EXPEDITION TO THE SNARES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25306, 4 October 1947, Page 8

EXPEDITION TO THE SNARES

SURVEY OF SEALS AND MUTTON BIRDS

OTHER SCIENTISTS LIKELY TO JOIN PARTY A small party of scientists will leave Bluff late next month for the Snares, a lonely group of islands about 70 miles south of Stewart Island, where they will study mutton birds and sealing. Some meteorological studies will also be made. The. Marine Department: has agreed to supply transport for the expedition. Arrangements for the trip the hands of Dr. R. A. Falla (director of the Canterbury Museum), who will accompany the party to make an examination of ocean birds on the islands. It is expected that Di*. R. C. Mtltphy, an American authority on sea birds, who will . visit New* Zealand next month, will travel with the party. On behalf of the Marine Department, he will make an investigation into seal stocks. With this work will go a survey of the mutton bird population and the conditions under which it is nesting in the area. The Snares are known to be a favourite nesting ground because of the islands’ distance from Stewart Island. They have not regularly been visited by mutton birders, although some sporadic visits were paid, the last in 1914.

With the party will go a limited number of scientific workers in other fields. Mr H. F. Baird (director of the Magnetic Observatory, Christchurch' and an assistant will probably join the party and may remain at the Snares to make observations while the others visit the sealing grounds. They tyili be aided in their work by radio communication.

No Safe Anchorage There is no safe anchorage in the Snares, so that the patty engaged ort the i seal survey will probably make a series of visits to the islands. The trip is planned to last about two weeks, giving a time margin should bad weather, for which the afea is notorious, be encountered. A fast launch will probably be used.

The Snares were discovered in 1791 by Vancouver, who sailed past on his way to the Facifid Ocean. He had called at Dusky Sound on his way to explore the- west coast of North America. Possibly the unexpected discovery- of these small islands in his track suggested the name he gave to them. The main island of the group is not more than 500 feet high, and it is about a mile long. It is covered with a sturdy, stunted bush except for patches that have been cleared by the swarms of penguins that frequent the islands. Their formation is similar to the southern part of the Stewart Island, granite, heavily overlaid with an accumulation of rich mould and guano 'and bird droppings.

The islands have not been inhabited except by sealers, who, in the early days, considered them an excellent ground. It is at present a sanctuary for sea birds, seals, and penguins.