1.
Tuvalu
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It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. Tuvalu has a population of 10,640, the total land area of the islands of Tuvalu is 26 square kilometres. The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians, in 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellices Island, the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. A referendum was held in December 1974 to determine whether the Gilbert Islands, as a consequence of the referendum, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony ceased to exist on 1 January 1976 and the separate British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu came into existence. Tuvalu became fully independent within the Commonwealth on 1 October 1978, on 5 September 2000 Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations. The origins of the people of Tuvalu are addressed in the theories regarding migration into the Pacific that began about 3000 years ago, during pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the nearer islands including Samoa and Tonga. Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited, thus the name, Tuvalu, possible evidence of fire in the Caves of Nanumanga may indicate human occupation for thousands of years. The stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island, on Niutao, Funafuti and Vaitupu the founding ancestor is described as being from Samoa, whereas on Nanumea the founding ancestor is described as being from Tonga. Mendaña made contact with the islanders but was unable to land, during Mendañas second voyage across the Pacific he passed Niulakita on 29 August 1595, which he named La Solitaria. Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of the Dolphin, Byron charted the atolls as Lagoon Islands. Chambers and Doug Munro identified Niutao as the island that Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa sailed past on 5 May 1781, mourelles map and journal named the island El Gran Cocal, however, the latitude and longitude was uncertain. Longitude could only be reckoned crudely as accurate chronometers were unavailable until the late 18th century, the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. In 1820 the Russian explorer Mikhail Lazarev visited Nukufetau as commander of the Mirny, Louis Isidore Duperrey, captain of La Coquille, sailed past Nanumanga in May 1824 during a circumnavigation of the earth. A Dutch expedition found Nui on the morning of 14 June 1825, whalers began roving the Pacific, although visiting Tuvalu only infrequently because of the difficulties of landing on the atolls. Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II has been identified as the first whaler to hunt the waters around Tuvalu, in November 1821 he bartered coconuts from the people of Nukulaelae and also visited Niulakita. A shore camp was established on Sakalua islet of Nukufetau, where coal was used to melt down the whale blubber, the Rev. A. W. Elekana began proselytising Christianity. He was trained at Malua Theological College, a London Missionary Society school in Samoa, in 1865 the Rev. A. W. Murray of the LMS – a Protestant congregationalist missionary society – arrived as the first European missionary where he too proselytised among the inhabitants of Tuvalu
2.
Atoll
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An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands/cays on the rim, the coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a slow enough to permit reef growth upwards and outwards to replace the lost height. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu, meaning an administrative subdivision, the distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive, most of the worlds atolls are in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28°24 N, the southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°58 S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°29 S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. In most cases, the area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 meters, measured by total area, Lifou is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island. More sources however list as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area Kiritimati, the remains of an ancient atoll as a hill in a limestone area is called a reef knoll. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km², the largest atoll in terms of island numbers is Huvadhu Atoll in the south of the Maldives with 255 islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, at this point, the island has become an atoll. Atolls are the product of the growth of marine organisms. Volcanic islands located beyond the water temperature requirements of hermatypic organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away at the surface
3.
Reef
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A reef is a bar of rock, sand, coral or similar material, lying beneath the surface of water. Reefs may be up to 261 feet below the surface, artificial reefs such as shipwrecks are sometimes created to enhance physical complexity on generally featureless sand bottoms in order to attract a diverse assemblage of organisms, especially fish. There is a variety of reef types, including oyster reefs. These biotic reef types take on additional names depending upon how the reef lies in relation to the land, Reef types include fringing reef, barrier reefs, as well as atolls. A fringing reef is a reef that is attached to an island, a barrier reef forms a calcareous barrier around an island resulting in a lagoon between the shore and the reef. An atoll is a reef with no land present. The reef front is a high energy locale whereas the internal lagoon will be at an energy with fine grained sediments. One useful definition distinguishes reefs from mounds as follows, reefs are held up by a macroscopic skeletal framework. Coral reefs are an excellent example of this kind, corals and calcareous algae grow on top of one another and form a three-dimensional framework that is modified in various ways by other organisms and inorganic processes. By contrast, mounds lack a macroscopic skeletal framework, mounds are built by microorganisms or by organisms that dont grow a skeletal framework. A microbial mound might be built exclusively or primarily by cyanobacteria, excellent examples of biostromes formed by cyanobacteria occur in the Great Salt Lake of Utah, and in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Cyanobacteria do not have skeletons and individuals are microscopic, cyanobacteria encourage the precipitation or accumulation of calcium carbonate and can produce distinct sediment bodies in composition that have relief on the seafloor. Cyanobacterial mounds were most abundant before the evolution of shelly macroscopic organisms, bryozoans and crinoids, common contributors to marine sediments during the Mississippian, produced a very different kind of mound. Bryozoans are small and the skeletons of crinoids disintegrate, however, bryozoan and crinoid meadows can persist over time and produce compositionally distinct bodies of sediment with depositional relief. The Proterozoic Belt Supergroup contains evidence of microbial mat and dome structures similar to stromatolite reef complexes. Ancient reefs buried within stratigraphic sections are of considerable interest to geologists because they provide information about the location in Earths history. Corals, including some major extinct groups Rugosa and Tabulata, have been important reef builders through much of the Phanerozoic since the Ordovician Period. However, other groups, such as calcifying algae, especially members of the red algae Rhodophyta
4.
Islands of Tuvalu
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Tuvalu consists of nine separate islands, six of which are atolls and three are reef islands. Since an atoll typically consists of several islets, there is a total of more than 124 islands, each island is surrounded by a coral reef. For example, Niutao For example, Niutao has two lakes, which are brackish to saline, and are the degraded lagoon. The islands of Tuvalu are spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line, the name, Tuvalu, means eight standing together in Tuvaluan. The smallest island, Niulakita, which is the 9th island in the Tuvaluan archipelago, was not continuously inhabited, from the late 19th century it had been in private ownership. It was bought by the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony administration in 1944, the administration gave people from Vaitupu permission to settle Niulakita. However, in 1949 a later administration decided to have Niulakita settled by the community from Niutao, the removal of the Vaitupuans was controversial. Niulakita is a local government district but it is administered as part of Niutao. Niulakita is represented in the Parliament of Tuvalu by the members of the constituency of Niutao, at least 11 islands are inhabited, expanded over the biggest isles of the nine atolls, plus two islands in Funafuti. Tuvalu has ISO 3166-2 codes defined for 1 town council and 7 island councils, Niulakita, which now has its own island council, is not listed is not listed as it is administered as part of Niutao. An expedition under Professor William Sollas of Oxford University, conducted by the Royal Society of London carried out drilling on the reef at Funafuti in 1896,1897 and 1898. HMS Penguin, under the command of Captain Arthur Mostyn Field, delivered the 1896 expedition to Funafuti in the Ellice Islands, arriving on 21 May 1896, the surveys carried out by the Penguin resulted in the preparation of the Admiralty Nautical Chart 2983 for the islands. The Royal Society of London were investigating the formation of coral reefs, three expeditions used drilling equipment to take core samples of the coral reef. A goal of the expeditions was to drill down to confirm that the material was located on a base of volcanic rock. This investigation followed the work on the structure and distribution of coral reefs conducted by Charles Darwin in the Pacific, however, the geologic history of atolls is more complex than Darwin and Davis envisioned. The expedition was led by Professor William Johnson Sollas of the University of Oxford and included Professor Edgeworth David, the expedition was led by Professor Edgeworth David of the University of Sydney. The expedition was led by Alfred Edmund Finckh of the University of Sydney, the purpose of the expedition was to attempt to settle the question as to the formation of coral atolls. The first expedition experienced defects in the machinery and the bore penetrated only slightly more than 100 feet
5.
Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation
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Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation is a state-owned enterprise of Tuvalu, which provides fixed line telephone communications to subscribers on each of the islands of Tuvalu. Each island in Tuvalu relies on TCC for the use of a dish for inter-island telephone communication. TTC also provides mobile services on Funafuti, Vaitupu and Nukulaelae. TTC is the provider of Telecommunications in Tuvalu. TCC is established by the Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation Act 1993, TTC currently operates satellite internet services with less than 20 Mbit/s of capacity. In June 2014 TTC signed a agreement with Kacific Broadband Satellites for the supply of provide high speed bandwidth to the islands of Tuvalu. The service will be provided by the Kacific-1 satellite - Ka band High Throughput Satellite - that is due to be launched in late 2016 or early 2017. Kacific will provide TTC with increasing levels of capacity over the 5-year period, starting with 80Mbit/s, TTC can take extra capacity - up to 225 Mbit/s. TTC is a distributor of Fiji Television service and this article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https, //www. cia. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index. html
6.
Funafuti
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Funafuti is an atoll on which the capital of the island nation of Tuvalu is located. It has a population of 6,025 people, making it the most populated atoll with 56.6 percent of Tuvalus population and it is a narrow sweep of land between 20 and 400 metres wide, encircling a large lagoon 18 km long and 14 km wide. The average depth in the Funafuti lagoon is about 20 fathoms, with a surface of 275 square kilometres, it is by far the largest lagoon in Tuvalu. The land area of the 33 islets aggregates to 2.4 square kilometres, the capital of Tuvalu is sometimes given as Fongafale or Vaiaku, but the entire atoll of Funafuti is officially the capital. Cargo ships can enter Funafutis lagoon and dock at the facilities on Fongafale. The island houses four villages and community meeting places, the Funafuti Falekaupule is the local council, with the Kaupule as the executive of the Falekaupule. Tausoa Lima Falekaupule is the meeting house on Funafuti – Tausoalima means hand of friendship. There is the Vaiaku Langi Hotel, and other guesthouses as well as homes, the most prominent building on Funafuti atoll is the Fetu Ao Lima of the Church of Tuvalu. Other sites of interest are the remains of Japanese aircraft that crashed on Funafuti during World War II, a major sporting event is the Independence Day Sports Festival held annually at Fongafale on 1 October. The most important sports event within the country is arguably the Tuvalu Games, football in Tuvalu is played at club and national team level. The Tuvalu national football team trains at the Tuvalu Sports Ground on Funafuti and competes in the Pacific Games, the police service has its headquarters on Fongafale. The High Court of Tuvalu is also located on Fongafale, as well as the jail, the Princess Margaret Hospital, which is the only hospital in Tuvalu, is located on Fongafale. It has an area of 33 km², containing 20 percent of the area of Funafuti. The land area of the six islets in the area is 8 ha. There are at least 29 islets in the atoll, the biggest is Fongafale, followed by Funafala. At least three islands are inhabited, which are Fongafale, the island in the east, Funafala in the south. The atoll has several passages with varying degrees of navigability that lead into the lagoon, the passes are listed clockwise, starting south of Fongafale islet. The first two clearly separate the part of Funafuti Atoll from the rest
7.
Vaitupu
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Vaitupu is the largest atoll of the nation of Tuvalu. It is located at 7.48 degrees south and 178.83 degrees west, there are 1,555 people living on 5.6 square kilometres with the main village being Asau. The exact date of Vaitupus first settlement is unknown, according to oral history, the founder of the Vaitupuan community was a Samoan by the name of Telematua, who arrived in the 16th or 17th century. However, it is possible that Tongans may have first reached the atoll during the mid-13th century, Vaitupu has maintained contacts with Tonga throughout its history, both peaceful and hostile. Vaitupu was also visited by I-Kiribati, and was far from isolated. Vaitupu means the fountain of water, obed Starbuck, a whaling captain, visited Vaitupu on the Loper in 1825, naming it Tracy Island. The United States Exploring Expedition under Charles Wilkes visited Vaitupu in 1841, Samoan pastors from the London Missionary Society successfully introduced Christianity in the 1860s. The pastors implemented religious regulations, outlawing many cultural practices and they also introduced the Samoan language, as their Bibles were written in Samoan. Vaitupuans became literate in Samoan rather than in their own language, Vaitupuans celebrate Te Aso Fiafia on 25 November of each year. Vaitupu history is that Thomas William Williams, the Ruge agent, in 1883 the debt of the Vaitupuans was $13,000 and H. M. Ruge and Company had threatened to seize the entire island unless the debt was repaid. The Vaitupuans, with the help of their friends from Funafuti, seven thousand dollars was repaid by 1886 and the balance was paid on 25 November 1887. Vaitupuan tradition is that chance favoured their efforts, a ship sent to collect the last payment sank, by the time a third ship arrived most of the money had been collected. However, the trading schooner Vaitupulemele appears to have a different role in the history of Vaitupu, the creation of the debt that was repaid to Ruge & Co extended beyond the purchase of goods on credit to include the purchase price of the Vaitupulemele by the Vaitupu Company. Williams had been the Ruge agent, he formed the Vaitupu Company with the Vaitupuan community. However the schooner was lost during a voyage from Samoan and soon after Williams died, in any event the Vaitupuans paid the full amount claimed by Ruge & Co, although that company soon after went into liquidation. Vaitupu Post Office opened around 1916, the population of Vaitupu from 1860–1900 is estimated to be 400 people. Vaitupu is home to the second-largest population in Tuvalu, numbering 1,576 and 1,555, despite its relatively large size, Vaitupu became so overcrowded during the 1940s that a number of families migrated to Fiji to live on Kioa Island. Neli Lifuka was the magistrate on Vaitupu from 1945 to 1951 and he was instrumental in collecting the funds to purchase Kioa Island in Fiji
8.
Nukulaelae
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Nukulaelae is an atoll that is part of the nation of Tuvalu, and has a population of 324 the largest settlement is Pepesala on Fangaua islet with a population of 247 people. It has the form of an oval and consists of at least 15 islets, the inhabited islet is Fangaua, which is 1.5 kilometres long and 50 to 200 metres wide. The easternmost point of Tuvalu is Niuoko islet, the Nukulaelae Conservation Area covers the eastern end of the lagoon. A baseline survey of life in the conservation zone was conducted in 2010. The junior school is Faikimua Primary School, the traditional history of Nukulaelae is that a white-skinned man was the first person to sight the island, but he did not settle as there were no trees. Nukulaelae means the land of sands, later, according to tradition, Valoa from Vaitupu discovered Nukulaelae while on a fishing expedition. He returned to Nukulaelae and planted trees and eventually settled on Nukulaelae with his family. On the islet of Tumuiloto was a malae named Fagafale where religious rights honouring ancestral spirits were practiced, on the islet of Niuoka is a large stone at a place called Te Faleatua - the house of the gods. In 1821 Nukulaelae was visited by Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II He named the atoll ‘Mitchell’s Group’, the population of Nukulaelae in 1860 is estimated to be 300 people. While some islander were voluntary recruits the blackbirders were notorious for enticing islanders on to ships with tricks, about 200 were taken from Nukulaelae as immediately after 1863 there were fewer than 100 of the 300 recorded in 1861 as living on Nukulaelae. In 1865 a trading captain acting on behalf of the German firm of J. C. Godeffroy & Sohn obtained a 25-year lease to the islet of Niuoko. For many years the islanders and the Germans argued over the lease, including its terms, in 1896, HMS Penguin spent two days at Nukulaelae carrying out a scientific survey of the atoll. Nukulaelae Post Office opened around 1923, the atoll was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act from the 19th century until 1983, when claims to the atoll were ceded to Tuvalu. Nukulaelae is one of the eight constituencies in Tuvalu, unlike the other seven, it elects just one Member of Parliament, rather than two. Following the 2015 general election, its current representative is Namoliki Sualiki who was elected unopposed and he was first elected in 2006, defeating the then incumbent Bikenibeu Paeniu. The Tuvaluan general election,2015 was held on 31 March, Bikenibeu Paeniu, who served two terms as Prime Minister of Tuvalu &, represented Nukulaelae in the Parliament of Tuvalu from 1989 to 2006. List of Guano Island claims Suamalie N. T, iosefa, Doug Munro, Niko Besnier Tala O Niuoku, Te, the German Plantation on Nukulaelae Atoll 1865-1890 Published by the Institute of Pacific Studies
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html.
