Spences Reefs is a pair of reefs consisting of two islets, with a combined area of 0.65 ha, in Tasmania, Australia. They are close to the south-east corner of Little Green Island and part of the

Great Dog Island Group The Great Dog Island, also known as Big Dog Island, and part of the Great Dog Group within the Furneaux Group, is a granite island, located in Bass Strait, lying south of the Flinders Island and north of the Cape Barren Island, in Tasmania, ...

, lying in eastern

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...

between Flinders and Cape Barren Islands in the Furneaux Group. The islets are part of the

Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area The Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area comprises several small islands, with a collective total area of 1725 ha, lying in Franklin Sound between the much larger Flinders Island to the north and Cape Barren Island to the south, in th ...

, identified as such 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 ...

because it holds over 1% of the world populations of six bird species.

Fauna

Recorded breeding seabird and wader species are

little penguin The little penguin (''Eudyptula minor'') is a species of penguin from New Zealand. They are commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage and are also known by their Māori name . The Australian lit ...

, white-faced storm-petrel, sooty oystercatcher, pied oystercatcher and Caspian tern.

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'' (bandicoot ...

s are present, with evidence that they prey on the storm-petrels.Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). ''Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features''. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart.

References

Furneaux Group Important Bird Areas of Tasmania {{Tasmania-geo-stub