Tasman Island
The Tasman Island, part of the Tasman Island Group, is an oval island with an area of, lying close to the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is located in the Tasman Sea, situated off the Tasman Peninsula and is contained within the Tasman National Park.
The island is a plateau surrounded by steep dolerite cliffs, with its highest point near above sea level and an average plateau height of asl . The altitude and topography of the island is often incorrectly stated, which may be related to the common reference to the light on the lighthouse which sits at approximately asl
It is the site of the Tasman Island Lighthouse and weather station, which has been automated since 1976 and unstaffed since 1977.The weather station sits near the light house.
Flora and fauna
Plants
The island was once thickly forested. The forest has largely disappeared as a result of cutting the trees for firewood and of intense fires. When the lighthouse was staffed the keepers kept livestock, including cattle, sheep and draught horses, and maintained grassland for their grazing. Areas of grassland remain along with other vegetation communities of heathy scrub, regenerating scrub, sheoak woodland, sedgeland and coastal mosaic. An important plant present is the rare Cape Pillar Sheoak.Birds
Tasman Island is a very important breeding site for fairy prions, with an estimated 300,000-700,000 pairs, making it the largest such colony in Tasmania, and possibly in Australia. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports over 1% of the world population of the species. Other recorded breeding seabird species are little penguin, short-tailed shearwater and sooty shearwater. The swamp harrier has also bred on the island.The breeding seabirds were preyed on by a feral cat population estimated at 50, feeding mainly on fairy prions and taking about 50,000 birds annually. The cats were eradicated by a baiting, trapping and hunting program carried out in May 2010.