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Site description (2015 baseline)

Île des Manchots and Empereur Island lie within two km of Cape Margerie, Terre Adélie. Port-Martin is an anchorage adjacent to Cape Margerie, from which the station established on the cape by the French Antarctic Expedition of 1949-50 takes its name. Port-Martin station was destroyed by fire in January 1952, was designated Historic Site & Monument No. 46 in 1985, and has since been designated as ASPA No. 166. The purpose of the protected area is conservation of the site's historic values, rather than the large colonies of birdlife present in the adjacent area.

The IBA qualifies on the basis of the Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony present, and includes Mont du Sabbat and Mont du Sphinx on the eastern coast of Cape Margerie, Île des Manchots, Empereur Island and Pointe de Cézembre and the intervening marine area.

The closest permanent station is Dumont d'Urville (FRA), ~65 km to the west at Pointe Géologie.

Key biodiversity

Barbraud et al. (1999) counted 20 171 breeding pairs of Adélie Penguin at Cape Margerie and Île des Manchots in 1997/98, although at this time none were breeding on Empereur Island (C. Barbraud pers. comm. 2015). More recently, approximately 35 000 breeding pairs (95% CI: 23 475, 62 350) of Adélie Penguin were present within the IBA area, as estimated from February 2011 satellite imagery (Lynch & LaRue 2014). The majority (~24 000 pairs) occupy Île des Manchots, with ~7100 pairs estimated on Empereur Island, ~3500 pairs on Cape Margerie, and ~250 pairs at Pointe de Cézembre (unpublished data H. Lynch & M. LaRue, pers. comm. 2014).

The Barbraud et al. (1999) survey also recorded six pairs of South Polar Skuas (Catharacta maccormicki) and confirmed the presence of breeding Wilson's Storm-petrels (Oceanites oceanicus).

Non-bird biodiversity: None known.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Île des Manchots / Empereur Island (Antarctica). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/île-des-manchots--empereur-island-iba-antarctica on 26/12/2024.