Gough Island

Gough Island (, rhymes with cough; also known historically as Gonçalo Álvares) is a volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a dependency of Tristan da Cunha and part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. It is uninhabited except for the personnel of a weather station (usually six people) which the South African National Antarctic Programme has maintained continually on the island since 1956. It is one of the most remote places with a constant human presence.

Geography and geology

Gough Island rises to heights of over 900 m (2950 ft) above sea level. Its area is according to the South African Antarctic Programme http://www.sanap.ac.za/sanap_gough/sanap_gough.html. It is located at . Topographic features include the highest Peak, Edinburgh Peak, Hags Tooth, Mount Rowett, Sea Elephant Bay, Quest Bay, and Hawkins Bay.

It includes small satellite islands and rocks such as Southwest Island, Saddle Island (South), Tristiana Rock, Isolda Rock (West), Round Island, Cone Island, Lot's Wife, Church Rock (North), Penguin Island (Northeast), and The Admirals (East). It is a remote and lonely place, about southeast of the other islands in the Tristan da Cunha group, from Cape Town, and over from the nearest point of South America.

History

Gough Island was discovered in 1505 or 1506 by the Portuguese seaman Gonçalo Álvares, and named after him, as witnessed by every world map printed during the first three centuries of its history. In some more recent maps, however, after the island had been rechristened to its current name, a faulty variation of his name, viz. Diego Alvarez, has been mistakenly used as an alternate denomination.

According to some historians the English merchant Anthony de la Roché was the first to land on the island, in April 1675. Wace, N.M. (1969). The discovery, exploitation and settlement of the Tristan da Cunha Islands. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian Branch) 10: 11-40.

The island got its present name in association with Charles Gough, who fancied having discovered it in 1731.

It was named Gonçalo Alvarez, after the captain of Vasco da Gama's flagship on his epic voyage to the east, and under this name it was marked with reasonable accuracy on the charts of the South Atlantic during the following 250 years. Then, in 1731, Captain Gough of the British ship Richmond reported the discovery of a new island, which he placed 400 miles to the east of Goncalo Alvarez. Fifty years later cartographers realized that the two islands were the same and despite the priority of the Potuguese discovery, and the greater accuracy of the position given by them, "Gough's Island" was the name adopted. Heaney, J.B., Holdgate, M.W. (1957). The Gough Island Scientific Survey.The Geographical Journal, Vol. 123, No. 1, pp. 20-31

Wildlife

Gough and Inaccessible Island are a protected wildlife reserve, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It has been described as one of the least disrupted ecosystems of its kind and one of the best shelters for nesting seabirds in the Atlantic. In particular, it is host to almost the entire world population of the Tristan Albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) and the Atlantic Petrel (Pterodroma incerta).Cuthbert, J. & Sommer, E. Population size and trends of four globally threatened seabirds at Gough Island, South Atlantic Ocean. Marine Ornithology 32: 97–103. However, this status is now in doubt as in April 2007 researchers published evidence that predation by introduced house mice on seabird chicks is occurring at levels that might drive the Tristan Albatross and the Atlantic Petrel to extinction. The island is also home to the almost flightless Gough Island Moorhen, and the critically endangered Gough Bunting.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has since been awarded £62,000 by the UK government's Overseas Territories Environment Programme to fund additional research on the Gough Island mice and a feasibility study of how best to deal with them. The grant will also pay for the assessment of a rat problem on Tristan da Cunha island.

Weather station

The weather station on Gough Island is operated as part of the network of the South African Weather Service. Because cold fronts approach South Africa from the south-west, the Gough station is particularly important in forecasting winter weather.

The Gough Island teams consist of:

• a senior meteorologist
• two junior meteorologists
• a radio technician
• a medic
• a diesel mechanic
• biologists (depending on ongoing research projects)

References

External links

• The South African Weather Station on Gough Island - Official website.
• Wiki site for Southern Ocean Islands and Antarctica
• Web site for the 54th South-African expedition to Gough Island
• Gough Island on GlobalGuide
• map of Gough Island, with PDF downloadable
• The South Atlantic and Subantarctic Islands: Gough Island
• Gough Island Wildlife Reserve
• Photographs by one of the South African Weather Station staff who was based on Gough Island.

af:Gougheiland

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