Hikueru, Tiveru, or Te Kārena, is one of the Central

Tuamotu The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (french: Îles Tuamotu, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extendin ...

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

s. The closest land to Hikueru is

Tekokota Tekokota is one of the Central Tuamotu atolls, located close to the geographic center of the archipelago. Tekokota Atoll is one of the smallest atolls of the Tuamotus. Its islands have a total land mass of only . Tekokota's shape is roughly ova ...

Atoll, located 22 km to the north. Hikueru Atoll's shape is roughly

oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one ...

and it is 15 km in length and 9.5 km in width. It covers a land area of 8 km² and a lagoon area of 79 km². There are many motu on its reef with a combined

land area This is a list of the world's countries and their dependent territories by land, water and total area, ranked by total area. Entries in this list include, but are not limited to, those in the ISO 3166-1 standard, which includes sovereign ...

of about 25 km². Its

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...

is deep, with numerous coral heads. It has no pass to enter it. At the 2012 census, the population of the commune of Hikueru was 241, of which 150 on Hikueru proper, and 91 on the atoll of Marokau. Its most important village is Tupapati, located on the atoll Hikueru. There is a territorial airport on Hikueru which was opened in 2000. Hikueru was the setting for

Armstrong Sperry Armstrong Wells Sperry (November 7, 1897 – April 26, 1976) was an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. His books include historical fiction and biography, often set on sailing ships, and stories of boys from Polynesia, Asi ...

's novel '' Call It Courage'', which won the Newbery Medal in 1940.

Demographics

History

Hikueru Atoll was discovered by Bougainville in 1768. Spanish navigator

Domingo de Boenechea Domingo Bernardo de Bonechea Andonaegui ( eu, Domingo Bonetxea Andonaegi), born on September 21, 1713, in Getaria, Basque Country, Spain, died in Tahiti on January 26, 1775, was a captain in the Spanish Royal Navy and an explorer for the Spanish ...

sighted Hikueru in 1774 on his ship the ''Aguila''. He named this atoll ''"San Juan"''. Like Marokau, Hikueru used to be a large natural

pearl oyster ''Pinctada'' is a genus of saltwater oysters, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Pteriidae. These pearl oysters have a strong inner shell layer composed of nacre, also known as "mother of pearl". Pearl oysters are not closely related to e ...

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

. The 1903 cyclone wrought considerable damage, however, and caused the death of 377 people, including 261 from the island of Hao. In his " South Sea Tales",

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

gives a vivid description of this disastrous

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

. In the 1988

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

, only 123 inhabitants were found to be still living on Hikueru. This was up to 268 by 2007. The population of this island makes a living by collecting

copra Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from co ...

. Up to the 1970s, it was one of the main

deep-sea diving Standard diving dress, also known as hard-hat or copper hat equipment, deep sea diving suit or heavy gear, is a type of diving suit that was formerly used for all relatively deep underwater work that required more than breath-hold duration, which ...

centres in the Tuamotu atolls.UM - Hikueru

Transports

The atoll is served by the Hikueru Airport .

References

External links

Atoll list (in French)
Communes of French Polynesia Atolls of the Tuamotus {{FrenchPolynesia-geo-stub