Marshall Islands Research Articles

Atoll Mangrove Progradation Patterns: Analysis from Jaluit in the Marshall Islands

AbstractLow-lying islands are vulnerable to coastal erosion, and mangroves, which can mitigate erosion, have suffered enormous losses in recent decades owing to human impacts. Previous studies have little investigated mangrove shores on atolls, which may face combined multiple threats. We analysed the large Marshall Islands atoll of Jaluit, at a higher resolution than previous spatial change studies, finding that mangrove shorelines prograded seawards over the last seven decades. Biogeomorphic colonisation processes were characterised from transects along ~ 14.6 km of shorelines. Mangrove progradation occurred in patterns of arc-shapes evident of long-shore drift deposition, patch expansion of offshore mangrove colonisers, and linear shoreline advance. Significant differences in the rates of expansion were identified, with arc-shaped colonisation showing the fastest rates of expansion. However, linear shoreline advance was the most frequent expansion pattern showing greater than three-fold more classified transects than arc-shaped colonisation and patch expansion. These results have implications for low island mangrove restoration. Applying mangrove planting patterns mimicking these different natural colonisation processes may enhance restoration success in ecosystem-based adaptation projects to mitigate sea level rise vulnerability. Results from this study show that atoll mangrove shorelines demonstrate resilience during past sea level rise rates, and that rates of expansion vary according to patterns of biogeomorphic colonisation.

The horrors of nuclear weapons testing

ABSTRACT The closer you are to nuclear weapons, the more you are aware of their dangers. People today seem to have forgotten—if they ever knew—what a single nuclear weapon can do. Which, if nothing else, is something that atmospheric testing can accomplish: Remind everyone of what’s at stake. The inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, whose home was turned into a nuclear proving ground, have certainly never forgotten. Nor has the crew of a Japanese fishing vessel that strayed too close to the nuclear weapon test known as Bravo.

Status Identification in Support of Fishing Effort Estimation for Tuna Longliners in Waters near the Marshall Islands Based on AIS Data

Visualising the fishing behaviour of vessels and quantifying the spatial distribution of fishing effort is the scientific basis for assessing and managing fisheries resources. The information on the dynamics of fishing vessel voyages provided by the automatic identification system (AIS) of vessels serves as high-precision fishery data and provides a means of quantifying fishing effort with high spatial and temporal resolution in the tuna longline fishery. Based on the AIS data of five tuna longliners operating in the waters near the Marshall Islands from 2020 to 2021, this study used three methods, namely the threshold screening method, the construction of a BP neural network and the support vector machine (SVM) to identify the fishing and non-fishing status of the tuna longliners, respectively. This study investigates the status identification and fishing effort estimation of the tuna longliner (VESSEL A) in 2021 based on the constructed optimal model, and spatial correlation analyses are performed between the fishing effort estimated in hours based on AIS data and in hooks based on fishing logbook data, by month. The results showed (1) the recognition accuracy of the threshold screening method is 89.9%, the recognition accuracy of the BP neural network classification model is 95.11%, the kappa coefficient is 0.51, the recognition accuracy of the SVM classification model is 95.74% and the kappa coefficient is 0.52; (2) in comparison, the SVM classification model performs better than the other two status identification methods for tuna longliners; and (3) the correlation coefficients between the two types of effort of VESSEL A were greater than 0.79 on all fishing months, indicating that there was no significant difference in the spatial and temporal distribution between the two types of effort. This study suggests that the SVM model can be used to identify the status and estimate the fishing effort of longliners.

TB-free Ebeye: Results from integrated TB and noncommunicable disease case finding in Ebeye, Marshall Islands

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) incidence rates in the Republic of the Marshall Islands are among the highest in the world, 480/100,000 in 2017. In response, the Health Ministry completed islandwide screening in Ebeye Island in 2017. MethodsParticipants were interviewed to obtain TB history, exposures, and symptoms. TB assessment included chest radiography with sputum collection for GeneXpert® MTB-RIF if indicated. TB diagnosis was made by consensus of visiting TB experts. Participants were also screened for Hansen’s disease (HD) and diabetes mellitus (DM). For persons aged ≥21 years, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose were assessed. ResultsA total of 5,166 persons (90.0 % of target population) completed screening leading to the identification of 39 new cases of TB (755/100,000) and 14 persons with HD (270/100,000). DM was detected in 1,096 persons (27 %), including in 351 persons not previously diagnosed. The rate of hypertension was 61 % and of hypercholesterolemia was 15 %. New or prevalent TB diagnosis was associated with newly diagnosed or history of DM (aOR 4.68, 2.15–10.20). ConclusionsIn Ebeye, an integrated TB screening campaign found TB, HD, DM, and hypertension. TB and DM were strongly associated.

Micronesian States Natural Resource Law Features

The object of the study is the relations of environmental management in the Micronesian states, the subject is the legislation and doctrine in the field of exploitation of natural resources of the countries of Micronesia: Wake Island, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariinsky Islands, the Territory of Guam, the possessions of the United States of America. The author examines the features of the state natural resource mechanism in the listed jurisdictions. The article examines the institution of ownership of natural resources, the permissive procedure for the use of natural objects. In addition, the author addresses the problems of implementing the norms of international maritime law, explores the legal regime of the Micronesian waters. The work completes the "Oceanic Sonata" in the theory of natural resource law of foreign countries and takes it to the next scientific level, qualitatively raising the "bar" for followers. The relevance of the research is due to the theoretical and practical significance of the content of the article, which reflects domestic interests in Oceania. The author in the article operated with dialectical, logical, historical, formal legal, comparative legal, deduction, induction and other methods of cognition. The scientific novelty of the presented work lies in the originality of the conclusions and the work itself, which contains fundamentally new information on the subject of research. Legal publications about Micronesia are insignificant, "living classics" is presented to your attention - one of the few Russian scientific articles about this Pacific region, while the available works are largely outdated, and some jurisdictions are covered in the domestic sciences for the first time. The author discusses with foreign scientists, analyzing foreign doctrine and legislation, and suggests using the experience of the United States of America in the Russian Federation. At the same time, violations of the norms of international maritime law in the Pacific Ocean are noted, as well as cases of declaring the existence of an exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf of the United States of America in the waters of sovereign States and unoccupied atolls, but also their inclusion in the American Empire as possessions of the United States of America, acting as a possessor of other States.

Assessment of diabetes self-care behaviors and knowledge among Marshallese adults with type 2 diabetes in the Republic of the Marshall Islands

AimsThe aim of this study is to assess and document engagement in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) self-care behaviors and self-reported diabetes knowledge among Marshallese adults living in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). MethodsThe study uses data from a T2DM health screening study completed in the RMI; survey and biometric data were captured as part of the health screenings. Study objectives were examined using descriptive statistics to describe the characteristics of the participants, their diabetes self-care behaviors, and their levels of self-reported diabetes knowledge. ResultsResults indicate many Marshallese diagnosed with T2DM did not engage in adequate self-care behaviors, including blood sugar checks and foot examinations. Participants reported having forgone needed medical care and medication due to issues with cost and/or access, and participants reported low levels of diabetes knowledge. ConclusionsThe results demonstrate the need for further work in improving engagement in diabetes self-care by Marshallese living in the RMI. Increased engagement in self-care and diabetes education programs may help Marshallese with T2DM to improve control of their glucose and avoid long-term health complications, as well as reduce costs to the healthcare system.

Migration, belonging, and the sustainability of atoll islands through a changing climate.

Climate change might catalyze and exacerbate the trend of outmigration from low-lying atoll islands. There is speculation that migration away from atolls may not stop until such islands are abandoned. Yet migration creates both opportunities and risks for the sustainability of atoll communities. There is a trade-off between reduced demographic pressure on increasingly fragile atoll island environments and the financial and human resources necessary to adapt to climate change that can result from migration. Here we propose and analyze belonging as the centripetal force that makes migration a process that enhances the sustainability of atoll populations. We examine the relationship between migration, belonging, and the sustainability of populations on atoll islands based on data collected in three atoll islands in the Pacific: the island state of Niue; Namdrik Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands; and Budibudi atoll (Laughlan Islands) in Papua New Guinea. In each case, belonging binds the people who live in and migrate from these places into a collective commitment to their continuity, yet it does so to different degrees according to the economic opportunities available to migrants and the infrastructure that enables extended communities to remain connected.

MANUSCRIPT XLIII: Petition to the United Nations Trusteeship Council from the Marshallese People, 20 April 1954

ABSTRACT Anti-nuclear protests in the Pacific Islands began in the 1950s. There were a series of petitions throughout the decade as Islanders living under colonial administration sought assistance from the United Nations Trusteeship Council, the newly created Non-Aligned Movement, and international ecumenical networks such as the World Council of Churches. At the height of the 1950s Cold War between the United States and USSR, these calls were mostly brushed aside by the nuclear weapons states. Despite this, Islanders from French Polynesia, Fiji, Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Western Samoa, and other colonial dependencies spoke out against nuclear weapons and especially the US and British nuclear programmes in the Pacific, petitioning for an end to nuclear testing. This document is a striking example of these petitions, inspired by the March 1954 atmospheric nuclear test, codenamed Bravo, in the Marshall Islands.

Global burden of type 2 diabetes in adolescents from 1990 to 2019.

To evaluate the burden of type 2 diabetes (T2D) among adolescents (15-24 years old) from 1990 to 2019. The age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rate of adolescents were analyzed according to age, sex, geographical location, and sociodemographic index (SDI). The estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) was estimated to quantify the trends. From 1990 to 2019, the ASIR (EAPC = 1.07) and age-standardized DALY rate (EAPC = 2.01) of T2D in adolescents showed an increasing trend. The ASIR was higher in males than in females. The burden was greater in the 20-24-year age group. Of the five SDI regions, the highest ASIR and age-standardized DALY rate were found in low-middle-SDI regions, while the greatest increase in these rates was observed in high-SDI regions (EAPC = 3.28 and 3.55, respectively). Of the 21 regions analyzed, the highest ASIR and age-standardized DALY rate were found in Oceania. Of the 204 countries analyzed, the Marshall Islands (651.16) and Kiribati (277.42) had the highest ASIR and DALYs, respectively. The regions with the greatest increase in the ASIR from 1990 to 2019 were Western Europe (EAPC = 4.15), high-income North America (EAPC = 4.72). The global burden of T2D in adolescents showed an overall upward trend from 1990 to 2019. It is necessary to strengthen prevention measures related to risk factors for T2D among young people, especially in areas with a low-to-medium SDI.

Undiagnosed hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus among Marshallese adults in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Given the lack of healthcare access in the Republic of the Marshall Island (RMI) and the potential for complications related to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and hypertension, it is crucial to examine these conditions among Marshallese in the RMI. This study aims to identify the proportion of Marshallese adults in the RMI with undiagnosed T2DM and hypertension. Using a community-based participatory research approach, screening events were conducted at 20 churches in Majuro Atoll. Participants completed a questionnaire and biometric data measures, including hemoglobin A1c and blood pressure. Among participants with blood pressure data (N = 528), 11.9% had readings indicative of hypertension, and 38.1% were undiagnosed. Among participants with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) data (N = 450), 45.3% had readings indicative of T2DM, and 39.2% were undiagnosed. This study utilized a community-based participatory research approach that promotes equitable and ethical research. Results reaffirm the need to identify strategies for increasing healthcare access and for research to address health disparities in the RMI.

Diet Quality of Young Children in the US-Affiliated Pacific's Children's Healthy Living (CHL) Program.

Childhood diet can impact health outcomes over the life course. Few studies have assessed dietary quality among infants and children in the US-Affiliated Pacific (USAP) region. The aim of this study was to examine the differences in diet quality among Pacific children in the Children's Healthy Living (CHL) program by Pacific jurisdiction and by their World Bank Income Group (WBIG) level. This cross-sectional study used dietary records collected from 2012 to2015. Data were collected on 2- to 8-year-old children (n= 3,529) enrolled in the Children's Healthy Living Program for Remote Underserved Minority Populations in the Pacific region, conducted in the USAP jurisdictions of Alaska, Hawai'i, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM islands include Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Yap), Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and Republic of Palau. Diet quality was assessed using the Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005). This HEI version was commensurate with the time of dietary data collection for the CHL project and previous studies, thus allowing cross-study comparisons. Means of total HEI-2005 scores between jurisdictions and their WBIG level were compared using linear models, with and without adjustment for age, sex, and dietary energy. Differences in mean HEI-2005 scores among children were found between jurisdictions and their WBIG level. Alaska had the highest adjusted mean score (63.3). RMI had the lowest adjusted mean score (50.1). By WBIG, lower-middle income jurisdictions had the lowest adjusted mean HEI-2005 score (56.0), whereas high income jurisdictions had the highest adjusted mean HEI-2005 score (60.5). Variation in children's diet quality was found between USAP jurisdictions, notably between jurisdictions of different WBIG levels. Future research is needed to deepen understanding of these differences in diet quality by WBIG level, such as whether differences may be attributable to the jurisdictions' varying food systems, and possibly explained by the nutrition transition. Understanding childhood diet quality in this region can inform approaches for nutrition programs in the Pacific region.

Microplastics absent from reef fish in the Marshall Islands: Multistage screening methods reduced false positives

Island communities, like the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), depend on marine resources for food and economics, so plastic ingestion by those resources is a concern. The gastrointestinal tracts of nine species of reef fish across five trophic groups (97 fish) were examined for plastics >1 mm. Over 2100 putative plastic particles from 72 fish were identified under light microscopy. Only 115 of these from 47 fish passed a plastic screening method using Fourier-transform infrared microspectroscopy (μFTIR) in reflectance mode. All of these were identified as natural materials in a final confirmatory analysis, attenuated total reflectance FTIR. The high false-positive rate of visual and μFTIR methods highlight the importance of using multiple polymer identification methods. Limited studies on ingested plastic in reef fish present challenging comparisons because of different methods used. No plastic >1 mm were found in the RMI reef fish, reassuring human consumers.

External vulnerability, local resilience, and urban-rural heterogeneity in the Marshall Islands

Popular media often positions the Marshall Islands as especially vulnerable to environmental shocks and shifts. This framing overlooks sources of vulnerability, local resilience, and within country differences. To better understand relationships between social, economic, and cultural shifts and vulnerability and resilience in the Marshall Islands, this study draws on interviews with internal migrants and members of government and civil society to investigate perceptions of vulnerability and resilience in outer islands and Majuro. Findings reveal sharp perceived differences. Participants largely tied vulnerability on outer islands to increasingly variable environmental conditions affecting natural resource-dependent livelihoods and vulnerability on Majuro to the cash economy. In both urban core and rural outer islands, participants linked vulnerability to interdependencies far beyond the Marshall Islands. By evaluating historical and external influences and spatial heterogeneity, this study supports a nuanced understanding of vulnerability and resilience within archipelagic countries critical to policy development.

Searching for Significance in Oceania: A Voyage of Recurrent FSGS in a Patient from the Marshall Islands with Variants of Uncertain Significance

Searching for Significance in Oceania: A Voyage of Recurrent FSGS in a Patient from the Marshall Islands with Variants of Uncertain Significance

Measuring Eco-Efficiency of the Global Shipping Sector Based on an Energy and Environmental Approach: A Dynamic Slack-Based Measure Non-Oriented Model

The compatibility of shipping with environmental protection is a subject that the international community is becoming increasingly concerned about, considering the threat of climate change. The current study aims to assess the worldwide shipping sector’s eco-efficiency performance for the first time using the Dynamic Slack-Based assess non-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis methodology, while the visualization of the results has been made with the geographic information system of ArcGIS. The findings show that the most vibrant shipping sectors in the world, such as the Marshall Islands, present the lowest eco-efficiency levels due to the nations’ roles as tax havens for shipowners. Furthermore, traditional maritime economies such as the Chinese one show a great growth in the eco-efficiency score due to the strategies of the shipping companies that are headquartered in the region to invest and adopt Environmental, Social, and Governance principles, which help them to achieve high scores in eco-efficiency. Finally, nations with small fleets have the greatest eco-efficiency score, as local governments have engaged in sustainable activities and initiatives over the previous four to five years to enable their marine industry to thrive and dominate the market.

Compact colonialism: U.S. neocolonialism in Micronesia in the early twenty-first century

ABSTRACT For decades, the United States has administered compacts of free association with the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Scholars have criticized the United States for using the compacts to limit the sovereignty of the compact states, but they have not determined how the compact states fit into the American empire in the Pacific Ocean. A review of the U.S. documentary record from the early twenty-first century indicates that the United States has ruled the compact states through its own particular form of neocolonialism, or ‘compact colonialism’. Under the compacts, the United States has exercised several powers, including military controls, political controls, economic controls, cultural influence and humanitarian indifference. With this neocolonial approach, the United States has exploited the compact states to maintain a large oceanic empire in the Pacific Ocean.

Opposing Nuclear Weapons Testing in the Global South: A Comparative Perspective

ABSTRACT During the Cold War, nuclear weapon states outsourced their nuclear testing programmes to their hinterlands or overseas territories. Countries such as the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), France and the Soviet Union conducted more than 750 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, Australia, the Algerian Sahara, French Polynesia and Kazakhstan, respectively. In these cases, nuclear activities did not go unchallenged as they affected people’s health and the environment. To different extents, nuclear testing met with opposition from local, regional and international actors. A comparative perspective on anti-nuclear movements – in different regions and time frameworks – that struggled against nuclear colonialism in the form of nuclear testing highlights the impact left by anti-nuclear movements in the Global South, which is relevant to discussions on how the non-proliferation regime is structured today.

Republic of the Marshall Islands

Republic of the Marshall Islands

DEALING WITH AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT FROM CLIMATE CHANGE AT EBEYE, MARSHALL ISLANDS: STRUCTURAL PROTECTION AGAINST STORM EROSION AND WAVE OVERTOPPING

Located in the Pacific between Australia and Hawaii, the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) is one of the World’s smallest, most isolated and vulnerable nations. Ebeye, a small low-lying and densely populated island on Kwajalein Atoll (Figure 1), is at risk from coastal inundation and erosion due to swell waves and typhoons. Impacts will be magnified as sea levels rise. The key engineering performance Objectives and Level of Service (LOS) standards include design life, acceptable structural damage and wave overtopping, and time-dependent climate change effects including sea level rise and changes in typhoon intensity.

Drivers of shoreline change on Pacific coral reef islands: linking island change to processes

Reef islands are considered highly vulnerable to the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. While existing studies provide evidence of high dynamism and predominant stability over recent periods of sea-level rise, efforts to statistically link recorded morphological changes to processes are limited. We analyse shoreline changes across an expansive region of diverse oceanographic and climatic conditions and assess those observations relative to the processes potentially driving change. This record comprises 568 islands from 42 atolls spanning the western to the central Pacific Ocean from the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu, and is one of the first robust attempts to statistically attribute the drivers of observed island changes within the past half-century. Our analyses demonstrate that island change and a range of its potential controls, including oceanographic, climatic and local-scale morphometric characteristics of reefs and islands, are not correlated, underscoring that no single variable could predict a uniform response across the study islands. The lack of association between sea-level rise and shoreline change on this large sample of islands addresses the common notion of a linear relationship between rising sea levels and magnitude of erosion in reef island systems. We emphasise the critical need to move from simplistic assessments of island change, highlight the importance of incorporating multiple predictors and the need for more computationally robust models.