Night Island (Bass Strait) (23957)
Australia, Australasia
Site overview
KBA status: confirmed
Global KBA criteria: D1a
Year of last assessment: 2009
National site name: Night Island (Bass Strait)
Central coordinates: Latitude: -40.4847, Longitude: 148.0195
System: marine, terrestrial
Elevation (m): 0 to 8
Area of KBA (km2): 0.03724
Protected area coverage (%): 100.00
KBA classification: Global
Legacy site: Yes
Site details
Site description: Night Island is the westernmost islet amongst the Preservation Island Group, which is located south-west of Cape Barren Island in Bass Strait. It is a low islet of which the eastern half is dominated by dunes covered in creeping grasses. Much of the rest of the island is bare rock with the north-east beach broken up by large protruding granite boulders. The dominant vegetation is Stipa grass with Tetragonia forbs and Rhagodia candolleana saltbushes. Night Island is a Conservation Area, which provides for public access and permits a range of activities including sustainable harvesting of resources such as fish. The surrounding waters have seagrass beds which support a small garfish fishery.
Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This site qualifies as a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance that meets the thresholds for at least one criterion described in the Global Standard for the Identification of KBAs.
Additional biodiversity: Other birds recorded on Night Island are Little Penguin (100 pairs), Pacific Gull (two pairs), Sooty Oystercatcher (two pairs), Australian Pelican, Crested Tern, Cape Barren Goose (one pair with two young), Hooded Plover (two individuals), Silver Gull (14 individuals), Ruddy Turnstone and White-fronted Chat (Brothers et al. 2001). Non-bird biodiversity: None.
Other site values: Tasmanian State Government with management the responsibility of NPWS. Visitors should minimise their disturbance of seabirds and avoid introducing any invasive alien species.
Habitats
Land use: nature conservation and research (100%)
| IUCN Habitat | Coverage % | Habitat detail |
|---|---|---|
| Marine Coastal/Supratidal | 90 | |
| Grassland | 5 | |
| Shrubland | 5 |
Threats
Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: Investigate the impact of visitors and the risk of introducing invasive alien species, and regulate accordingly. Investigate the impact of gill-net fishing on cormorant numbers. Control spread of Sea Spurge.
| Threat level 1 | Threat level 2 | Threat level 3 | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biological resource use | Fishing & harvesting aquatic resources | Unintentional effects: large scale (species being assessed is not the target) [harvest] | Ongoing |
| Invasive & other problematic species, genes & diseases | Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases | Named species | Ongoing |
Additional information
References: Brothers, N., Pemberton, D., Pryor, H. and Halley, V. (2001) Tasmania's Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art gallery: Hobart.
Contributors: The nomination was prepared by Birds Australia. Rachael Alderman and Rosemary Gales of DPIW kindly commented on the nomination.