Kure Atoll (; ; ) or Ocean Island is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean west-northwest of Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands at . A coral ring across encloses a lagoon several meters deep. The atoll's largest island is called Green Island, and is a habitat for hundreds of thousands of seabirds in the present day and wildlife staff. A short, unused, and unmaintained runway and a portion of one building, both from a former United States Coast Guard LORAN station, are located on the island. Politically, it is part of Hawaii, though the nearest island is Midway, which is a separate unorganized territory. Kure Atoll, in addition to being the nesting grounds for tens of thousands of seabirds, has recorded several vagrant terrestrial birds, including snow bunting, eyebrowed thrush, brambling, olive-backed pipit, black kite, Steller's sea eagle and Chinese sparrowhawk. It is currently managed as a Wildlife Bird Sanctuary by the State of Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resource—Division of Forestry and Wildlife as one of the co-trustees of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument with support from the Kure Atoll Conservancy. Kure is one of the westernmost islands of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Kure is seasonally inhabited by small crews of two to eight volunteers and biologists who work to restore and manage the native ecosystem.

Kure was discovered in the early 19th century and was the site of several shipwrecks. In the early 20th century it became a bird nature reserve of the United States. In the late 20th century, it was home to a radio base that supported location finding (LORAN system before GPS), and in the 21st century it is mostly a nature reserve and for scientific research. Kure, or sometimes written Cure, used to be called Ocean Island up until 1924 when it was renamed; in 1987 this changed to Kure Atoll (atoll rather than island). There are also several native Hawaiian names; some depend on context. Moku Papapa is the generic name for a flat island like this atoll but became more associated with it, and another one is Hōlanikū.

There are no more islands to the west until Japan. Though historically it was thought there might be, none were confirmed (see phantom islands such as the Byer's/Morrell's islands and the Anson Archipelago). To the west and south, across a great amount of ocean, are the Bonin and Volcano Islands (such as Iwo Jima); to the southwest are Minamitorishima and Wake Island. The Aleutian island chain that extends out from Alaska lies far to the north. The nearest feature to the west, but below sea level, is Hancock Seamount. The submerged Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain continues to the northwest. Kure is the farthest west and north island of the Hawaiian chain above sea level in the present day. Other underwater features in the region include the Mid-Pacific Mountains to the south, and to the north, the Hess rise (underwater features).

Hess bank to the north has the historical undersea feature the Mellish bank.

History

thumb|upright|Anchor from the ship Parker in the present day, lost in 1842

The island was discovered in the early 19th century, and besides from shipwrecks was only occasionally visited. From the 1960s to 1992, it had LORAN radio station, which had a small staff and an airstrip. It has been a nature reserve since that time, and marine debris cleanup and scientific research on the nature is conducted.

In the Hawaiian language the term was used for any flat island with reefs. The northwestern islands are associated with Kāne Milohaʻi in Hawaiian mythology, the brother of Pele, creator of the islands, who was left to stand guard for travelers. Another Hawaiian name for Kure Atoll is , meaning "bringing forth heaven."

19th century

thumb|The camp from survivors of Saginaw, which shipwrecked in 1870. At the time it was called Ocean Island.

Before the mid-19th century, Kure Atoll was visited by several ships and given new names each time. Sometimes spelled Cure, its English name was for a Russian navigator who sighted the atoll. It was officially named Kure Island in 1924 and then Kure Atoll in 1987. The old name for the island was Ocean Island.

Two shipwrecks in the early 19th century were the Gledstanes and the Parker, in 1837 and 1842 respectively. The Gledstanes crewmembers were able to make it to the island and then were able to build a new vessel from the debris of their old ship. Some of the survivors then sailed it back to mainland Hawaii. Once they reached Hawaii, they sent a ship back to rescue those who had stayed behind on the island. Once ashore, Lt. Kikuchi and the two other members of his crew (Warrant Officer Yumoto Noriyoshi and Petty Officer (1st Class) Narasaki Hironori) refused capture and were either killed or committed suicide when an American landing party tried to capture them.

In 1960, construction began on a LORAN base and it was finished in 1961. Also in 1961, the tug Port of Bandon sank on the reef.

In 1966, a Boeing 707 jet airliner made an emergency landing at Kure Atoll.

Kure is located within a major current which washes up debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, such as fishing nets and large numbers of cigarette lighters, on the island. These pose threats to the local animals, especially birds, whose skeletons are frequently found with plastic in the stomach cavity.

thumb|Kure Atoll sign, 2001

On October 16, 1998, the longline fishing vessel Paradise Queen II ran aground on the eastern edge of Green Island of Kure Atoll, spilling approximately 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel before recovery operations could commence. Debris from that shipwreck continued to pollute the reef and shoreline for many years, endangering wildlife and damaging the coral reef. The long-term impact of this and other wrecks within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) highlight the dangers to sensitive habitats in the area. To help ensure their protection, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument was designated a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) in 2008 by the International Maritime Organization. In addition to avoiding specific areas, owners must identify when their ship enters and leaves the PSSA's reporting area so a timely response can be taken should there be a maritime emergency.

From 1960 to 1992, a United States Coast Guard LORAN station was located on Green Island. A short coral runway was built on the island to support Coast Guard operations, Although there is no permanent human population, the atoll is formally part of the City and County of Honolulu. It became a state wildlife sanctuary in 1981. Since 1993, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources and volunteers from the Kure Atoll Conservancy group have helped to restore the atoll to a more natural state. Jean-Michel Cousteau produced a video on a voyage to Kure which first aired in 2006. Since 2010 the Division of Forestry and Wildlife has had a year-round presence on Kure Atoll.

21st century

thumb|Volunteer tents and albatrosses at Kure, 2001

thumb|Landing area

thumb|Birds and natural flora inland

thumb|Fish swim at Kure Atoll

In 2002, the wreck of a 19th-century whaling ship was found at Kure Atoll. The Parker was a whaling ship that wrecked on Kure Atoll in 1842. The research dive studying the wreck was featured in the book A Civil War Gunboat in Pacific Waters: Life on Board USS Saginaw.

In 2008, the shipwreck of the vessel Gledstanes was found. The sailboat was discovered in 2007, and was determined to be the boat of a sailor who departed from Fiji in 2006, but was lost at sea. While there is no television or cell phone service, limited internet connectivity allows for emails to be sent and received.

Geography and ecology

thumb|Some green sea turtles come ashore on a Kure Atoll beach

The International Date Line lies approximately to the west. Although located to the west of Midway Atoll, Kure Atoll has a time zone 1 hour ahead at UTC−10:00 (the same as the rest of Hawaii). Kure is the northernmost coral atoll in the world. It consists of a nearly circular barrier reef surrounding a shallow lagoon and several sand islets. There is a total land area of , with Green Island on the southeast side. A growing number of Hawaiian monk seals (Monachus schauinslandi) haul out on its beaches. The Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) has been on the island since it was discovered.

The coral reef is a rough ring shape about across and has two islands within, Sand Island and Green Island. Green Island is in the southeast quadrant of the ring, with an area of 235 acres. Sand Island is about one acre in size and lies to the west of Green Island.

Green Island has a wide variety of vegetation including groves of beach naupaka (Scaevola taccada), which are a popular habitat for birds.

  • Black-footed albatross (Diomedea nigripes)
  • Laysan albatross (Diomedea immutabilis)
  • Wedge-tailed shearwater (Pufinus pacificlcs)
  • Red-tailed tropic-bird (Phaethon rubricauda)
  • Blue-faced booby (Sula dactylatra)
  • Brown booby (Sula Leucogaster)
  • Red-footed booby (Sula sula)
  • Great frigate-bird (Fregata minor)
  • Gray-backed tern (Sterna lunata)
  • Sooty tern (Sterna fuscata)
  • Noddy tern (Anous stolidus)
  • White-capped noddy tern (Anous minutus)
  • White tern (Gygis alba)

As of 2002, 92 species of algae have been discovered in the central lagoon of Kure Atoll.

Geological history and future

thumb|The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain, zoomed in on the modern-day islands

The geological history of Kure is generally similar to Midway, but Kure lies close to what is called the Darwin Point, the latitude north of which the rate of natural reef subsidence and destruction surpasses the rate of reef growth. At approximately 30 million years old, it is the oldest in the Hawaiian Island chain. As Kure continues to be slowly carried along to the northwest by the motion of the Pacific Plate, it will move into waters too cool for coral and coralline algae growth to keep up with isostatic subsidence of the mountain. Currently the atoll is warmed by the pools of water at the ends of the warm Kuroshio Current, keeping it in a very comfortable range in winter. Barring unforeseen evolution, it will then begin to join the other volcanic and reef-topped remnants of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain to the northwest, all of which are now seamounts.

Amateur radio

Because of its particularly remote location, Kure Atoll has been the scene of several amateur radio DX expeditions, or DX-peditions. Because the radio propagation path between Kure and Europe runs right over the North Polar region, opportunities for distant communication with Kure are particularly popular among European amateurs.

The callsign prefix for Kure Atoll as of 2017 is KH7K, and for nearby Midway Atoll KH4, on the DXCC list. They were briefly deleted from the DXCC list and had to be re-added after a review, due to a legal change of the overall regions status.

  • 1970Callsign: W7UXP/KH6 - October by WB2OIF, KH6HCM/W7UXP, KH6HGP/W7WOX
  • 1971–72Callsign: KH6EDY—The U.S. Coast Guard Kure Island LORAN station's callsign.
  • 1973–74Callsign: KH6HDBFrom September 1973 to September 1974, Gene Lewis, KH6HDB (now W5LE), operated from Kure Island. Lewis had been one of the two operators to activate Kure during the one-week DXpedition of KH6NR/KH6 during November 1969. He subsequently joined the Coast Guard for the express purpose of getting to spend a one-year tour of duty on Kure Island.
  • 1997Event call sign: K7K. This was a joint scientific/radio operation including four fish and wildlife scientists and the eight members of the Midway-Kure DX Foundation's 1996 Midway team. The team included four scientists from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
  • 2005Event call sign: K7C. The team consisted of 12 amateur radio operators from the United States, Canada, and Germany.

LORAN Station (1960–1992)

thumb|The United States Coast Guard LORAN station at Kure in 1971. A [[Grumman HU-16 Albatross can be seen parked on the runway's ramp.]]

Kure's Green Island was home to a radio geolocation station from the early 1960s to 1992. Called LORAN (short for LOng RAnge Navigation), the base was operated by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported the LORAN-C system. This land-based electronic navigation aid helped ships and aircraft locate themselves on the Earth's surface.

Aircraft that routinely operated from the airstrip included U.S. Coast Guard HC-123B Provider and HC-130H aircraft and several types of U.S. Navy fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters from Midway. Flights routinely carried mail, cargo, and passengers to Kure Atoll since its completion in the 1960s. and a Boeing 707 in 1966.

Shipwrecks

thumb|The Saginaw wrecks on the atoll in 1870. (drawing)

thumb|Wreck of Houei Maru, 2006

Kure Atoll is noted as the location of various shipwrecks. Some of the noted wrecks at the atoll include:

<gallery widths=200 heights=200>

File:Kure map lrg.gif|Bathymetric map of Kure Atoll

File:KureAtoll.jpg|Satellite image of Kure Atoll

File:NASA KureAtoll.jpg|NASA astronaut image of Kure Atoll (February&nbsp;22, 2004)

File:Atoll research bulletin (1972) (20159194319).jpg|Photo of Green Island shot from the air (February&nbsp;27, 1968)

File:Kure Atoll on the horizon.PNG|Kure Atoll on the horizon

File:Kure Masked Booby juveniles.jpg|Young masked boobies (Sula dactylatra) on Green Island, Kure Atoll

File:Starr 010520-0024 Scaevola taccada.jpg|Scaevola taccada (habit with sooty terns). Location: Kure Atoll, inland

File:Starr 010520-0006 Verbesina encelioides.jpg|The flower of Verbesina encelioides at near camp of Kure Atoll

File:Kure Marine Debris.jpg|Young masked boobies (Sula dactylatra) sitting on marine debris on Green Island.

</gallery>

Climate

Temperatures at Kure Atoll range from about .

See also

  • Desert island

References

  • Quick Facts on the Kure Atoll from the PBS Ocean Adventures site
  • Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve
  • List of DXpeditions to Kure Island
  • Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Information Management System
  • State of Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resource—Division of Forestry and Wildlife
  • Kure Atoll Conservancy
  • Kure Island Nautical Chart