Pitcairns Island

[Captain Kong]

This article was in the Guardian on Google news yesterday,
There was a video of it, . Very interesting.
I was at Pitcairns in February this year, a fascinating place.
.Cheers
Brian


theguardian.com, Friday 27 June 2014 15.41 BST
Unique underwater world discovered in Pitcairn Islands Expedition reveals 80 new species of fish, coral and algae in the pristine waters of British overseas territory in the Pacific Ocean

Grouper fish, Variola louti (red and yellow) and Epinephelus fasciatus on the fore reef of Oeno Atoll, Pitcairn Islands, studied by the National Geographic Pristine Seas expedition team. Photograph: Enric Sala/National Geographic
An expedition has revealed the unique underwater treasures of the Pitcairn Islands. The discovery increases the pressure on the UK government to create the world’s largest marine protection area around the Pacific sea.

The islands are one of the most remote places on Earth, thousands of miles from any continent, and have escaped overfishing and pollution that has damaged many regions of the world’s oceans. Just 53 people live on the islands, many descendents of the sailors behind the famous mutiny on the Bounty in 1790, but it is the marine life that attracted National Geographic’s Pristine Seas expedition. Its results, including new species of fish, were published in the journal Plos One on Friday.

“The remoteness means it has been preserved as pristine as possible,” expedition leader Enric Sala told the Guardian. “As soon as you jump in the water and the bubbles clear you are surrounded by sharks.” Top-predators like sharks are virtually fished-out in many parts of the seas but the expedition found they dominated the marine ecosystems around the four Pitcairn Islands. Grey reef sharks were the most common predator, followed by whitetip reef sharks and black trevally, while the plant-eating fish were dominated by chubs, unicornfish and whitebar surgeonfish.

Expedition divers explore the pristine waters of Pitcairn
The waters are also extremely clear. “We couldn’t believe it. The water was so clear we could see for 75 metres,” said Sala. That clarity meant coral reefs thrived far deeper than usual, down to 100 metres, a world record. Another light-dependent organism, crustose coralline algae, was seen at 382m depth. Over 80 species of fish, coral and algae were recorded at Pitcairn for the first time.

The team also did the first surveys of the deep habitats around the Pitcairn Islands by dropping cameras down to 1,600 metres, revealing rare species such as the false catshark and several species never seen before.

“This is one of the most intact marine ecosystems on the planet and right now it is in danger,” said Sala, adding it provides an irreplaceable view of how coral reefs function without extensive human interference.


The Pitcairn islanders have backed a plan to declare a protected zone of over 830,000 sq km around the islands, which if created today would be the biggest in the world. Sala points out that while about 15% of land has some kind of protection, only 3% of the oceans have any environmental rules.

The Pitcairns are a British overseas territory and campaigners are optimistic that the UK Foreign Office’s current assessment of the proposal will see the marine park approved, particularly after US president Barack Obama pledged on 17 June to protect 780,000 km2 of ocean around uninhabited south Pacific Islands. “The arguments are pretty clear and there seems to be momentum now, so it makes sense for the UK to lead the way,” said Sala.

The shallow reefs of Henderson, Pitcairn Islands. Photograph: Enric Sala/National Geographic
However, the Environment Audit select committee of MPs criticised the government in January for failing protect the exotic species living on the string of isolated islands that make up the last vestiges of the British empire. It noted that there are more endangered species living in the Pitcairns than people.
.
. A lemonpeel angelfish (Centropyge flavissima) , by the National Geographic Pristine Seas expedition to the Pitcairn Islands. Photograph: Enric Sala/National Geographic/Courtesy of Pristine Seas
He looks like a Tweety bird from Sylvester cartoon.

VIDEO,
http://youtu.be/fQjjXfiq6qc

[Dennis McGuckin]

When I was there in my sea days, we were not allowed ashore.
Was that the policy for all ships back then?
If so, when did it change?

[Captain Kong]

Hi Dennis
no one goes ashore there, unless permission is sort from New Zealand authorities.
Only 50 islanders live there, plus from New zealand a school teacher, only 5 kids of school age.
One Policeman from New zealand and another official from NZ.
Getting ashore is very difficult There is just a small landing with very steep steps to get up to the village level. see photo.
The Islanders come out to the ship in a boat. the ships just hangs off, no anchoring. They bring souvenirs etc to sell , they rig up stalls on deck. Very interesting tho`.
below are the photos from February.
.
1.. Me and an old friend, Manurii Young, decended from Mr Midshipman Edward Young, who took a Tahitian wife with him after the Mutiny, he now lives in Tahiti.
2.. The landing, bottom left and then the steep climb up.
3.. The boat full of Islanders going back ashore.
4.. Pitcairns Island.
5 ,, Me with Jacqi Christian, decended from Fletcher Christian.

a good experience.
Cheers
Brian.

[John Albert Evans]

On a couple of occasions in the late 1950's en route to New Zealand from Curacao On Eagle Oil Tankers we stoppped at Pitcain, anchored off and they came out in what remember as lifeboats, we off loaded some stores to them and Post which they stamped and I presumed gave to the next ship that stopped there. We collected Post from them which was posted onwards when we arrived at New Zealand. I think I have a couple of photos that I took on my Kodac Brownie somewhere, they are similar to Brians. We never went ashore there.

John

[Peter F Chard]

There was a huge scandal there a few years ago -- several adult men were charged and convicted of under age sex, including rape of young girls. pretty horrible when you consider that they are all related. The convicted men are doing their time as '' Home Detention '' -- There was a UK police officer stationed there to see the men were actually in detention -- I think the officer is still there. Regards Peter in NZ.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Peter ,
when I was there in February the Police officer was from New Zealand and he stamped my passport for $10.
Cheers
Brian.

[Richard Quartermaine]

This may be of interest from my first trip.

We headed in a generally East by North direction into the tropics. A couple of weeks into the voyage and we were gliding through water that shimmered like iridescent blue silk. Ahead of us in the distance, rising from the shimmering blue water were the jagged peaks of a tropical island framed by an azure sky. It was Tahiti, the main island of the Society Islands group of French Polynesia. Rising on our port bow was that magical island, Moreea.

Within a couple of hours we came alongside the wharf at Pape’ete and the tropic air was filled the scent of frangipani blossoms. Those austere little French cars; Citroen’s Deux Chevaux, scampered around the narrow streets and there was great interest in our arrival. It was, of course, just after the Second World War and the tourist droves were yet to descend on and change this Eden forever.

After washing a great pile of dishes and cleaning up the pantry I went ashore with some shipmates. There was a rather obese man of mixed race in a flowery shirt sitting outside the waterfront Quinn’s Bar offering to let me take his photograph - for a price. He was Emile Marae a Tai, born in Tahiti in 1899 and the son of the artist Paul Gauguin and his Tahitian mistress Pau’ura. That was one photograph I should have taken. That night we went to a French bar on the beach at Lafayette, just out of Pape’ete and danced with some of the local girls. One was singing “symphonie, symphonie d’amour” into my ear-hole and I could well imagine why the crew of the “Bounty” mutinied. We didn’t, but co-incidentally our next stop was Pitcairn Island, where the “Bounty” was scuttled by Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers.

Pitcairn Island is the only inhabited island of a group of four and was chosen by Fletcher Christian for its isolation, being a huge rock in the vast Pacific Ocean. The other three islands of the group are Henderson, Dulcie and Oeno Islands each being remote from each other over several hundred miles of ocean.

As there is no harbour, Pitcairn Islanders ‘parked’ their whale boats on racks perched by the cliff-side. These open boats were rowed out to visiting ships to collect provisions and mail and to take the opportunity to sell their sought after postage stamps and ‘cottage’ handicraft. The open whale boats were used to visit the other distant islands where depleted supplies of timber on Pitcairn were augmented. The quaint language, a mixture of “Olde English” and Tahitian was carried over to Norfolk Island, north of New Zealand, to where some of them emigrated in the 19th Century. For example, their greeting, “What the way?” short for, “what the way are you?” and ,“Oi gwen nawee in the hot sun” “I’m going swimming…”.

Richard

[Captain Kong]

Ia Orana, Richard, e aha to oe huru,
Quinns Bar is No More, the site was bought for development for an Insurance company, wasnt yours , was it?.
Pape ete means water basket. Pape = water, ete = basket or container.
It is still a true Paradise outside the city.and so are all the other islands. Moorea, Bora Bora etc. I am going back there next February. cant keep away.
Parahi manuia
Brian

[Richard Quartermaine]

Hi Brian
I'll check. my son in law is with them in HO, We have operated there for a very long time. I'll be cross if they did!!!
Richard

[Dennis McGuckin]

Hi Brian and Richard,Thanks for the interesting read, and great pictures.
The photo of the long boats answered a question I had.
They are similar to the boats from the Bounty era.
Am I correct in remembering that the Islanders had very large feet?
Also recall that we left some stores for them. Flour etc.
Something to do with an old contract by the British.
Den.