Antarctic Treaty (Environment Protection) Proclamation 2005
Part 2Antarctic specially protected area No. 102
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Part 2 Antarctic specially protected area No. 102
Rookery Islands, MacRobertson Land, East Antarctica.
Latitude 67 37 S, longitude 62 32 E.
The Rookery Islands contain breeding colonies of six bird species resident in the Mawson area: Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), Cape petrel (Daption capense), snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea), southern giant petrel (Macronectes giganteus), Wilson’s storm petrel (Oceanites oceanicus) and the Antarctic skua (Catharacta maccormicki). The southern giant petrel breeds nowhere else in the region. The designation of the Area aims to safeguard this unusual association of six species and ensure the preservation of a representative offshore island habitat.
The Rookey Islands provides a representative sample of the offshore island habitats occurring along the coast of MacRobertson land.
The southern giant petrel (Macronectes giganteus) has a world population of approximately 62,000 individuals and is inferred to have sustained a population reduction of at least 20% over the last 60 years. The species is in continued rapid decline. Giganteus Island in the Rookery Islands group is one of only four known breeding localities of southern giant petrels around the coastline of continental Antarctica. The other three continental breeding colonies are located near the Australian stations of Casey (66° 13 S, 110°11 E), (Frazier Islands) and Davis (68º35 S, 77º58 E) (Hawker Island), and near the French station Dumont d’Urville (66º40 S, 140º01 E) in Terre Adélie. The current population for continental Antarctica is estimated at approximately 290 pairs, comprised of 3 pairs on Giganteus Island, 25 pairs on Hawker Island, 16 pairs at Pointe Géologie archipelago (Terre Adélie) and 248 pairs on the Frazier Islands. Southern giant petrels on the Antarctic continent comprise less than 1% of the global breeding population.
Southern giant petrels are widespread in more northerly latitudes, breeding on islands to the north-west of the Antarctic Peninsula and on islands of the Scotia Ridge. However, it is important that it should be protected at the southern limit of its breeding range.