Kiritimati

During the dispute over the Caroline islands between Germany and Spain in 1885 which was arbitrated by Pope Leo XIII, the sovereignty of Spain over the Caroline and Palau islands as part of the Spanish East Indies was analysed by a commission of cardinals and confirmed by an agreement signed on 17 December 1885. Its Article 2 specifies the limits of Spanish sovereignty in South Micronesia, being formed by the Equator and 11°N Latitude and by 133° and by 164° Longitude. In 1899, Spain sold the Marianas, Carolines, and Palau to Germany after its defeat in 1898 in the Spanish–American War. However Emilio Pastor Santos, a researcher of the Spanish National Research Council, claimed in 1948 that there was historical basis, supported by the charts and maps of the time, to argue that Kiritimati (or Acea as in the Spanish maps) and some other islands had never been considered part of the Carolines. Thus Kiritimati was not included in the description of the territory transferred to Germany and therefore was not affected on the part of Spain to any cessation of transfer. Theoretically Spain would then have the only jurisdiction and right to the island. Pastor Santos presented his thesis to the Spanish government in 1948. In the Council of Ministers of Spain on 12 January 1949, the Minister of Foreign Affairs declared that the proposal had passed to the first stage of public attention. The Cabinet of Diplomatic Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs circulated the following note:

The Minister of Foreign Affairs informed the Council of Ministers of the situation in which we find ourselves in view of information and public commentary in the press and because of the requests made of the Spanish administration. The Ministry recognises that it is a certain fact and historic truth due to Article 3 of the Treaty of 1 July 1899, that Spain reserved a series of rights in Micronesia and for another thing, the specifications of the territories which Spain ceded in 1899 leaves apart certain groups of islands in the same zone.

However, no Spanish government has made any attempt in this respect, and this case remains as a historical curiosity related to Kiritimati.[17][18]

The bombs were hoisted by balloon; this is the East Point balloon anchor.

Memorial tablet in Paisley remembering the people concerned in the tests

During the Cold War there was some nuclear weapons testing in the Kiritimati area. The United Kingdom conducted its first successful hydrogen bomb test at Malden Island on 15 May 1957 and used Kiritimati as the operation's main base.[19] This test did not work as planned, and the first British H-bomb was successfully detonated over the southeastern tip of Kiritimati on 8 November 1957. Subsequent tests in 1958 (Grapple Y and Z) took place above or near Kiritimati itself. The United States conducted 22 successful nuclear detonations of the island as part of Operation Dominic in 1962. Some toponyms (like Banana and Main Camp) come from the nuclear testing period, during which at times over 4,000 servicemen were present. By 1969, military interest in Kiritimati had ceased and the facilities were mostly dismantled. However, some communications, transport and logistics facilities were converted for civilian use which Kiritimati uses serve as the administrative center for the Line Islands.[1]

The United Kingdom detonated some 5 megatonnes of TNT (21 PJ) of nuclear payload near and 1.8 megatonnes of TNT (7.5 PJ) directly above Kiritimati in 1957/58, while the total yield of weapons tested by the United States in the vicinity of the island between 25 April and 11 July 1962 was 24 megatonnes of TNT (100 PJ). During the British Grapple X test, yield was stronger than expected and there was some blast damage in the settlements. Islanders were usually not evacuated during the nuclear weapons testing and data on the environmental and public health impact of these tests remains contested.

Cassidy International Airport is located just north of Banana and North East Point. It has a paved runway with a length of 6,900 feet (2,103 m) and was for some time the only airport in Kiribati to serve the Americas, via an Air Pacific (now Fiji Airways) flight to Honolulu, Hawaii. American Te Mauri Travel offers weekly charter flights from Honolulu.

Although Air Pacific hoped to commence on 25 May 2010 flying on a weekly schedule to Kiritimati Island from both Honolulu and Fiji, they cancelled reservations for those flights explaining that the runway is not suitable. Rebranded Fiji Airways has resumed services from Nadi and Honolulu to Kiritimati with one Boeing 737 service per week. A monthly air freight service is flown using a chartered Boeing 727 from Honolulu operated by Asia Pacific Airlines.[21]

The abandoned Aeon Field, constructed before the British nuclear tests, is located on the southeastern peninsula, northwest of South East Point.

In the early 1950s, Wernher von Braun proposed using this island as a launch site for manned spacecraft. There is a Japanese JAXA satellite tracking station; the abandoned Aeon Field had at one time been proposed for reuse by the Japanese for their now-canceled HOPE-X space shuttle project. Kiritimati is also located fairly close to the Sea Launch satellite launching spot at 0° N 154° W, about 370 kilometres (200 nmi) to the east in international waters.

Most of the atoll's food supplies have to be imported. Potable water can be in short supply, especially around November in La Niña years. A large and modern jetty, handling some cargo, was built by the Japanese at London. Marine fish provide a large portion of the island's nutrition, although overfishing has caused a drastic decrease in the populations of large, predatory fish over the last several years.[22]

Exports of the atoll are mainly copra (dried coconut pulp); the state-owned coconut plantation covers about 51 square kilometres (20 sq mi). In addition aquarium fish and seaweed are exported. A 1970s project to commercially breed Artemia salina brine shrimp in the salt ponds was abandoned in 1978. In recent years there have been attempts to explore the viability of live crayfish and chilled fish exports and salt production.[1]

Furthermore, there is a small amount of tourism, mainly associated with anglers interested in lagoon fishing (for bonefish in particular) or offshore fishing. Week-long ecotourism packages during which some of the normally closed areas can be visited are also available.[1] In recent years, surfers have discovered that there are good waves during the Northern Hemisphere's winter season and there are interests developing to service these recreational tourists.[23] There is some tourism-related infrastructure, such as a small hotel, rental facilities, and food services.

Despite its proximity to the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), Kiritimati is located in an equatorial dry zone and rainfall is rather low except during El Niño years; 873 mm (34.4 in) on average per year, in some years it can be as little as 177 mm (7.0 in) and much of the flats and ponds can dry up such as in late 1978. On the other hand, in some exceptionally wet years abundant downpours in March–April may result in a total annual precipitation of over 2,500 mm (98 in). Kiritimati is thus affected by regular, severe droughts. They are exacerbated by its geological structure; climatically "dry" Pacific islands are more typically located in the "desert belt" at about 30°N or S latitude. Kiritimati is a raised atoll, and although it does occasionally receive plenty of precipitation, little is retained given the porous carbonate rock, the thin soil, and the absence of dense vegetation cover on much of the island, while evaporation is constantly high.[2] Consequently, Kiritimati is one of the rather few places close to the Equator which have an effectively arid climate.[1]

The temperature is constantly between 24 °C and 30 °C (75 °F and 86 °F) with more diurnal temperature variation than seasonal variation. Easterly trade winds predominate.[1]

At the first census done in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony in 1931, only 38 inhabitants were living on Christmas Island, most of them workers of the Emmanuel Rougier Company. Just after WWII, they were 52 inhabitants (1947). After the nuclear tests, they increased to 477 (1963). They were only 367, 5 years later, but 674 in 1973, starting a demographic grow without stop. In 1978, one year before the independence, they were 1,265 people, 1,737 in 1985 census, 2,537 in 1990, 3,225 in 1995, 3,431 in 2000, 5,115 in 2005, 5,586 in 2010 and 6,456 in 2015, the highest growing population of the whole Republic.

The natural vegetation on Kiritimati consists mostly of low shrubland and grassland. What little woodland exists is mainly open coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) plantation. There are three small woods of catchbird trees (Pisonia grandis), at Southeast Point, Northwest Point, and on Motu Tabu. The latter was planted there in recent times. About 50 introduced plant species are found on Kiritimati; as most are plentiful around settlements, former military sites and roads, it seems that these only became established in the 20th century.[1]

Tree heliotrope (Heliotropium foertherianum) in typical habitat on a Hawaiian island.

Beach naupaka (Scaevola taccada) is the most common shrub on Kiritimati; beach naupaka scrub dominates the vegetation on much of the island, either as pure stands or interspersed with tree heliotrope (Heliotropium foertherianum) and bay cedar (Suriana maritima). The latter species is dominant on the drier parts of the lagoon flats where it grows up to 2 m (6.6 ft) tall. Tree heliotrope is most commonly found a short distance from the sea- or lagoon-shore. In some places near the seashore, a low vegetation dominated by Polynesian heliotrope (Heliotropium anomalum), yellow purslane (Portulaca lutea) and common purslane (P. oleracea) is found. In the south and on the sandier parts, Sida fallax, also growing up to 2 m tall, is abundant. On the southeastern peninsula, S. fallax grows more stunted, and Polynesian heliotrope, yellow and common purslane as well as the spiderling Boerhavia repens, the parasitic vine Cassytha filiformis, and Pacific Island thintail (Lepturus repens) supplement it. The last species dominates in the coastal grasslands. The wetter parts of the lagoon shore are often covered by abundant growth of shoreline purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum).[1]

Perhaps the most destructive of the recently introduced plants is sweetscent (Pluchea odorata), a camphorweed, which is considered an invasive weed as it overgrows and displaces herbs and grasses. The introduced creeper Tribulus cistoides, despite having also spread conspicuously, is considered to be more beneficial than harmful to the ecosystem, as it provides good nesting sites for some seabirds.[1]

Despite massive declines in recent decades, more sooty terns continue to nest on Kiritimati than anywhere else in the world.

The Christmas shearwater was named after Kiritimati.

Brown-morph red-footed booby. Those on Kiritimati will reuse nests for several years, unlike in most other colonies.

More than 35 bird species have been recorded from Kiritimati. As noted above, only the bokikokiko (Acrocephalus aequinoctialis), perhaps a few Rimitara lorikeets (Vini kuhlii) – if any remain at all – and the occasional eastern reef egret (Egretta sacra) make up the entire landbird fauna. About 1,000 adult bokikokikos are to be found at any date, but mainly in mixed grass/shrubland away from the settlements.[1]

On the other hand, seabirds are plentiful on Kiritimati, and make up the bulk of the breeding bird population. There are 18 species of seabirds breeding on the island, and Kiritimati is one of the most important breeding grounds anywhere in the world for several of these:[1]

Phaethontiformes

• Eastern red-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda melanorhynchus[27]) – important breeding colony; 8,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline, fewer than 3,000 in 1984

Charadriiformes

• Micronesian black noddy (Anous minutus marcusi) – 20,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline
• Little white tern (Gygis microrhyncha[28]) – 8,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline
• Central Pacific sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus oahuensis[27]) – largest breeding colony in the world; around 7,000,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline
• Spectacled tern (Onychoprion lunatus) – important breeding colony; 6,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline
• Central blue-grey noddy (Procelsterna cerulea cerulea) – important breeding colony, possibly the largest worldwide of this subspecies; 4,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline

Procellariiformes

• Polynesian storm petrel (Nesofregetta fuliginosa) – important breeding colony; 1,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline
• Phoenix petrel (Pterodroma alba) – largest breeding colony in the world; 24,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline
• Christmas shearwater (Puffinus nativitatis) – largest subpopulation worldwide on Motu Upua; 12,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline
• Wedge-tailed shearwater (Puffinus pacificus[29]) – among the very largest breeding colonies in the world; about 1,000,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline

Pelecaniformes

• Indopacific lesser frigatebird (Fregata ariel ariel) – important breeding colony; 9,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline
• Central Pacific great frigatebird (Fregata minor palmerstoni[27]) – important breeding colony; 12,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline, 6,500 afterwards
• Austropacific masked booby (Sula dactylatra personata) – important breeding colony; 3,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline
• Indopacific red-footed booby (Sula sula rubripes[27]) – 12,000 birds before the 1982/83 decline

Kiritimati's lagoon and the saltflats are a prime location for migratory birds to stop over or even stay all winter. The most commonly seen migrants are ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres), Pacific golden plover (Pluvialis fulva), bristle-thighed curlew (Numenius tahitiensis) and wandering tattler (Tringa incana); other seabirds, waders and even dabbling ducks can be encountered every now and then.[1] Around 7 October (± 5 days), some 20 million sooty shearwaters pass through here en route from the North Pacific feeding grounds to breeding sites around New Zealand.[30]

See also "Extinction" below.

The only mammals native to the region are the common Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans), and the goat. Indeed, the rat would seem to have been introduced by seafarers numerous centuries before Cook found Christmas Island in 1777 (he mentioned their existence), and the goat is extinct since 14 January 2004. Black rats (Rattus rattus) were present at some time, perhaps introduced by 19th century sailors or during the nuclear tests. They have not been able to gain a foothold between predation by cats and competitive exclusion by Polynesian rats, and no black rat population is found on Kiritimati today.[1]

Up to 2,000 feral cats can in some years be found on the island; the population became established in the 19th century. Their depredations seriously harm the birdlife. Since the late 19th century,[2] they have driven about 60% of the seabird species from the mainland completely, and during particular dry spells they will cross the mudflats and feast upon the birds on the motus. Spectacled tern chicks seem to be a favourite food of the local cat population. There are some measures being taken to ensure the cat population does not grow. That lowering the cat population by some amount would much benefit Christmas and its inhabitants is generally accepted, but the situation is too complex to simply go and eradicate them outright (which is theoretically possible; see Marion Island) – see below for details. A limited population of feral pigs exists. They were once plentiful and wreaked havoc especially on the Onychoprion and noddies. Pig hunting by locals has been encouraged, and was highly successful at limiting the pig population to a sustainable level, while providing a source of cheap protein for the islanders.[1]

Mourning gecko, a common sight all over the tropical Pacific

A strawberry land hermit crab in its shell

There are some "supertramp" lizards which have reached the island by their own means. Commonly seen are the mourning gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris) and the skink Cryptoblepharus boutonii; the four-clawed gecko (Gehyra mutilata) is less often encountered.[1]

There are some crustaceans of note to be found on Kiritimati and in the waters immediately adjacent. The amphibious coconut crab (Birgus latro) is not as common as for example on Teraina. Ghost crabs (genus Ocypode), Cardisoma carnifex and Geograpsus grayi land crabs, the strawberry land hermit crab (Coenobita perlatus), and the introduced brine shrimp Artemia salina which populates the saline ponds are also notable.[1]

The type specimen of the Tuamotu sandpiper (Prosobonia cancellata) was collected on Christmas Island in 1778, probably on 1 or 2 January, during Captain Cook's visit.[36] The expedition's naturalist William Anderson observed the bird, and it was painted by William Ellis (linked below). The single specimen was in Joseph Banks's collection at the end of the 18th century, but later was lost or destroyed. There is some taxonomic dispute regarding the Kiritimati population.[37][38] As all Prosobonia seem(ed) to be resident birds unwilling to undertake long-distance migrations, an appropriate treatment would be to consider the extinct population the nominate subspecies, as Prosobonia cancellata cancellata or Kiritimati sandpiper, distinct from the surviving Tuamotu Islands population more than 2,000 km (1,200 mi) to the southeast.

It may have been, but probably was not, limited to Kiritimati; while no remains have been found, little fieldwork has been conducted and judging from the Tuamotu sandpiper's habits, almost all Line Islands would have offered suitable habitat. The Kiritimati population of P. cancellata disappeared in the earlier part of the 19th century or so, almost certainly due to predation by introduced mammals. While Prosobonia generally manage to hold their own against Polynesian rats, they are highly vulnerable to the black rat and feral cats.[39] Given the uncertainties surrounding the introduction date and maximum population of the former, the cats seem to be the main culprits in the Kiritimati sandpiper's extinction.

The buff-banded rail (Gallirallus philippensis) might once have had a relative on Kiritimati.

Given that the island was apparently settled to some extent in prehistoric times, it may already have lost bird species then. The geological data indicates that Kiritimati is quite old, was never completely underwater in the Holocene at least, and thus it might have once harboured highly distinct wetland birds. The limited overall habitat diversity on Kiritimati nonetheless limits the range of such hypothetical taxa, as does biogeography due to its remote location. At least one, possibly several Gallirallus and/or Porzana rails make the most likely candidates, given their former presence in the region and that conditions on Kiritimati would seem well suited. Perhaps a Todiramphus kingfisher was also present; such a bird would probably have belonged to the sacred kingfisher (T. sanctus) group as that species today occurs as a vagrant in Micronesia, and related forms are resident in southeastern Polynesia. These birds would have fallen victim to the Polynesian rat and, in the case of the rails which would have almost certainly been flightless, hunting by natives.[35]