Bauza Island () lies immediately south of the much larger
Secretary Island
Secretary Island () is an island in southwestern New Zealand, lying entirely within Fiordland National Park. Roughly triangular in shape, it lies between Doubtful Sound / Patea in the south and Te Awa-o-TĹ« / Thompson Sound in the north, with ...
in the outer reaches of
Doubtful Sound / Patea
Doubtful Sound / Patea is a fiord in Fiordland, in the far south west of New Zealand. It is located in the same region as the smaller but more famous and accessible Milford Sound / Piopiotahi. It took second place after Milford Sound as New Ze ...
, in
Fiordland National Park
Fiordland National Park is a national park in the south-west corner of South Island of New Zealand. It is the largest of the 13 National parks of New Zealand, national parks in New Zealand, with an area covering , and a major part of the Te WÄ ...
on
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
's
South Island
The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...
. The less than one kilometre wide Patea passage to the south of the island is the main entrance to Doubtful Sound. To the north, the island is separated from Secretary Island by the narrow Te Awaatu Channel, also referred to as "The Gut", only wide at its narrowest point. The waters between the two islands are protected by the
Te Awaatu Channel (The Gut) Marine Reserve. Doubtful Sound tour boats routinely travel through this channel.
Bauza Island is uninhabited and named after Spanish naval officer
Felipe Bauzá
Felipe Bauzá y Cañas (1764 in Palma de Mallorca – 1834 in London) was a Spanish naval officer, hydrographer, and cartographer.
Biography
He was born on 17 February 1764 in Palma de Mallorca. He studied at the nautical college of Cartagena ...
, the main cartographer of the
Malaspina Expedition
The Malaspina Expedition (1789–1794) was a five-year maritime scientific exploration commanded by Alejandro Malaspina and José de Bustamante y Guerra. Although the expedition receives its name from Malaspina, he always insisted on giving Bust ...
to the Americas, Oceania and Australasia between 1789 and 1794.
Conservation
Although Bauza Island is relatively small, it has a high conservation value, with pristine native bush and the only animal pest to have ever made it onto the island being
stoat
The stoat (''Mustela erminea''), also known as the Eurasian ermine or ermine, is a species of mustelid native to Eurasia and the northern regions of North America. Because of its wide circumpolar distribution, it is listed as Least Concern on th ...
s. Stoats were eradicated with a pest trapping campaign between 2002 and 2004, with over 40 traps along tracks following the main ridge of the island. Even though the island is now pest-free, the traps need to be checked and re-baited periodically as stoats have been known to swim distances of over . Bauza Island is one of only nine islands in the
Fiordland
Fiordland (, "The Pit of Tattooing", and also translated as "the Shadowlands"), is a non-administrative geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the western third of Southland. Most of F ...
region with no animal pests.
In 2003, before stoats had been eradicated, a group of endangered
saddleback (tieke) were transferred to the island, but subsequently killed by stoat. Following the stoat eradication, another 39 of the birds were successfully transferred from Breaksea Island and released on Bauza Island in 2010.
See also
*
Desert island
An uninhabited island, desert island, or deserted island, is an island, islet or atoll which lacks permanent human population. Uninhabited islands are often depicted in films or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes ...
*
List of islands
This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water
A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refer ...
References
External links
{{coord, 45, 17, 30, S, 166, 55, 0, E, region:NZ_type:isle, display=title
Uninhabited islands of New Zealand
Islands of Fiordland
Fiordland National Park