Pourquoi-pas Island (POUR)
67˚43’S, 67˚44’W Magnetic declination: 20.5˚E Inventory subarea: SW Inventory acronym: POUR Site Sensitivity: LOW Location — History — Features A 17-mile-long, 5-to-11-mile-wide, mountainous island lying between Bigourdan and Bourgeois Fjords off the W coast of Graham land. The island was discovered by Charcot’s French Antarctic Expedition of 1908-10. The island was charted more accurately by John Rymill’s British Graham land Expedition, 1934-7, and Rymill named the island for Charcot’s expedition ship. Landing Characteristics The landing beach for this visit is located on the W side of the island, NW of an extensive moraine (67˚43’S 67˚44’W). Antarctic Site Inventory Effort Visits by Antarctic Site Inventory researchers, 1994-2003: 1. January 21, 1996 RD RP Livonia Assessment and monitoring. Preliminary surveying. More complete censusing of penguin colonies and surveying of floral communities needed. Fauna — Flora — Censuses Penguins & flying birds . Adélie penguins are confirmed breeders. Recent Adélie penguin census data reported in Woehler (1993): 700 N3/4, 1984. One south polar skua nest also noted and, given the extensive skua “club” near the landing beach, there are likely to be other nests in the vicinity. Seals . Single Weddell and crabeater seals hauled-out. Flora . Usnea , spp., Xanthoria , spp., and cushion moss, spp., noted. Conservation Aspects Site sensitivities. Breeding penguins are easily approached and disturbed. Pointers for avoiding disruptions.
Visitation Aspects Numbers of tourist zodiac landings and participating visitors, 1989-2003:
NOTE : The January 1996 visit that brought Inventory researchers to Pourquoi-pas Island never entered the annual database compiled by NSF. Nor did the same visit made by that ship, presumably inadvertently, to off-limits Lagotellerie Island. More recently, expedition ships have recorded landings at Bongrain Point (67˚43’S, 67˚48’W), which forms the S side of the entrance to Dalgliesh Bay on the W side of the Pourquoi-pas Island, and in Dalgliesh Bay (67˚42’S, 67˚45’W) itself, both of which are close to where Inventory researchers visited in January 1996. Landings and participating visitor data for these recent visits are combined in the above table. Proximate visitor sites . Stonington Island. |
