• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Map
• Reference and further resources

Site description (2015 baseline)

Pearl Rocks lie several km offshore from the western coast of Tower Island, Palmer Archipelago, ~25 km from the Davis Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The IBA qualifies on the basis of the Imperial Shag (Phalacrocorax [atriceps] bransfieldensis) colony present. The IBA is defined as an elliptical area centered on the approximate position of the northernmost of the three highest islets in the Pearl Rocks group.

The nearest permanent scientific stations are Gabriel de Castilla (ESP) and Decepción (ARG), located ~80 km to the northwest at Port Foster, Deception Island. These summer-only stations have a combined capacity of ~90 people.

Key biodiversity

Approximately 170 breeding pairs of Imperial Shag were recorded in 1987 (unpublished data S. Poncet pers. comm. 2005). Smaller numbers of Imperial Shags also breed on the islets of Pearl Rocks further to the south, although not in sufficient numbers to qualify as IBAs in their own right. No other birds are known to breed at Pearl Rocks, although several colonies of Chinstrap Penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica), Southern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialoides) and Cape Petrel (Daption capense) breed on nearby Tower Island.

Non-bird biodiversity: None known.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Pearl Rocks (Antarctica). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/pearl-rocks-iba-antarctica on 26/12/2024.