Namibian islands seabird survey, 19-30 January 2003

We left Cape Town on 19 January and drove the 1200 km to Luderitz. We stayed in a cottage on Shark Island. This island is joined to the mainland and the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Research building is here. Luderitz is in the foreground and Shark Island in the background.

On 20 January we visited Halifax Island, travelling on the Kuiseb ship. The houses were built for the guano trade but are now inhabited by penguins.

On 21 January we had some time to drive to Grosse Bucht, south of Luderitz. We found a flock of Damara Terns roosting on the saltpan plain.

On 22 January we visited Bird Rock platform, a guano platform near Walvis Bay.

On 23 January we drove 120 km north of Swakopmund to visit the Cape Cross platforms. The Cape Cross North platform was fairly deserted with small numbers of Cape Cormorants and Kelp Gulls.

Caspian Terns at the Swakopmund platform.

The Welwitchia in Walvis Bay harbour, the ship that took us to the larger Namibian islands over the next week.

Hollamsbird Island - the sea was too rough to attempt a landing. The old jetty and sealer's hut are visible on the left of the island.

Mercury Island is a small island with steep sides. We worked on the island on 2 days - there was only space for a few team members to sleep on the island, the rest of us slept on the Welwitchia.

Neglectus Islet is the rock in front of the mainland with houses. Bruce and Jessica visited the island with a rubber duck to look for African Penguins. These have only recently started to make a comeback and are now a small but growing breeding colony again (with 10 active nests and another nest under construction recorded on this trip).

We arrived at Ichaboe Island at dusk and stayed for 2 nights.

On our way to Possession Island we received a call from the smaller Kuiseb ship that it was having engine trouble. We turned around and towed the Kuiseb to Luderitz harbour before continuing our vaoyage.

After disembarking from the Welwitchia in Luderitz, we had a day in Luderitz to visit the last 2 islands, using a rubber duck. Both islands are rocky oucrops at the entrance to the Luderitz bay. This is Seal Island where we counted the breeding seabirds.