Haraiki

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Haraiki
NASA image of Haraiki
NASA image of Haraiki
Waters Pacific Ocean
archipelago Tuamotu Archipelago
Geographical location 17 ° 28 ′  S , 143 ° 28 ′  W Coordinates: 17 ° 28 ′  S , 143 ° 28 ′  W
Haraiki (French Polynesia)
Haraiki
Number of islands 4th
Main island -
Land area 4 km²
Lagoon area 10.4 km²
Residents uninhabited
Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / HoeheFehlt

Haraiki , also Heraiki , old names: Birnie, Croker or Croker Island, Isla de San Quentin, is a small, uninhabited island in the South Pacific , which geographically belongs to the Tuamotu Archipelago , politically to French Polynesia .

geography

Haraiki is located in the center of the Tuamotu Archipelago, 42 km southwest of the next inhabited island of Marutea North, almost at the same latitude as Tahiti . The atoll consists of four islands ( Motu ), one larger in the north, two smaller ones in the southwest and one in the southeast. The surrounding fringing reef has roughly the shape of a triangle with the hypotenuse in the north. Only in the south does the reef leave a narrow passage that is only passable for small boats. The lagoon measures 7 × 4.5 km and covers an area of ​​11 km². The land area of ​​the four motu is much smaller, together it is only around 3.5 km².

The island is located on a relatively small, submarine high plateau, part of the Tuamotu Seamout Trail, which rises 2760 m from the deep sea floor.

The climate is tropically hot, but the temperatures are somewhat moderated by constantly blowing winds. Long-term weather data are not available.

Flora and fauna

The flora of the lower atolls of the Tuamotus was originally largely identical because of the same climate and comparable soil conditions. These factors resulted in low biodiversity and extensive vegetation uniformity.

See also: Tuamotu Archipelago → Flora

Hardly anything of this original vegetation has been preserved on Haraiki. Since the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, large areas of all four islands of the atoll have been cleared and coconut plantations have been created for copra extraction . The plantations are still managed today by residents of the neighboring islands.

The uniformity of the secondary vegetation may be responsible for the fact that land hermit crabs (Coenobitidae), including the palm thief , were able to conquer the island en masse .

history

It is unclear whether Haraiki was ever permanently inhabited. The reports of the early European visitors do not provide any information on this. No relics of Polynesian settlers have been found, but no thorough archaeological research has yet been carried out.

The first European explorer who saw 1774 Haraiki on 31 October, was domingo de bonechea . He named the island "San Quintin" after St. Quintinus , whose feast day is October 31st. Boenechea did not go on the island.

On September 22, 1821, Captain Francis Stavers drove the whaling ship Tuscan on the way from Cape Horn to Tahiti past the island and named it "Birnie Island", after Alexander Birnie, the owner of the Tuscan .

Frederick William Beechey passed Haraiki in February 1826 and named the island "Croker Island" after John Wilson Croker, First Secretary of the British Admiralty.

Administration and Infrastructure

The uninhabited Haraiki is politically part of the French Overseas Zealand ( Pays d'outre-mer - POM ) French Polynesia and is administered by the municipality of Makemo ( Commune de Makemo ).

In the north of the main island there is a small village, which is only inhabited temporarily during the harvest, and consists of some corrugated iron-roofed huts and open shelters for drying the copra. There is a concrete jetty for small boats on both the ocean and the lagoon side. The coconut plantations are connected with unpaved paths. There is no further infrastructure, in particular water and energy supply. Haraiki can hardly be reached by tourists, there are no boat connections there.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Seamount Catalog [1]
  2. ^ Dieter Mueller-Dombois , F. Raymond Fosberg: Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands. Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 0-387-98313-9 , p. 434
  3. ^ Robert William Robson: The Pacific Islands Handbook. The Macmillan Company, New York 1946, p. 94
  4. ^ Daniel Tyerman: Voyages and Travels round the World. . . Ed .: John Snow, London 1840, p. 15
  5. ↑ Frederick William Beechey: N arrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait, to Co-operate With the Polar Expeditions Performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom Under the Command of Captain FW Beechey RN in the Years 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828. Colburn & Bentley, London 1831, Volume 1, p. 249
  6. ^ Ministère des Tuamotu Gambier archipelago: recueil de données essentielles, décembre 1998, Service de l'administration et du développement des archipels, Papeete 1998

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