Tuanake

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Tuanake
Tuanake.JPG
NASA picture of Tuanake Atoll
Polynesie francaise collectivity location map.svg
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Tuanake
Geography
Location Pacific Ocean
Coordinates 16°40′S144°13′W / 16.667°S 144.217°W / -16.667; -144.217
Archipelago Tuamotus
Area26 km2 (10 sq mi)  (lagoon)
6 km2 (2 sq mi) (above water)
Length9.5 km (5.9 mi)
Width6.5 km (4.04 mi)
Administration
France
Overseas collectivity French Polynesia
Administrative subdivision Tuamotus
Commune Makemo
Demographics
Population6 [1] (2017)

Tuanake or Mata-rua-puna [2] is a small uninhabited atoll located in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It made up the Raevski Islands subgroup with Tepoto Sud and Hiti. It is administratively attached to the municipality of Makemo.

Contents

Geography

Tuanake is located 7.5 kilometres (4.7 miles) west of Hiti, the nearest island, and 545 km east of Tahiti. It is a small semi-circular atoll 9.5 kilometres (5.9 miles) in length and 6.5 kilometres (4.0 miles) in maximum width for an emerged area of 6 square kilometres (2.3 square miles). Its 26 square kilometres (10 square miles) lagoon is accessible by a very shallow pass located to the south.

Tuanake has long been permanently uninhabited, but the 2017 census counts six inhabitants. [1]

History

The first recorded European to sight Tuanake was Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen on July 15, 1820, who named it “Raevski Island”. [3] [4] During his expedition, the American navigator Charles Wilkes approached him on December 20, 1840, notified the name of "Tunaki" and named him Reid Island. [3]

In the nineteenth century, Tuanake became a French territory then populated by a few indigenous inhabitants who obey the chief of Katiu just like the Tepoto Sud and Hiti atolls. [5]

Administration

Tuanake belongs to the commune of Makemo, which consists of the atolls of Makemo, Haraiki, Marutea Nord, Katiu, Tuanake, Hiti, Tepoto Sud, Raroia, Takume, Taenga and Nihiru. Tuanake Atoll is permanently uninhabited.

Economy

Traditional fishing is practiced with the use of two fish parks located on hoas in the south of the atoll. [6] In recent years, Tuanake has been exploited by the inhabitants of Katiu for sea cucumber fishing for export to Asia. [7]

Flora and fauna

The presence of individuals of the species Acrocephalus atyphus and Gallicolumba erythroptera, an extremely threatened species with only about one hundred individuals recorded in the Pacific, has been reported in Tuanake as well as an endemic population of Tuamotu sandpipers. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuamotus</span> Archipelago in French Polynesia

The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extending over an area roughly the size of Western Europe. Their combined land area is 850 square kilometres. This archipelago's major islands are Anaa, Fakarava, Hao and Makemo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tepoto (North)</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Tepoto, also known as Te Poto, Toho, or Pukapoto, is a coral island. It is the northwesternmost of the Disappointment Islands, in the Tuamotu Archipelago. Despite being often referred to as "atoll", Tepoto is not a typical Tuamotu atoll, but a single separate island without a lagoon. It is located at the limit of the Tuamotu archipelago; the closest land is Napuka, which lies 16 kilometres to the southeast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tepoto (South)</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Tepoto Atoll, or Ti Poto, is a small atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is located 44 kilometres southwest of Makemo Atoll.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hao (French Polynesia)</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Hao, or Haorangi, is a large coral atoll in the central part of the Tuamotu Archipelago. It has c. 1000 people living on 35 km2 (14 sq mi). It was used to house the military support base for the nuclear tests on Mururoa. Because of its shape, French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville named it "Île de la Harpe".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenararo</span>

Tenararo is the smallest atoll in the Acteon Group in the southeastern part of the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia. It is administratively a part of the Gambier Islands. It is uninhabited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anaa</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Anaa, Nganaa-nui is an atoll in the Tuamotu archipelago, in French Polynesia. It is located in the north-west of the archipelago, 350 km to the east of Tahiti. It is oval in shape, 29.5 km in length and 6.5 km wide, with a total land area of 38 km2 and a population of 504. The atoll is made up by eleven small barren islands with deeper and more fertile soil than other atolls in the Tuamotus. The lagoon is shallow, without entrance, and formed by three main basins. Although it does not have any navigable access, the water of the lagoon renews by several small channels that can be crossed walking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makemo</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Makemo, Rangi-kemo or Te Paritua, is an inhabited atoll in the Tuamotu archipelago in French Polynesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fakarava</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Fakarava, Havaiki-te-araro, Havai'i or Farea is an atoll in the west of the Tuamotu group in French Polynesia. It is the second largest of the Tuamotu atolls. The nearest land is Toau, a coral atoll which lies 14 kilometres to the northwest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tikehau</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Tikehau or Porutu-kai is a coral atoll in the Palliser Islands group, part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is included in the commune of Rangiroa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Takume</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Takume or Pukamaru is an atoll of the Tuamotus chain in French Polynesia, located 790 km northeast of Tahiti and 6 km northeast of Raroia and 128 kilometres to the west of Fangatau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faaite</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Faaite, or Faaiti is an atoll of the Tuamotus in French Polynesia. It is located 60 kilometres to the north of Anaa Atoll. The total surface of the atoll is 227 square kilometres Its dry land area is 8.87 square kilometres. Its length is 28 kilometres and its width 10.5 kilometres. The total population as of 2012 is 401 inhabitants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raeffsky Islands</span> Island group in French Polynesia

The Raeffsky Islands or Raevski Islands is a subgroup with just over 3000 people in the Tuamotu group in French Polynesia. They are located roughly in the central area of the main Tuamotu atoll cluster. Named after Nikolay Raevsky, a Russian general of the Napoleonic wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marutea Nord</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Marutea, or Taunga tauranga-e-havana, is one of the Tuamotu atolls in French Polynesia. It is located 24 km to the southeast of Makemo Atoll and 30 km southwest of Nihiru Atoll.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nihiru</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Nihiru, or Nikia, is one of the Tuamotu atolls in French Polynesia. It is a relatively small atoll located 49 km to the east of Makemo Atoll and 30 km northeast of Marutea Atoll.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taenga</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Taenga, or Taunga-hara, is one of the Tuamotu atolls in French Polynesia. It is located 32 km to the northeast of Makemo Atoll and 27 km to the northwest of Nihiru Atoll.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haraiki</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Haraiki is a small atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is located 42 km southwest of Marutea Nord.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiti</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Hiti, or Hiti-rau-mea, is a small atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is located 19 km southwest of Makemo Atoll.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katiu</span> Atoll in French Polynesia

Katiu, or Taungataki, is an atoll of the central Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is located 23.5 kilometres west of Makemo Atoll's westernmost point. It measures 27 kilometres in length with a maximum width of 12.5 kilometres. Its total area, including the lagoon is 232.5 square kilometres and a land area of approximately 10 square kilometres. There are many narrow islands on the north-eastern side of its long reef with a total land area of about 3 square kilometres. Its lagoon is connected to the ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temoe</span>

Temoe, or Te Moe, is a small atoll of the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the far southeast of the Tuamotu group archipelago. It lies about 37 km southeast from the Gambier Islands and more than 1,700 kilometres southeast from Mataiva, at the other end of the Tuamotu archipelago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gambier (commune)</span> Commune in French Polynesia, France

Gambier is a commune of French Polynesia in the administrative subdivision of the Tuamotu-Gambier Islands. The commune includes the Gambier Islands as well as several atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago. All the Tuamotu atolls belonging to the commune are uninhabited except for Marutea Sud, and are sometimes mistakenly included among the Gambier Islands themselves. The commune population was 1,535 at the 2017 census. Its total land area is 45.97 km2.

References

  1. 1 2 "Répartition de la population de la Polynésie française par île en 2017" (in French). Institut de la statistique de la Polynésie française (ISPF). Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  2. ↑ (in English)J.L. Young (December 1899). "Names of the Paumotu Islands, with the Old Names So Far As They Are Known". The Journal of the Polynesian Society . 8 (4): 264–8.
  3. 1 2 Bonvallot, Jacques (1994). Les Atolls des Tuamotu. IRD editions. pp. 275–282. ISBN   9782709911757 . Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  4. ↑ Toullelan, Pierre-Yves (1 January 1991). Tahiti et ses archipels (in French). KARTHALA Editions. p. 61. ISBN   978-2-86537-291-1.
  5. ↑ Avalle, Étienne (1866). Notices sur les colonies françaises: accompagnées d'un atlas de 14 cartes (in French). Paris: Challamel aîné. p. 638.
  6. ↑ Atlas de Polynésie (in French). Department of Marine Resources of the Government of French Polynesia. Archived from the original on 14 September 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  7. ↑ "Ouverture de la pêche aux holothuries (rori) en 2019". Direction des Ressources Marines (in French). Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  8. ↑ Dahl, Arthur Lyon (1986). Review of the Protected Areas System in Oceania: Based on the Work of Arthur Lyon Dahl. The Union. ISBN   9782880325091.



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