Caroline Island
Encyclopedia : C : CA : CAR : Caroline Island
- Not to be confused with the Caroline Islands in the western Pacific.
Caroline Island or Caroline Atoll (also known as Millennium Island) is an uninhabited coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean located at . It is one of the southern Line Islands, part of the Republic of Kiribati. First sighted by Europeans in 1606, claimed by Britain in 1868, and part of Kiribati since the island nation's independence in 1979, Caroline Island has remained relatively untouched and has been described as one of a very few "near-pristine tropical islands." It is home to one of the world's largest populations of the coconut crab and is an important breeding site for seabirds, most notably the sooty tern.
The atoll is best known for its role in celebrations surrounding the arrival of the year 2000 – a 1995 realignment of the International Date Line made Caroline Island the easternmost land west of the Date Line and therefore one of the first points of land on earth to see sunrise in the year 2000.
Geography and climate
- See also List of islets of Caroline Island
The central lagoon, roughly 6 km by 0.5 km (3.5 miles by 0.3 miles), is shallow – at most 5-7 m (15-25 ft) in depth – and crossed repeatedly by narrow coral heads and patch reefs, some of which are exposed at low tide. The reef flats generally extend about 500 m (1600 ft) from shore (although some sources report them to extend more than a kilometer from land) and make boat landings generally impossible except at high tide. There are no natural landings, anchorages, or deep water openings into the central lagoon. Landings are generally made at a small break in the reef at the northwest corner of South Islet.
The three largest islets comprise the bulk of Caroline's land area: Nake Islet (104 ha) at the north; Long Islet (76 ha) at the northeast of the lagoon and South Islet (107 ha). A freshwater aquifer (or Ghyben-Herzberg lens) exists below the largest islets at the northern and southern ends, and wells tap drinking water for temporary settlements (two on South Islet, one on Nake Islet).
The atoll comprises 39 islets in total, most of which were named during the 1988 ecological survey conducted by Angela and Cameron Kepler, and are divided into four major groupings: the South Nake Islets, the Central Leeward Islets, the Southern Leeward Islets, and the Windward Islets. They range in size from 20 hectares to rocks. See [map], or list of islets of Caroline Island)
Like the rest of Kiribati, Caroline Island enjoys a tropical maritime climate – consistently hot and humid, with northwesternly trade winds between March and October and westerly gales and heavy rains the remainder of the year. Rainfall is relatively low for Kiribati, averaging around 700 mm (28 in) a year, and temperatures range between 28 and 32 degrees Celsius (82 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit).
Caroline Island is among the remotest islands on earth – 230 km (140 mi) from the closest land at Flint Island, 1500 km (930 mi) from the nearest permanent settlement on Kiritimati, 4200 km (2600 mi) from the Kiribati capital of Tarawa, and 5100 km (3200 mi) from the nearest continental land in North America.
Flora and fauna
- See also List of species on Caroline Island
Caroline Island is one of the most unspoiled of the isolated Line Islands. Ecological surveys were made in 1965 by the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program and in 1974 by the Line Island Expedition. The United Nations Environment Programme Wildlife Conservation Unit visited the island in 1988 and 1991. Although not formally protected, Caroline Island's pristine state has led to it being considered for designation as a World Heritage Site and as a Biosphere Reserve.
Caroline Island is heavily vegetated, and most islets possess three ringed zones of vegetation: an outermost herb mat, typically comprised largely of Heliotropium anomalum, an inward zone of shrub, dominated by Tournefortia argentea, and a central forested region, typically dominated by groves of Pisonia grandis trees. Coconut palms have also been introduced and exist in substantial quantities on the larger islets. This pattern of vegetation is consistent across the larger islets, with smaller islets lacking the central forest and the smallest vegetated solely by low herbs. Other common plants include Messerschmidia argentea, Suriana, Morinda citrifolia, and Heliotropium.
Caroline Island is an important breeding site for a number of species of seabirds, most notably the Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscata), numbering around 500,000 – a colony of Sooty Terns dominates the eastern islets – and the Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor), numbering over 10,000. Caroline Island and its neighbor, Flint Island, also host some of the world's largest populations of the coconut crab (Birgus latro). Other native animals include the Tridacna clam, hermit crabs, and three species of lizards.
The endangered green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) nests on the beaches of Caroline Island, but it is believed that recent homesteaders have allowed poaching to occur. The Bristle-thighed Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis), a native bird, is also classified as vulnerable.
Around twenty non-native species of flora have been introduced to Caroline Island via human contact. Among these are the Ipomea tuba vine, which has begun to proliferate. Domestic cats and dogs have been introduced on the islet of Monu Ata-Ata (where a small homestead exists) and have adversely impacted the seabird population there.
History
Prehistory
Caroline Island is believed to have originated from a volcanic hotspot which eroded and then become home to a coral reef which grew above the ocean surface. Although these geological processes are poorly understood, the orientation of the Line Islands (roughly north-south) suggests that they were formed more than 40 million years ago, before the Pacific Plate changed its direction of travel. The same hotspot more recently gave rise to the Tuamotu Archipelago.There is evidence of settlement by Polynesian peoples on the largest islets from before European contact Graves and template platforms were uncovered by early expeditions to the island, and a large marae exists on the west side of Nake Islet.}. To date, these artifacts have not been surveyed by archaeologists.
17th to 19th century
The first recorded sighting of Caroline Atoll by Europeans was on February 21, 1606, by Pedro Fernández de Quirós, a Portuguese explorer sailing on behalf of Spain; his acount names the island "San Bernardo." The atoll was "rediscovered" on December 16, 1795 by Captain William Robert Broughton of the HMS Providence, who gave the atoll the name Carolina (which later became "Caroline") "in compliment to the daughter of Sir P. Stephens of the Admiralty." Caroline was again sighted in 1821 by the English whaling ship Supply and was then named "Thornton Island" for the ship's captain. Other early names for the atoll include Hirst Island, Clark Island, and Independence Island.
Among early recorded visits are that of the USS Dolphin in 1825 (recorded by Lieutenant Hiram Paulding), and of a whaling ship in 1835 (recorded by Frederick Debell Bennett in his Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe From the Year 1833-1836).
In 1846, the Tahitian firm of Collie and Lucett attempted to establish a small stock-raising and copra (coconut meat) community was established on the island; this settlement would last until the 1930s. In 1868, Caroline was claimed by the British vessel HMS Reindeer, which noted 27 residents in a settlement on South Islet. This settlement lasted until 1904, when the 6 remaining Polynesians were relocated to Niue.
In 1872, the island was leased by the British government to Houlder Brothers, who conducted minimal guano mining on the island. In 1881, the lease was later taken over by the mining operation's manager, John T. Arundel (for whom one of the islets is named).. Guano mining, which began in 1874, supplied a total of about 10,000 tons of phosphate until supplies were exhausted around 1895.
In 1883, an expedition of American astronomers traveled from Peru to Caroline Island aboard the USS Hartford to observe a total solar eclipse on May 6. A French expedition also observed the eclipse from Caroline, and the United States Navy mapped the atoll. Johann Palisa, a member of the expedition, discovered an asteroid later that year which he named Carolina "in remembrance of his visit to [the] island."
20th century
Leased to S.R. Maxwell and Company, a new settlement was established in 1916, this time buld upon copra export. Much of the South islet was deforested to make way for coconut palms, an non-indigenous plant. The business venture, however, went into debt, and the island's settlement slowly decreased in population. By 1926, it was down to only ten residents and by 1936, the settlement consisted of only two Tahitian families before abandonment sometime in the late 1930s.
Caroline Island remained uninhabited and undisturbed through World War II and afterwards. It remained under British jurisdiction, repossessed by the British Western Pacific High Commission in 1943 and governed as part of the Central and Southern Line Islands. In January 1972, the Central and Southern Line Islands were joined with the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, which had become autonomous in 1971 as part of British decolonization efforts.
In 1979, the Gilbert Islands became the independent nation of Kiribati; Caroline Island was and remains Kiribati's easternmost point. The entire island is presently owned by the government of the Republic of Kiribati, overseen by the Ministry of Line and Phoenix Groups, which is headquartered on Kiritimati. Competing claims to sovereignty over the island by the United States (under the Guano Act) were relinquished in a 1979 "Treaty of Friendship," ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1983.
The island was briefly inhabited again from 1987 to 1991 by Ron Falconer, his wife Anne, and their two children, who developed a largely self-sufficient settlement on the atoll. Following a transfer of ownership, Falconer was evicted from the island by the Kiribati government. A book, Together Alone (ISBN 1863254285), written by Falconer, documents the story of their residence on Caroline Island.
In the 1990s, the island was leased to Urima Felix, a French Polynesian entrepreneur; he established a small homestead on one of the islets and reportedly had plans for development of the atoll. The island is also is occasionally visited by Polynesian copra gatherers under agreements with the Kiribati government in Tarawa.
Time zone realignment
On December 23, 1994, the Republic of Kiribati announced a change of time zone for the Line Islands, to take effect January 1, 1995. This adjustment effectively moved the International Date Line over 1000 kilometers (600 mi) to the east within Kiribati, placing all of Kiribati on the Asian or western side of the date line, despite the fact that Caroline Atoll's longitude of 150 degrees west corresponds to UTC−10 rather than its official time zone of UTC+14. Caroline Atoll now is at the same time as the Hawaiian Islands (Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time Zone), but one day later. This move made Caroline Island both the easternmost land in the earliest time zone (by some definitions, the easternmost point on Earth), and one of the first points of land which would see sunrise on January 1, 2000 – at 5:43 a.m., as measured by local time.
Although Kiribati officials claimed that the action – a campaign promise of Kiribati President Teburoro Tito intended to eliminate the confusion of Kiribati straddling the Date Line and therefore being constantly in two different days – was not intended to tie in with millennium celebrations, they were not reluctant to attempt to capitalize on the nation's new status as part of the earliest time zone in the world. Other pacific nations, including Tonga and New Zealand's Chatham Islands, protested the move, objecting that it infringed on their claims to be the first land to see dawn in the year 2000.
In 1999, in order to further capitalize upon the massive public interest in celebrations marking the arrival of the year 2000, Caroline Island was officially renamed Millennium Island. Although uninhabited, a special celebration was held on the island, performed by native entertainers from Kiribati, attended by Kiribati president Tito. Over 70 Kiribati singers and dancers traveled to Caroline from the capital Tarawa, accompanied by approximately 25 journalists. The celebration, broadcast by satellite worldwide, was seen by an estimated one billion viewers. ([Pictures of the celebration.])
In actuality, and despite many media and governmental claims, Caroline Island was not the first point of land to see sunrise on January 1, 2000 (local time); that distinction belongs to a point of land between Dibble Glacier and Victor Bay on the coast of East Antarctica, at , where the sun rose 35 minutes earlier.
21st century and future
As Caroline Island only extends six meters above sea level, it is in danger as sea levels rise due to global warming. The Kiribati government estimates that the island may be reclaimed by the sea as soon as 2025. . The United Nations has rated Caroline Island as among those most in danger from sea level rise.Footnotes
References
- (Text of "Caroline Island" chapter online at: )
- (Text of "Caroline Island" profile online at: )
External links
- [UNEP Protected Areas Program Profile]
- [Living Archipelagos Profile]
- [Oceandots: Caroline Island]
- [An Astronomer's Voyage to Fairy-Land], from The Young Folks' Library, Volume XI, by Prof. E.S. Holden.
- [The Looking for Nemo Expedition], by Wayne and Karen Brown.
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