Gough and Inaccessible Islands

• Official name: Gough and Inaccessible Islands
• Location: South Atlantic Ocean
• Type: Natural
• Year of inscription: 1995

Gough and Inaccessible Islands are two remote South Atlantic islands known for their abundance of both land birds and seabirds, including several species not found anywhere else in the world. They are part of the Tristan da Cunha group, a six-island chain about 1,677 miles (2,700 kilometers) from South Africa and 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) from South America. Its largest island, Tristan da Cunha, is the most remote inhabited island in the world. Gough and Inaccessible Islands are both uninhabited, except for the presence of a few weather researchers.

The Tristan da Cunha Islands lie on the boundary between the Southern Hemisphere’s cool, temperate waters and warmer, subtropical waters. This makes Gough Island, in particular, an inviting home for both cold- and warm-water seabirds. Both Gough Island and Inaccessible Island have nearly pristine ecosystems that are unspoiled by outside contact. In 1995, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized Gough Island as a World Heritage Site, marking it as a place worthy of special conservation efforts. In 2004, UNESCO expanded its listing to add Inaccessible Island.

History

The Tristan da Cunha is a group of six volcanic islands located almost halfway between Africa and South America in the South Atlantic. The five closest islands were first sighted in 1506 by Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha, who named them after himself. These islands—Tristan da Cunha, Inaccessible, Nightingale, Middle, and Stoltenhoff—are all located within 25 miles (40 kilometers) of one another. At about the same time, another Portuguese explorer, Gonçalo Álvares, sighted a small island about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of the main group. He also named the island after himself.

In 1731, a British captain named Charles Gough spotted Gonçalo Álvares and assumed it was a yet-undiscovered island. He called it Gough Island. Although it later became known that Gough Island and Gonçalo Álvares were one and the same, the British name stuck.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the islands were often used as stops by sealers and whalers. The British annexed the closest five islands of the Tristan da Cunha chain in 1816 and briefly stationed a garrison on Tristan da Cunha itself. The Garrison was used to guard Napoleon, who was exiled to the island of St. Helena, 1,516 miles (2,440 kilometers) to the north.

After the garrison left, three Scottish soldiers stayed behind. Over the years, they were joined by a collection of whalers, shipwreck survivors, sailors, and wives from the British Cape Colony in South Africa—the ancestors of the island’s 250 modern inhabitants. In 1938, Great Britain officially annexed Gough Island and added it to the Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha.

Like the other islands in the chain, Gough Island is volcanic, having last erupted more than one hundred thousand years ago. The island is about 3 miles (5 kilometers) wide, 8 miles (13 kilometers) long, and has an area of 25 square miles (65 square kilometers). Scientists noted the biological and geological importance of the island during several brief expeditions in the early twentieth century. The land birds on the island were placed under a wildlife protection ordinance in 1950, and five years later, a team of researchers completed a scientific survey of the island. In 1956, the South African government established a weather research facility on Gough. The members of the research team have been the only human inhabitants of the island since that time.

In 1976, Gough Island was declared a wildlife reserve, and a year later, the waters extending out to 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) were included under that protection. In 1983, the Tristan da Cunha government set limits on fishing within 230 miles (370 kilometers) of Gough Island. In 2001, the 230-mile limit was declared a whale sanctuary.

Despite its name, Inaccessible Island is not quite inaccessible, although it is very difficult to land a boat there. The island’s coastline consists of sheer cliffs and a few rocky beaches; however, the surrounding currents make landings possible only during certain times of the year. Inaccessible is an extinct volcano about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Tristan da Cunha. The island has a total area of 4.9 square miles (12.7 square kilometers). According to tradition, the island was named by French Captain M. d’Etcheverry, who tried and failed, to land there in 1778.

Residents of Tristan da Cunha attempted to establish a farming community on the island in the 1930s, but that failed after a few years. The island has been uninhabited since that time, although it is visited occasionally by locals to harvest apples. In 1997, Inaccessible Island and the surrounding 14 miles (23 kilometers) of ocean were declared a nature reserve.

Significance

In 1995, UNESCO selected Gough Island for inclusion on its World Heritage list. Nine years later, Inaccessible Island was added to the listing. To be selected as a World Heritage Site, locations must be of universal value to humanity and meet at least one of ten criteria set out by UNESCO. Originally, UNESCO had six criteria for human-made cultural sites and four criteria for natural sites. However, the criteria were combined into one list of ten in 2004.

Gough and Inaccessible islands meet two of UNESCO’s criteria. The islands are “areas of exceptional natural beauty,” with UNESCO specifically noting the spectacular cliffs with their thousands of nesting seabirds that ring the coastlines. At the center of Gough Island sits Edinburgh Peak, the 2,985-foot (910-meter) summit of the island’s volcano. The eastern side of the island features a series of deep valleys and ridges, while the western side has more rounded slopes that end in sheer cliffs when they meet the sea.

Inaccessible Island is far older than Gough Island, and its volcanic rock has been subjected to more erosion. The island features a central plateau that tops out at 1,640 feet (500 meters). The cliffside surrounding the island is dotted with several waterfalls, including 755-foot (230-meter) high Waterfall Gulch on its northeastern side.

The second criterion met by the islands is that they are both “significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity.” Both islands are near-pristine ecosystems and the least-disturbed cool-temperature islands in the South Atlantic. Inaccessible Island is one of the few islands on the planet where no outside invasive mammal species have been introduced. However, the introduction of house mice on Gough Island has raised concerns among conservationists. The mice can feed on seabird chicks and have been blamed for a decline in the population of several bird species. In the mid-2020s, Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the government of Tristan da Cunha were actively involved in trying to eradicate the mice from the island. Officials were also taking measures to control several foreign plant species that were accidentally introduced to the islands in the 1990s.

Even with these concerns, the islands are among the most unspoiled habitats for both land birds and seabirds in the Atlantic Ocean. Some environmentalists consider Gough Island to be the best ecosystem for studying nesting seabirds in the world. Twenty-two species of seabirds and two species of land birds nest on Gough Island. The island is home to the only-known breeding colonies of Atlantic petrels, Indian yellow-nosed albatrosses, spectacled petrels, and Tristan albatrosses. A large population of northern rockhopper penguins also nests on Gough Island and Tristan da Cunha. The rarely seen birds have distinctive yellow crests that look like a punk rock hairstyle. The two species of land birds—the Gough bunting and the flightless Gough moorhen—are both endemic species, meaning they are not found anywhere else in the world.

The only native land mammals found on the island are subantarctic fur seals and southern elephant seals. Sea mammals such as the southern right whale and dusky dolphin live in the surrounding waters. Of the forty plant species found on the islands of Tristan da Cunha, twelve are endemic to Gough Island and eight are unique to Inaccessible Island.

Neither Gough Island nor Inaccessible Island have any reptile or amphibian populations. Inaccessible Island does not have any mammal population, but it has several species of invertebrates that are endemic to the island and surrounding waters. It is also home to two endemic birds, including the Inaccessible rail, the smallest flightless bird in the world.

Bibliography

“Gough and Inaccessible Islands.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre, whc.unesco.org/en/list/740. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

“Gough and Inaccessible Islands.” World Heritage Datasheet, May 2011, world-heritage-datasheets.unep-wcmc.org/datasheet/output/site/gough-and-inaccessible-islands. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

“Gough and Inaccessible Islands.” World Heritage Outlook, 2 Dec. 2020 worldheritageoutlook.iucn.org/explore-sites/wdpaid/93767. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

“Gough and Inaccessible Islands.” World Heritage UK, worldheritageuk.org/world-heritage-sites-uk-list/overseas-territories/gough-inaccessible-islands-saint-helena. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

“Gough Island.” Tristan da Cunha Government & Tristan da Cunha Association, 7 Dec. 2018, www.tristandc.com/gough.php. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

“Gough Island: Seabird Capital of the South Atlantic.” Oceanwide Expeditions, oceanwide-expeditions.com/blog/gough-island-the-seabird-capital-of-the-atlantic. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

Isaacson, Andy. “A Visual Dispatch from One of the World’s Most Remote Islands.” New York Times, 25 May 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/travel/tristan-da-cunha.html. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

Nosowitz, Dan. “The Questionable Rewards of a Visit to Inaccessible Island.” Atlas Obscura, 1 Nov. 2018, www.atlasobscura.com/articles/can-you-visit-inaccessible-island. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

“Tristan da Cunha Whales and Dolphins.” Tristan da Cunha Government & Tristan da Cunha Association, 4 Aug. 2020, www.tristandc.com/wildwhales.php. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.