known to the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

, who called one of the larger islands ''Te Taniwha'' ("The sea-monster"). Unlike other subantarctic islands that were greatly affected by the

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

and sealing industry in the 19th century, the Snares remain one of the last pristine areas in New Zealand. The Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 officially altered the name to "Snares Islands/Tini Heke" – one of many such changes under the

Ngāi Tahu Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. Its (tribal area) is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti (southeast of Blenheim), Mount Mahanga and Kahurangi Point ...

Treaty settlement.

Geography

The main island of the Snares group, North East Island, as its name suggests, lies at the northeastern corner of the group. It has roughly the shape of a triangle, but with two concave edges, this causing both the southern and northwestern coast to be in the form of large irregular bays. Cliffs and reefs are found along the northeastern coast and part of the southern coast, with the islands highest point – rising to 130 metres – being located on the long westward-pointing finger which lies between them. In contrast, the east coast is relatively flat and sloping, and provides the only easy access-point for landing, close to Station Point. Several small bays dot the east coast, among them Punui Bay, Ho Ho Bay, and Mollymawk Bay. The island's northernmost and southernmost points are the prosaically named North Promontory and South Promontory. Several small islets, the Daption Rocks, lie off the tip of North Promontory, and are the island group's northernmost point.NZMS 272/1+5 (1981) "Snares Islands and Bounty Islands", Wellington:NZ Government Department of Lands and Surveys. The group's second largest island, Broughton Island, lies to the southeast of South Promontory. Steeply sloping, it is surrounded by cliffs, reefs and small islets on three sides, with only the northern side being relatively accessible. The long finger on the western coast of the main island has several small islands located close to its tip. The largest of these, Alert Stack, is located to the south of the peninsula and separated from it by a narrow channel. The peninsula points almost directly towards the Western Chain, a line of stacks located some 4 kilometres to the southwest of the main island. These islets are simply named Tahi, Rua, Toru, Wha, and Rima, the

words for the numerals one to five. Between this chain and North East island lies the small stack of Vancouver Rock.

Environment

All of the Snares islands and their surrounding waters have been recognised as Important Bird Areas (IBAs) by BirdLife International for their significant seabird breeding populations. The eastern islands are notable for their

Snares penguin The Snares penguin (''Eudyptes robustus''), also known as the Snares crested penguin and the Snares Islands penguin, is a penguin from New Zealand. The species breeds on the Snares Islands, a group of islands off the southern coast of the South ...

s, Buller's albatrosses,

sooty shearwater The sooty shearwater (''Ardenna grisea'') is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand, it is also known by its Māori name , and as muttonbird, like its relatives the wedge-tailed shearwater (''A. pacificus ...

mottled petrel The mottled petrel (''Pterodroma inexpectata'') or kōrure is a species of seabird and a member of the gadfly petrels. It usually attains in length with a wingspan. This species is highly pelagic, rarely approaching land, except to nest and r ...

s and common diving petrels, as well as of

Snares snipe The Snares snipe (''Coenocorypha huegeli''), also known as the Snares Island snipe, or tutukiwi in Māori, is a species of bird in the sandpiper family, Scolopacidae. Taxonomy and etymology The Snares Island snipe is one of a group of birds of s ...

. The Western Chain hosts colonies of Snares penguins, Salvin's, Buller's and

Chatham albatross The Chatham albatross (''Thalassarche eremita''), also known as the Chatham mollymawk or Chatham Island mollymawk,Robertson, C. J. R. (2003) is a medium-sized black-and-white albatross which breeds only on The Pyramid, a large rock stack in th ...

es. The islands also provide a home to the

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Snares tomtit, as well as to several endemic invertebrates such as ''

Grypotheca horningae ''Grypotheca horningae'' is a moth of the family Psychidae. It was described by John S. Dugdale in 1987. It is endemic to New Zealand and is only known from the Snares Islands. The species is named in honour of Carol J. Horning who collected the ...

''. North East Island is forested and is the world's premier breeding area for the sooty shearwaters, with up to three million individuals being present during the breeding season (November–April). A dangerous reef (Seal Reef) lies ten kilometres to the south of the group.

Megaherb Megaherbs are a group of herbaceous wildflowers growing in the New Zealand subantarctic islands and on the other subantarctic islands. They are characterised by their great size, with huge leaves and very large and often unusually coloured flowers ...

communities grow on the islands. The islands enjoy a status of high protection and are rated by the New Zealand Department of Conservation as "minimum impact islands". Landing on the islands is generally prohibited or by special research permit only. The area is among five subantarctic island groups forming the

New Zealand Subantarctic Islands The New Zealand Subantarctic Islands comprise the five southernmost groups of the New Zealand outlying islands. They are collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most of the islands lie near the southeast edge of the largel ...

, designated as a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

by UNESCO.New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
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References

Birds Of the Snares Islands - New Zealand

Info and Map of the Snares Islands - New Zealand Department of Conservation

Expedition Snares Islands video – Te Papa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snares New Zealand subantarctic islands Archipelagoes of New Zealand Archipelagoes of the Southern Ocean Subantarctic islands Important Bird Areas of the Snares Islands Temperate Australasia

History

Geography

Environment

See also

References