Suwarrow
Geography | |
---|---|
Location | Central-Southern Pacific Ocean |
Coordinates | 13°16′9″S 163°6′41″W / 13.26917°S 163.11139°W |
Archipelago | Cook Islands |
Area | 9.8 km2 (3.8 sq mi) |
Administration | |
Demographics | |
Population | 2 (seasonal) |
Ethnic groups | Polynesian |
Suwarrow (also called Suvorov, Suvarou, or Suvarov) is an island in the northern group of the Cook Islands in the south Pacific Ocean. It is about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) south of the equator and 930 kilometres (580 mi) north-northwest of the capital island of Rarotonga.
Geography
Suwarrow is a roughly quadrilateral-shaped
Table of Islets
Island | Area km2 |
Population |
---|---|---|
Anchorage Island | 0.139 | 1 |
East Island | 0.278 | 0 |
Entrance Island | 0.014 | 0 |
Manu Island | 0.121 | 0 |
Motu tou Island | 0.31 | 0 |
One Tree Island | 0.134 | 0 |
Other (Brushwood Island, Whale Island, Gull Island) | 0.39 | 0 |
Turtle Island | 0.214 | 0 |
Suwarrow total | 1.6 | 1 |
History
Although Suwarrow was inhabited by
In the mid-19th century (records dispute whether it was in 1848 or 1855), a ship from Tahiti was carrying out salvage work when a box containing NZ$15,000 worth of coins was dug up.[2] Some years later, New Zealander Henry Mair found pieces of eight in a turtle nest. Mair became involved in a dispute, the find was covered up, and it has never been rediscovered.[3]
John Lavington Evans was the first leasee of Suwarrow, who passes his lease to the Pacific Islands Trading Company Limited. Evans remained as the superintendent of the company’s operations in the Pacific.
In 1876 the atoll was leased to Henderson and Macfarlane of Auckland, which built a wharf, installed a light on a wooden pyramid, and commenced to gather
In April 1890
During World War II, Robert Dean Frisbie and several Coastwatchers lived on the largest islet, Anchorage. Frisbie wrote about his experiences in The Island of Desire. In 1942, a cyclone washed away 16 of the 22 islets in the atoll. The coastwatchers left a hut with water tanks behind, and left wild pigs and chickens on the islet. Later, cats were allowed to run wild on Anchorage Island, to control Polynesian rats which were documented to occur there since the island was discovered by Europeans (Jones 2001) but conceivably were introduced by Polynesian seafarers a longer time ago.
In 1978, the island was declared a
In October 2011, Russian politician
Flora and fauna
Most of the small islets have only herbs and shrubs, with
At the end of the 20th century, 3% of all red-tailed tropicbirds in the world (some 400) bred there, as well as 9% of the global population of the lesser frigatebird (about 8500, though only a part of these seem to be present at any one time) (Jones 2001). The atoll has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports, as well as the tropicbirds and frigatebirds, a large breeding colony of sooty terns, with over 40,000 chicks counted in 2008. It is also a non-breeding site for bristle-thighed curlews.[12]
Suwarrow has a rich marine biodiversity, which supports
Demographics
Every five years, the Cook Islands government advertises for the Suwarrow island nature reserve caretaker position. The position is staffed between April and October by two persons.[19] The caretakers monitor the atoll's birdlife. As of 2023, the rangers are no longer customs officials, and check in must occur on one of the main Cook islands.[20] Previous caretakers have brought their families with them, so the population was significantly higher, but that is not the case today. The barge that brings them also brings six months of supplies such as canned food, and several more rangers that clean the island on the first day and leave the caretakers behind.[21]
The only way to visit the island is with a private yacht or by chartered expedition from Rarotonga, and visitors require permits from the park authorities before being permitted to land.[22]
Notes
- ^ Best, Elsdon (1923). "Intrepid Polynesian Voyagers". Polynesian Voyagers. The Maori as a Deep-sea Navigator, Explorer, and Colonizer. p. 9.
- ^ Helm and Percival
- ^ Cowan, James (1936). Suwarrow Gold and other stories of the Great South Sea.
- ^ a b c d e "Rescued by "Bully" Hayes". VI(1) Pacific Islands Monthly. 22 August 1935. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
- ^ Barratt, Glynn. "William Hunt's Attempt to Sell Suwarrow Island." New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 1996, pp. 81–94. JSTOR. Accessed 17 September 2020
- Fanny Vandegrift Stevensonmisnames the ship Janet Nicol in her account of the 1890 voyage,The Cruise of the Janet Nichol.
- ^ The Cruise of the Janet Nichol among the South Sea Islands A Diary by Mrs Robert Louis Stevenson (first published 1914), republished 2004, editor, Roslyn Jolly (U. of Washington Press/U. of New South Wales Press)
- ^ Helm and Percival, pp 63, 100, 105
- ^ National Environment Service of Cook Islands Archived 20 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Russians claiming Suwarrow". Cook Islands News. 1 October 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
- ^ "Russian mission foiled by seasickness". Cook Islands News. 5 October 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
- ^ "Suwarrow Atoll National Park". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ AN OCEAN OF SURPRISES – Suwarrow: A real treasure island. Retrieved on 5 April 2017
- Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved on 5 April 2017
- ^ Webb B.. Morgan D.. 2014. An Island almost to Oneself. Retrieved on 5 April 2017
- ^ The Cook Islands Biodiversity& Natural Heritage. Physeter macrocephalus To‘ōra Sperm Whale. The Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust
- ^ Elaine and Bob. 2011. In Suwarrow. Retrieved on 5 April 2017
- ^ Gleinig M.. Photos by Marcus Gleinig. The Panoramio. Retrieved on 5 April 2017
- ^ "Suwarrow Atoll National Park". National Environmental Service. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
- ^ "Suwarrow caretakers on their way north". Cook Islands News. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
- ^ "Harry lives the Suwarrow life". Cook Islands News. 12 May 2018. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
- ^ "Mariner information". Cook Islands Port Authority. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
To visit Suwarrow Atoll National Park, one should obtain permission from the resident Park Administrator(National Environment Services)
References
- Frisbie, Robert Dean (1944): The Island of Desire. (full text).
- Helm, A.H; Percival, W.H (1973): Sisters In The Sun: The Story of Suwarrow and Palmerston Atolls. ISBN 0-7091-3971-3.
- Jones, Rhys J. (2001): The status of seabird colonies on the Cook Islands atoll of Suwarrow. Bird Conservation International 11(4): 309–318. (HTML abstract)
- Neale, Tom (1966): An Island to Oneself. ISBN 0-918024-76-5.
- Waterworth. J. Y. (1954): Siege of Suwarrow. Walkabout 1 March: 34–35.