Enderbury Island, also known as Ederbury Island or Guano Island, is a small, uninhabited atoll 63 km ESE of Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean at . It is about 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and 3 miles (4.8 km) long, with a reef stretching out 60–200 metres. Forming a part of the Canton and Enderbury Islands condominium from 1939 to 1979, the island is now a possession of the Republic of Kiribati.

Kiribati declared the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in 2006, with the park being expanded in 2008. The 164,200-square-mile (425,300-square-kilometer) marine reserve contains eight coral atolls including Kanton.

Flora and fauna

Enderbury's flora and fauna

The island is flat and bare, with elevations between 15 and 22 feet. Vegetation consists of low shrubs, including herbs, bunchgrass, sida and morning-glory vines, together with a few clumps of trees, including coconut palms and kou trees. Unlike other atolls, Enderbury has only a small lagoon; most of the island is land. Bird life is abundant, as is the rat population, according to E.H. Bryan Feral cats used to exist, but recently died out. Enderbury has been identified as the most important green sea turtle nesting area in the Phoenix Islands group.

An expedition to eradicate the Polynesian rat population was conducted in 2011.

thumb|left|Corals reefs on Enderbury (part of the [[Phoenix Islands Protected Area), represent what a reef might have looked like one thousand years ago. Image courtesy of Dr. Randi Rotjan, New England Aquarium]]

Enderbury's reefs

The 2000 surveys (Obura, et al.) identified that sites on the reef averaged 20–25% Live Coral Cover. The dominance of encrusting/submassive corals at the windward site and the few large coral colonies and many small ones were seen, indicating frequent breakage preventing growth to large size, with continual breakage of branching and plating forms. Damage to branching and plating forms was as the result of wave energy on the southern, eastern and northern reefs of the islands, which create coral rubble at the base of the reef. The first interest in Enderbury came in 1860, with guano mining. The Guano Islands Act of 1856 allowed Americans to claim islands which had guano deposits; Enderbury was one of them. The start was slow, but guano mining in Enderbury reached its peak in 1870, under the Phoenix Guano Company, when 6,000 tons were mined and shipped in 64 days. The Americans left in 1877, and the Pacific entrepreneur John T. Arundel took over in the 1880s.

See also

  • List of Guano Island claims
  • List of islands
  • Desert island

References

Sources

  • Bryan, Edwin H.: American Polynesia : coral islands of the Central Pacific; Honolulu, Hawaii 1941
  • Skaggs, Jimmy M.: The great guano rush : entrepreneurs and American overseas expansion; New York, NY : St. Martin's Pr., 1994