Beveridge Reef

Beveridge Reef is a submerged atoll located in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Niue, approximately 130 miles (209 km) from Niue and 600 miles (966 km) from the Cook Islands.[1][2][3] The reef is normally submerged,[4] with a small part visible at low tide.[1][5] It has been the cause of several fishing boats running aground.

Beveridge Reef seen from space.
looking north across lagoon, from position after entrance

Elsdon Best reported that "according to native tradition at Rarotonga, the Beveridge Reef was once a fine isle, with many coconut-palms growing thereon, but that it was swept bare by a fierce hurricane, which carried away both trees and soil, leaving nothing but the bare rock."[6]

Wrecks

The reef is the site of frequent shipwrecks:[7]

  • in 1918, the schooner James H. Bruce, [8]
  • the Nicky Lou of Seattle, a fiberglass hulled fishing vessel that ran aground on the reef, can be seen on the reef, and[9][10]
  • in 2017, the catamaran Avanti.[11][12]

References
  1. South Pacific Commission (1992). The South Pacific Commission Fisheries Newsletter.
  2. John Robert Victor Prescott; Grant Boyes (2000). Undelimited Maritime Boundaries in the Pacific Ocean Excluding the Asian Rim. IBRU. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-1-897643-39-6.
  3. http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/06/beveridge-reef-from-shallow-seas-to-darker-depths/
  4. A. G. Findlay (28 March 2013). A Directory for the Navigation of the Pacific Ocean, with Descriptions of Its Coasts, Islands, Etc.: From the Strait of Magalhaens to the Arctic Sea, and Those of Asia and Australia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 805–. ISBN 978-1-108-05973-2.
  5. P. J. Dalzell; G. L. Preston; SPC Fisheries Programme (1992). Deep reef slope fishery resources of the South Pacific: a summary and analysis of the dropline fishing survey data generated by the activities of the SPC Fisheries Programme between 1974 and 1988. South Pacific Commission.
  6. Best, Elsdon (1922). Some aspects of Maori myth and religion. W.A.G. Skinner. p. 10. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  7. Grimshaw, Beatrice Ethel (1907). In the Strange South Seas. Hutchinson & Company. p. 183. Beveridge Reef wreck.
  8. "The Seamen's Journal". 1919.
  9. Miles Hordern (20 May 2014). Sailing the Pacific: A Voyage Across the Longest Stretch of Water on Earth, and a Journey into Its Past. St. Martin's Press. pp. 247–. ISBN 978-1-4668-7196-0.
  10. Ocean Yearbook. 1994. ISBN 9780226066141.
  11. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/28/british-family-of-four-rescued-from-remote-reef-in-pacific-ocean
  12. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/reef-was-complete-surprise-says-pacific-shipwreck-father-bobby-cooper-catamaran-avanti-wrecked-off-beveridge-reef-near-niue-bp3f27z6k

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