Gough Island

South Africa have operated a weather station on Gough Island since 1956. Initially it was housed in the station at The Glen but moved to the south western lowlands of the island in 1963 were weather observations are more accurate.  The weather office operate as one in South Africa does with hourly climate observations and twice daily upper air accents.

The station is administrated by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Directorate: Antarctica and Islands. Although Gough Island is a British possession the land the station is built on is leased to South Africa on contract and is treated as part of the magisterial district of Cape Town.

Gough Island (also known historically as Diego Alvarez) is a volcanic island rising from the South Atlantic Ocean to heights of over 900 metres (2950 ft) above sea level with an area of 35 square miles (91 km²). It is a dependency of Tristan da Cunha, which in turn is a dependency of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena.

It is uninhabited except for the crew of a weather station which the South African National Antarctic Programme and is thus one of the most remote places with a constant human presence. It is a lonely place, about 400 km (220 mi) southeast of the other islands in the Tristan da Cunha group, 2700 km (1700 mi) from Cape Town, and over 3200 km (2000 mi) from the nearest point of South America.

Gough Island is located at 40°19′S 9°55′W / -40.317, -9.917. Topographic features include the highest Peak, Edinburgh Peak, Hags Tooth, Mount Rowett, Sea Elephant Bay, Quest Bay, and Hawkins Bay.

It includes small satellite islands and rocks such as Southwest Island, Saddle Island (South), Tristiana Rock, Isolda Rock (West), Round Island, Cone Island, Lot's Wife, Church Rock (North), Penguin Island (Northeast), and The Admirals (East).

Gough Island
(click for large view of Gough and Tristan da Cunha Islands)

Gough and Inaccessible Island form a protected wildlife reserve, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It has been described as one of the least disrupted ecosystems of its kind and one of the best shelters for nesting seabirds in the Atlantic. In particular, it is host to almost the entire world population of the Tristan Albatross and the Atlantic Petrel. However, this status is now in doubt as in April 2007 researchers published evidence that predation by introduced house mice on seabird chicks is occurring at levels that might drive the Tristan Albatross and the Atlantic Petrel to extinction. The island is also home to the almost flightless Gough Island Moorhen.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has since been awarded £62,000 by the UK government's Overseas Territories Environment Programme to fund additional research on the Gough Island mice and a feasibility study of how best to deal with them. The grant will also pay for the assessment of a rat problem on Tristan da Cunha island.