Lindsey Islands
The Lindsey Islands (73°37′S 103°18′W) are a group of islands lying just off the northwest tip of the Canisteo Peninsula in the Amundsen Sea.
Geography and geology
The Lindsey Islands are situated west of the northern extremity of Canisteo Peninsula, which projects into the eastern Amundsen Sea between Ferrero and Cranton Bays on the Walgreen Coast. The island group consists of one large island that is several kilometers wide, and a smaller island to its west with several nearby outliers further west. The total land area of the collective islands is approximately 2,100 acres.
Some descriptions (e.g. Lindsey 1995) include the island group 5 kilometers to the southwest as within the Lindsey group. However, these were later named the Schaefer Islands by U.S. place naming authorities. Available mapping incorrectly shows many of the individual islands within the group as merged together.
Geology
The island group is the emergent part of a shelf that is less than 200 meters deep, and is formed of granitic rocks. The islands are relatively flat, the highest point being about 40 meters on the largest island. The islands are mostly ice free in summer, and two small freshwater ponds are present on the largest island.
Animal life
Approximately 52 670 breeding pairs of Adélie Penguin were present on Lindsey Islands as estimated from March 2011 satellite imagery (unpublished data, H. Lynch & M. LaRue pers. comm. 2014). The colony occupies the eastern and southeastern coasts of the eastern island, and most of three main outliers and the northern half of the largest of the western group of islands. South Polar Skuas (Catharacta maccormicki) are reported to breed on the islands, although numbers are not known (Lindsey 1995). No other birds are known to breed in the area.
Non-bird biodiversity: Southern Elephant Seals (Mirounga leonina) and Leopard Seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) have been reported in the area (Lindsey 1995).
The IBA qualifies on the basis of the Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony present, and comprises all of the (more narrowly defined) Lindsey Islands group and the intervening marine area.
Discovery and name
Delineated from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump in December 1946. The islands were named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in honor of Alton A. Lindsey, a biologist with the Byrd Antarctic Expedition during the years 1933-35.