Page 143 - Atlas Sea Birds Ver1
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Conservation status: It is not protected but the premises Stompneus Bay rocks
are fenced and access is restricted. Gulls and terns have Coordinates: 32.7205 S, 17.9818 E
bred on roofs and undisturbed ground. Description: Large rocks off Stompneus Bay at the west
Species and numbers breeding: Hartlaub’s Gull and of St Helena Bay.
Greater Crested Tern have bred at the factory, the maxima Conservation status: The rocks are not protected but are
observed being 432 pairs and 750 pairs, respectively, both some distance from the coast.
in 2015. Details of numbers of pairs breeding in different Species and numbers breeding: Cape, Bank and White-
years are shown on the following table. breasted cormorants have bred on the rocks. Maxima ob-
served were 23 pairs of Cape Cormorant in 2012, 30 pairs
Hartlaub's Greater Crested
Year of Bank Cormorant in 2019 and 114 pairs of White-breast-
Gull Tern ed Cormorant in 2016. Numbers of pairs of each species
1984 0 nesting in different years are shown on the following table.
1987 0 Cape Bank White-breasted
1988 0 Year Cormorant Cormorant Cormorant
1989 0 1976 48
1990 0 1980 50
1991 0 1981 43
1992 0 1996 0
1993 0 1997 24
1994 0 1998 9
1995 0 2003 2
1996 47 12 2004 4
1997 6 2006 2
1998 0 2010 2
1999 250 127 2011 18 41
2000 158 10 2012 23 9 67
2001 10 2015 0 23 83
2002 10 2016 3 23 114
2003 78 10 2018 15 60
2004 142 198 2019 4 30 51
2005 30 0
2006 100 20 Groot Paternoster rocks
2007 0 0 Coordinates: 32.7397 S, 17.8815 E
2008 0 0 Description: A group of 22 rocks off Groot Paternoster
Private Nature Reserve that were formerly subject to
2009 0 0 human disturbance (Kriel et al. 1980). They may still be
2010 30 5 disturbed as fishing for rock lobster takes place in close
2011 10 0 proximity to the rocks (ABM and RJMC pers. obs.). The
locations of the rocks were sketched by Kriel et al. (1980).
2012 63 0 Seabird guano was collected at the islands in 53 years
2013 0 0 between 1897 and 1984, the total quantity removed
2014 0 0 in that time being 2,741 metric tons (Tom et al. 2024).
Conservation status: Paternoster Rocks Nature Reserve
2015 432 750 was established as a Provincial Nature Reserve in terms
2016 0 of Section 6 of the Nature Conservation Ordinance
2017 0 (Ordinance 19 of 1974) on 9 March 1988 and proclaimed
as such by Proclamation No. 23/1988 in the Provincial
2018 0 Gazette of 18 March 1988. It is administered by the
2019 0 Western Cape Nature Conservation Board (CN).
2020 0 Species and numbers breeding: Cape, Bank, White-
breasted and Crowned cormorants bred at the rocks. Bank
2021 14 35 Cormorants nested on at least nine of the rocks (Kriel et
al. 1980). Numbers of pairs of each species that bred in
137

