Part 21Antarctic specially protected area No. 121

Part 21 Antarctic specially protected area No. 121

  Cape Royds, Ross Island.

  Latitude 77 33 20 S, longitude 166 09 56 E.

  Cape Royds (77° 33 20 S, 166° 09 56 E) is situated on the west side of Ross Island, McMurdo Sound, at the western extremity of a coastal strip of ice-free land approximately 8 km wide, on the west slope of Mount Erebus. The Area comprises both a terrestrial and marine component.

  The marine component of the Area extends for approximately 5 km from Derrick Point in the south to Rocky Point in the north, including Horseshoe Bay. The marine boundary is defined as extending north-east along the Arrival Bay coastline from the most easterly corner of the terrestrial boundary at Arrival Bay (77° 33 15.9 S, 166° 10 06 E) to Derrick Point (77° 33 14.1 S, 166° 10 22 E). From Derrick Point the marine boundary extends offshore 500 m in a south-east direction and thence extends parallel to the coast 500 m offshore from the mean high water mark, around Cape Royds and north for 5.3 km to a point 500 m due north of Rocky Point then due south to Rocky Point.

  The terrestrial component of the Area consists of ice-free land within approximately 350 m of Cape Royds itself (77° 33 20 S, 166° 09 56 E). Much of this land is seasonally occupied by a breeding Adélie penguin colony. The boundary of this part of the Area has been revised from the original description so as to include all of the area occupied by breeding penguins in 1995/96 and the main southern access route of the penguins to the sea. The north boundary of the territorial component of the Area extends 45 m from a small embayment, on the west side and 350 m north of Cape Royds, in a straight line north-east to a survey mark identified on earlier New Zealand maps as IT2 (77° 33 11.1 S, 166° 09 33.3 E), which is an iron tube embedded in the ground. This line extends 10 m east from IT2 to a signpost (77° 33 11.1 S, 166° 09 34.8 E), then a further 80 m east to a signpost (77° 33 11.0 S, 166° 09 46.1 E) at the south end of a small pond at the north end of Pony Lake. From this signpost the boundary extends in a south-east direction for 114 m just north of the lake to the eastern edge of the lake (77° 33 12.6 S, 166° 10 01.3 E). The east boundary then extends 86 m in a south-south-east direction to a third signpost (77° 33 15.2 S, 166° 10 05 E), thence to the coast on the east side of Arrival Bay (77° 33 15.9 S, 166° 10 06.0 E). All of the ice-free ground, snow-patches and freshwater bodies contained west and south of the line defined above to the coast extending around Cape Royds is included within the Area.

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