Coral Reef Islands Research Articles

The rise and fall of the vaitupu company:An episode in the commercial history of tuvalu∗

THE SMALLER, ECONOMICALLY UNIMPORTANT ISLAND GROUPS OF THE PACIFIC were mostly spared the more disruptive consequences of European contact. Tuvalu (formerly the Ellice Islands) provides a case in point: alienation of land, depopulation, punitive naval action, long-term indebtedness to foreign commercial interests, sectarian bitterness, and sustained labour recruiting are not themes in the 19th century history of this group of tiny coral atolls and reef islands. This is largely because Tuvalu did not have much for the foreigner to take: its resources were limited, its land fragmented and small in area ?an ag gregate of less than 10 square miles ?and its population scattered and far from numerous. These characteristics combined to render Tuvalu unattractive to trader, planter and labour recruiter alike. There were, however, occasional ex ceptions to this pattern of isolation, as seen in the career of the Vaitupu Company. The formation of an indigenous trading and shipping company on the southern island of Vaitupu during the 1870s and its chequered career provide a Tuvaluan example of economic initiatives and responses found elsewhere in the Pacific Islands at this time and later: the European who dreams of breaking through the limitations of the island environment in his enterprise; the Islanders who enthusiastically attempt to bypass foreign traders; the clash be tween Western methods of accountancy and the Islanders' kinship economics; and the predictable accumulation of Islanders' indebtedness to a foreign trading company. Intended as a profit-making concern run on co-operative lines, the Vaitupu Company instead finished up with debts to the German trading company of H. M. Ruge & Co. totalling a massive $13,000.* Its story is complicated, involving the founder's ambitions, factional disputes among the people of Vaitupu, complaints by officials of the London Missionary Society (L.M.S.) and the intervention of British and German authorities. Vaitupuans

Distribution and ecology of seagrass communities in the Western Indian Ocean

1. 1. Nine seagrasses were identified and their distributions on coral reef islands and the African coastline studied. 2. 2. Transects were worked to show the vertical zonation of the seagrasses. The more important communities encountered in order from low water spring tide level to the infralittoral were a Halodule uninervis community, a halodule - Thalassi or Thalassia - Cymodocea serrulata community, a Thalassia - Syringodium community, a Thalassia hemprichii community, and finally a Cymodocea ciliata community. 3. 3. Halodule was the main pioneer species. 4. 4. Thalassia and Cymodocea ciliata formed beds which in thelatter seagrass grew at depths of up to 40m. 5. 5. Cymodecea ciliata grew on exposed or semi-exposed shores and formed mats 30–40cm thick. 6. 6. The main environmental factors influencing the zonation of these seagrasses are substrate type, water depth, exposure to waves and current, and tidal range. They grow where water temperatures ranges between 26–30°C, but in littoral pools they may have to withstand temperatures as high as 38°C for short periods. 7. 7. The substrates in which these seagrasses grow range from fine sand and silt to coarse sand mixed with coral debris. Thalassia was the only species which tolerated anoxic sediments and its roots can ramify through black sediments smelling of hydrogen sulphide. Halodule and Syringodium tolerates some lowering of sediment oxygen content. 8. 8. Average standing stock of the main communities expressed as g Fresh Weight per square metre were ss follows: Halodule uninervis , 2430; Halophila ovalis , 465; Thalassia-Halodule , 4250; Thalassia-Cymodecea serrulata , 2907; Thalassia hemprichii , 4125; Cymodocea ciliata , 6050. There was evidence that seagrass biomass increased from LWS down into the infralittoral. The same communities were also analysed for the standing crops of assocated algae and macrofauna.

Motor Tanker “Hoyo-Maru” in a State of Hogging Perfectly Restored

Hoyo Maru which was built by the Yokohama Dock Company as an up-to-date tanker was completed in November, 1936.She was grounded on the beach of a coral reef island during a storm in January, 1937, with a full cargo of oil.After her grounding, severe storms came along several times in close succession, and the ship rolled and rolled on the ground of the coral reef. Consequently, she was badly damaged and broken all over her bottom. Moreover, the bottom parts of the bow and stern sank into the crashed sand of coral reef, as they were shaped like wedges and were easy to get into the sand, while the bottom at the middle part was flat and remained on the sand.Thus the storm deformed the ship into the state of “Hogging, ” and the deformation at midship was 24 inches upward at upper deck and 40 inches upward at keel. Ship's shell on both sides buckled and cracked vertically at midship. But the ship was salved successfully after two months' efforts, and she was brought into dry dock. Sufficient number of wooden blocks were built by divers on the dock bottom in water to support the ship on her irregularly damaged bottom and the heights of all the blocks were adjusted to touch the different parts of the bottom at the same time when the ship was lowered down to her position by pumping out of the water in the dock.Special device was adopted for stretching out the contracted bottom lengthwise with gradual lowering down of the ship's body and also for sliding the bottom outward gradually at both ends. The repair job was completed in a dry dock and the ship was restored to perfect condition in 180 days after the job was commenced.

Ecology of the Murray Island Coral Reef

Ecology of the Murray Island Coral Reef

Origin of coral reefs and islands

Dana interprets the previous work on coral reefs on Pacific islands as supporting Darwin9s (1842) theory of subsidence of coral reef islands. He states that the island of Hawaii, although growing little coral, has undergone more subsidence than the coral reef end of the chain, the volcanic activity more than keeping pace with the subsidence to yield a submarine continuation of the shield form as revealed by deep soundings fairly close to the island. These define a 4 degrees 309 slope, inferred to be that of a constructional shield. Dana emphasizes the distinctions that must be made to interpret coral deposits between porous beach deposits made by subaerial denudation, and the compact coral reef rock made underwater by living organisms. He suggests that firm evidence of subsidence could be obtained by identifying beach deposits underlying coral reef rock and suggests core drilling of atolls to find such evidence. In part 2, Dana considers the following objections to Darwin9s theory: I. Darwin9s insufficient knowledge of the facts bearing on the subject. II. Subsidence not ordinarily a fact because methods of producing barrier reefs and atolls have been brought forward that do not require its aid. III. The occurrence of cases of elevation in regions of atolls and barrier reefs inconsistent with the subsidence theory. IV. No ancient coral reefs in the geological series have the great thickness attributed by the subsidence-theory to modern reefs. V. Other methods of explanation and their supporting evidence. Under III, he cites Professor Karl Semper (1868, Zeitschrift Wissenschaft Zoologie, v. 13, p. 558), who objects to subsidence on islands that have reefs raised from 200 to 250 feet above sea level as "a cumbrous and entirely hypothetical series of upward and downward movements." Semper also argues that the strongest wind waves are too feeble to break off and lift large masses of reef, some 10 feet thick. Dana counters: "But the difficulty does not exist in fact: for earthquakes may have made the waves.," citing the proximity of the Pelew island to the tectonically and volcanically active areas to the west, including the Philippines and Krakatau. Dana concludes by evaluating all counter-claims to subsidence, finding none to irreconcilably conflict with Darwin, and much to support him.

The Hawaiian Archipelago Six Months among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands

The Hawaiian Archipelago Six Months among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands