The Snares Islands (; officially Snares Islands / Tini Heke), known colloquially as The Snares, is a group of uninhabited islands lying about south of

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 ...

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 ...

and to the south-southwest of

Stewart Island / Rakiura Stewart Island (, 'Aurora, glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura, formerly New Leinster) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island wit ...

. The Snares consist of the main North East Island and the smaller Broughton Island and Alert Stack, 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 islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, not part of any

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

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, municip ...

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

Solander Islands The Solander Islands / Hautere are three eroded remnant volcanic islets towards the western entrance of the Foveaux Strait just beyond New Zealand's South Island. The islands lie south of the coastline of Fiordland. The islands are andesite ...

History

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 Co ...

, who called one of the larger islands ''Te Taniwha'' ("The sea-monster"). The island group was first sighted by Europeans on 23 November 1791 independently by the two ships HMS ''Discovery'' under Captain

George Vancouver Captain (Royal Navy), Captain George Vancouver (; 22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for leading the Vancouver Expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern West Coast of the Uni ...

, 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". Unlike other

subantarctic islands The sub-Antarctic zone is a physiographic region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region inc ...

that were greatly affected by the

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

and sealing industry in the 19th century, the Snares remain one of the last pristine areas in New Zealand. The

Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 The Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 is an act of parliament passed in New Zealand relating to Ngāi Tahu, the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. The act's purpose is to settle all of the tribe's claims under the Treaty of Wa ...

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 people, 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, New Zealand, Blenhe ...

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 island's 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.

Islands

The following table includes named islands according to

Land Information New Zealand Land Information New Zealand (LINZ; ) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with geographical information and surveying functions as well as handling land titles, and managing Crown land and property. The minister responsible ...

Environment

All of the Snares islands and their surrounding waters have been recognised as

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 ...

s (IBAs) 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 ...

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 So ...

Buller's albatross Buller's albatross (''Thalassarche bulleri'') or Buller's mollymawk, is a small mollymawk in the albatross family. It breeds on islands around New Zealand, and feeds in the seas off Australia and the South Pacific. Taxonomy Mollymawks are a t ...

es,

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 language, Māori name , and is harvested by Māori people for muttonbirding, muttonbird, l ...

s, mottled petrels 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, as well as of Snares snipe. The Western Chain hosts colonies of Snares penguins, Salvin's, Buller's and Chatham albatrosses. The islands also provide a home to the

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

Snares tomtit, as well as to several endemic invertebrates such as '' Grypotheca horningae''. 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 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 large ...

, designated as a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

by UNESCO.New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands - UNESCO World Heritage Centre>
/ref>

References

External links

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