Bokak Atoll (
Marshallese: or , ) or Taongi Atoll is an uninhabited
coral atoll
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class (biology), class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important C ...
in the
Ratak Chain of the
Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...
, in the North
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. Due to its relative isolation from the main islands in the group, Bokak's flora and fauna has been able to exist in a pristine condition.
Geography
It is located north of
Majuro Atoll, the capital of the Marshall Islands, and northeast of
Bikar Atoll
Bikar Atoll ( Marshallese: , ) is an uninhabited atoll in the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. It is one of the smallest atolls in the Marshalls. Due to its relative isolation from the main islands in the group, Bikar's flora and fauna has bee ...
, the closest atoll, making it the most northerly and most isolated atoll of the country.
Wake Island
Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of To ...
is north-northwest. The land area is , and the
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'') a ...
measures . It consists of 36 islets. The total area is (including reef flat).
Physical features
![Bokak Atoll](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Bokak_Atoll.png)
The atoll is roughly crescent-shaped, measuring about by , and oriented in a north–south direction. The atoll reef is unbroken except for a wide channel in the west. Ten islets lie on the eastern and southeastern reef. The more important named islets, from north to south, are North Island, Kamwome, Bwdije, Sibylla, Bokak, and Bwokwla. Sibylla is the largest, measuring approximately in length and up to in width. Kamwome Islet to the north-east of Sibylla is the second largest, while Bokak (Taongi), after which the atoll is named, lies to the south of Sibylla.
[ UNEP 2008 World Database on Protected Areas]
Based on the results of drilling operations on
Enewetak
Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...
(Eniwetok) Atoll, in the nearby
Ralik Chain
The Ralik Chain ( Marshallese: , ) is a chain of islands within the island nation of the Marshall Islands. Ralik means "sunset". It is west of the Ratak Chain. In 1999 the total population of the Ralik islands was 19,915. Christopher Loeak, who b ...
of the Marshall Islands, Bokak may include as much as of reef material atop a
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
rock base. As most local coral growth stops at about below the ocean surface, such a massive stony coral base suggests a gradual
isostatic subsidence of the underlying extinct volcano, which itself rises from the surrounding ocean floor. Shallow water fossils taken from just above Enewetak's basalt base are dated to about 55
mya
Mya may refer to:
Brands and product names
* Mya (program), an intelligent personal assistant created by Motorola
* Mya (TV channel), an Italian Television channel
* Midwest Young Artists, a comprehensive youth music program
Codes
* Burmese ...
.
![Taongi Beach & Lagoon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Taongi_Beach_%26_Lagoon.jpg)
High boulder and sand ridges indicate a history of severe storms and are a feature of the islets. Inland on the wider islets are sand and rubble flats, while back from the lagoon sides are low sand and gravel ridges. Soils are mostly very immature, a mixture of coarser coral sand and gravel of various textures with very little humus accumulation. The lagoon is shallow, probably not exceeding depth, and has many coral heads and patch reefs, some reaching the surface.
The lagoon water level is up to higher than the surrounding ocean due to an influx of wind-driven waters over the windward ocean reef and the presence of only one narrow reef passage on the leeward side. Water cascades over the coral-covered rim and flats of the sloping leeward reef. A massive algal ridge lines the outer edge of the windward reef, while the south and west reefs are coral-covered narrow flats where landings can be made in quiet weather. A very small algal rim, high, on lagoon shores of the westernmost islets, on east-facing lagoon reef-fronts and on the windward edges of coral patches in the lagoon, may be a feature unique to Taongi. This rim is maintained by the constant flow of water over the reef flat.
Climate
Bokak is the driest of the Marshall Islands atolls, having a semi-arid character. Mean annual temperature is approximately . Mean annual rainfall is less than , and falls primarily during the late summer. Prevailing winds are north to north-easterlies.
Vegetation
![Taongi Lagoon Shore](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Taongi_Lagoon_Shore.jpg)
Bokak supports just nine plant species. All are native to the Marshall Islands and entirely undisturbed by
introduced species
An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...
. A combination of insufficient rainfall, excellent drainage, and high temperatures lead to an
arid
A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ar ...
environment in which a freshwater
Ghyben-Herzberg lens
In hydrology, a lens, also called freshwater lens or Ghyben-Herzberg lens, is a convex-shaped layer of fresh groundwater that floats above the denser saltwater and is usually found on small coral or limestone islands and atolls. This aquifer of f ...
cannot form, and
coconut palm is unable to grow. The most common formation is a low, sparse scrub forest of tree heliotrope (''
Heliotropium foertherianum
''Heliotropium arboreum'' is a species of flowering plant in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It is native to tropical Asia including southern China, Madagascar, northern Australia, and most of the atolls and high islands of Micronesia and Polyn ...
''), tall, with occasional taller trees. The
understory typically comprises beach maupaka (''
Scaevola taccada
''Scaevola taccada'', also known as beach cabbage, sea lettuce, or beach naupaka, is a flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae found in coastal locations in the tropical areas of the Indo-Pacific. It is a common beach shrub throughout the Arab ...
''), or sparse endemic
bunchgrass
Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...
, ihi (''
Portulaca molokiniensis
''Portulaca molokiniensis'', known also as 'ihi, is a succulent plant endemic to Hawaii. This plant is federally listed as an endangered species. It has small yellow flowers and when grown from seed may produce a caudex. This plant is easy to pro ...
''), ilima (''
Sida fallax''), or alena (''
Boerhavia herbstii
''Boerhavia'' is a genus of over 100 species in the Nyctaginaceae family. The genus was named for Herman Boerhaave, a Dutch botanist, and the genus name is frequently misspelled "''Boerhaavia''". Common names include spiderlings and hogweeds.
T ...
''), the latter being more abundant on broken coral gravel. A small stand of ''
Pisonia grandis'' is found on Kamwome Islet and in another very small stand on Sibylla.
Pure stands of very dense beach naupaka shrubland, sometimes with tree heliotrope, are predominant and cover 50-75% of southern, and nearly 100% of northeastern Sibylla. ''Heliotropium'', ''Scaevola'', and ''Sida'' dominated shrublands and the sandy bunchgrass savanna (''
Lepturus'' spp.) represent the finest examples of such vegetation in the Marshalls and probably the entire Pacific region.
The aquatic vegetation of the shallow edges of the lagoon consists of sparse
coralline algae
Coralline algae are red algae in the order Corallinales. They are characterized by a thallus that is hard because of calcareous deposits contained within the cell walls. The colors of these algae are most typically pink, or some other shade of re ...
, encrusting fragments of coral, shell etc., and patches of
green seaweed.
Fauna
![Taongi Frigatebird](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Taongi_Frigatebird.jpg)
The atoll supports a large population of sea and shorebirds, with up to 26 species present. Species breeding during 1988 included the
brown booby
The brown booby (''Sula leucogaster'') is a large seabird of the booby family Sulidae, of which it is perhaps the most common and widespread species. It has a pantropical range, which overlaps with that of other booby species. The gregarious brow ...
,
red-footed booby
The red-footed booby (''Sula sula'') is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. Adults always have red feet, but the colour of the plumage varies. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings. They are f ...
,
great frigatebird
The great frigatebird (''Fregata minor'') is a large seabird in the frigatebird family. There are major nesting populations in the tropical Pacific (including the Galapagos Islands) and Indian Oceans, as well as a tiny population in the South At ...
,
red-tailed tropicbird
The red-tailed tropicbird (''Phaethon rubricauda'') is a seabird native to tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. One of three closely related species of tropicbird (Phaethontidae), it was described by Pieter Boddaert in 1783. Superfic ...
,
sooty tern
The sooty tern (''Onychoprion fuscatus'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans, returning to land only to breed on islands throughout the equatorial zone.
Taxonomy
The sooty tern was described by Carl Linnaeu ...
,
white tern,
brown noddy, and possibly the
reef heron. Migratory birds present included the
bristle-thighed curlew
The bristle-thighed curlew (''Numenius tahitiensis'') is a medium-sized shorebird that breeds in Alaska and winters on tropical Pacific islands.
It is known in Mangareva as ''kivi'' or ''kivikivi'' and in Rakahanga as ''kihi''; it is said to be ...
,
turnstone
Turnstones are two bird species that comprise the genus ''Arenaria'' in the family Scolopacidae. They are closely related to calidrid sandpipers and might be considered members of the tribe Calidriini.
The genus ''Arenaria'' was introduced by t ...
,
wandering tattler
The wandering tattler (''Tringa incana''; formerly ''Heteroscelus incanus'': Pereira & Baker, 2005; Banks ''et al.'', 2006), is a medium-sized wading bird. It is similar in appearance to the closely related gray-tailed tattler, ''T. brevipes''. ...
,
golden plover
'' Pluvialis '' is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds comprising four species that breed in the temperate or Arctic Northern Hemisphere.
In breeding plumage, they all have largely black underparts, and golden or silvery upperparts. Th ...
, and the
sanderling. The densest bird populations are on three islets to the north of Sibylla: North (Kita), Kamwome and an unnamed islet. Bokak is the only known breeding ground of
Christmas shearwater
The Christmas shearwater or ''aoū'' (''Puffinus nativitatis'') is a medium-sized shearwater of the tropical Central Pacific. It is a poorly known species due to its remote nesting habits, and it has not been extensively studied at sea either.S ...
and possibly Bulwer's petrel.
![Taongi Red Footed Booby](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Taongi_Red_Footed_Booby.jpg)
Terrestrial species includes the Polynesian rat on Sibylla. The more aggressive black rat appears to be absent, despite wrecked
fishing vessels
A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing.
The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was es ...
on the eastern and north eastern reefs. The
snake-eyed skink
''Ablepharus'' is a genus of skinks that contains the common snake-eyed skinks. Both their scientific and common names refer to the fact that their eyelids have fused to a translucent capsule; as in snakes, they thus are physically incapable of b ...
and
large hermit crabs are common.
![Taongi Grey Reef Shark](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Taongi_Grey_Reef_Shark.jpg)
In general, the aquatic fauna population is healthy, but of low diversity, possibly due to the atoll's isolation. Researchers have not seen any marine turtles, but Polynesian custom regarding harvesting assumed their presence. Examples of the giant clam family
Tridacnidae are very abundant, except for the largest giant clam
T. gigas. Smaller bivalves were present, but few Mollusks. The reef fish are primarily
emperor breams,
parrotfish
Parrotfishes are a group of about 90 fish species regarded as a Family (biology), family (Scaridae), or a subfamily (Scarinae) of the wrasses. With about 95 species, this group's largest species richness is in the Indo-Pacific. They are found ...
, and
red snappers. Also present are
moray eel and
grey reef shark
The grey reef shark (''Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos'', sometimes misspelled ''amblyrhynchus'' or ''amblyrhinchos'') is a species of requiem shark, in the family (biology), family Requiem shark, Carcharhinidae. One of the most common reef sharks in t ...
. Approximately 100
stony coral species and two
soft coral
Alcyonacea, or soft corals, are an order of corals. In addition to the fleshy soft corals, the order Alcyonacea now contains all species previously known as "gorgonian corals", that produce a more or less hard skeleton, though quite different f ...
species are present.
History
Prehistory
Although humans migrated to the Marshall Islands about 2000 years ago, there appear to be no traditional Marshallese artifacts present that would indicate any long term settlement. The harsh, desiccated climate, lack of potable water, and poverty of the soils indicate that the atoll will probably remain uninhabited. The atoll has traditionally been used for hunting and gathering, particularly seabirds, by inhabitants of other atolls in the northern Ratak chain.
Along with the other uninhabited northern Ratak atolls of
Bikar and
Toke, Bokak was traditionally the hereditary property of the
Iroji Lablab (chiefs) of the
Ratak
The Ratak Chain ( Marshallese: , ) is a chain of islands within the island nation of the Marshall Islands. Ratak means "sunrise". It lies to the east of the country's other island chain, the Ralik Chain. In 1999 the total population of the Rata ...
atoll chain. The exploitation of abundant sea turtles, birds, and eggs was regulated by custom, and overseen by the Iroji.
[ Atoll Research Bulletin No. 11]
16th to 19th Century
The first European to record sighting Bokak was
Toribio Alonso de Salazar
Toribio Alonso de Salazar, (died 5 September 1526) born in Biscay, was a Spanish navigator of Basques, Basque origin, who was the first Westerner to arrive on the Marshall Islands on August 21, 1526.
De Salazar was part of the friar, Fray García ...
, a Spanish explorer, on August 22, 1526, who commanded
Loaisa expedition after the death of Loaisa and
Elcano. It was charted as ''San Bartolome''. It was explored by Spanish naval officer Fernando Quintano in 1795. A number of other Western ships recorded landfall on or passage by Bokak over the following three hundred years, but no attempt at settlement or establishment of food animals was noted, likely due to the arid conditions, and more fertile atolls nearby.
The Marshall Islands were added to the protectorate of
German New Guinea in 1906. Using the justification that uninhabited atolls were unclaimed, the Germans seized Bokak as government property, despite the protests of the local chiefs (Iroji Lablab). As Japan's economic vigor expanded under the
Meiji Emperor, the German administration noted Marshallese complaints of Japanese bird poaching, more from the view of protecting German sovereignty, rather than the interests of the islanders.
20th century to present
In 1914, the
Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...
occupied the Marshall Islands, and transferred German government properties to their own, including Bokak. Like the Germans before them, the Japanese colonial administration did not attempt to exploit the atoll, and the Northern Radak Marshallese continued to hunt and fish unmolested.
As a part of the 1940s Japanese militarization of the Marshall Islands, a small seaplane and communication outpost was established on Sibylla Island. During the early stages of the World War II, USN submarines operating in the area would periodically note patrols by Japanese aircraft. In March, 1943, the 20 man garrison was removed to
Wake Island
Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of To ...
because of the lack of food and their general inability to sustain themselves on Bokak. Air elements of the
USAAF,
USN
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
, and
USMC bombed the (abandoned) facility on April 23, 1944. The base became part of the vast US
Naval Base Marshall Islands.
The Marshall Islands as a whole were transferred to American administration in the wake of battles with Japanese forces in 1944. In September, 1945, as a part of the post-war repatriation of Japanese from their former Pacific possessions, a landing party was dispatched on
LCI(L) 601 from Kwajalein to Bokak Atoll, and in conjunction with a
PBM Mariner searched for potential survivors. Two days of search failed to turn up any survivors, human remains, or graves.
![Taongi IJN Landing Craft](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Taongi_IJN_Landing_Craft.jpg)
While en route from the US to Asia in April, 1953,
LST 1138, later commissioned as , dropped anchor at Bokak to search for rumored Japanese stragglers. The landing party noted the remains of the wartime outpost, but found no signs of any current occupants.
![Taongi test site master plan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Taongi_test_site_master_plan.jpg)
In 1954, the experience of large scale fallout from the
Castle Bravo nuclear test on
Bikini Atoll led to a pre-planned aerial survey of atolls adjacent to the subsequent
Castle Romeo
Castle Romeo was the code name given to one of the tests in the Operation Castle series of U.S. nuclear tests. It was the first test of the TX-17 thermonuclear weapon, the first deployed thermonuclear bomb.
It was detonated on March 26, 1954, a ...
test, timed at one and four hours after the shot. The aircraft were equipped with gamma radiation detectors designed to measure ground contamination from altitudes of . An overflight of Sibylla Island measured 1.0
mrem
The roentgen equivalent man (rem) is a CGS unit of equivalent dose, effective dose, and committed dose, which are dose measures used to estimate potential health effects of low levels of ionizing radiation on the human body.
Quantities measur ...
/hr (10
μGy) an hour after the shot, dropping to 0.4 mrem/hr (4 μGy) three hours later. In 1957, Bokak was surveyed as a site for nuclear weapons testing as a part of
Operation Hardtack, but due to the number of improvements required to develop it, was passed over in favor of reusing the Bikini, Enewetak, and
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
test sites. The atoll came under renewed consideration for use during
Operation Dominic
Operation Dominic was a series of 31 nuclear test explosions with a total yield conducted in 1962 by the United States in the Pacific. This test series was scheduled quickly, in order to respond in kind to the Soviet resumption of testing af ...
, but by that time the potential for political fallout from nuclear testing within a United Nations Trust Territory was deemed too great.
The atoll played a part in the disappearance of several men from
Maui
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
. On February 11, 1979, Scott Moorman and four companions set sail from
Hana
Hana or HANA may refer to:
Places Europe
* Haná, an ethnic region in Moravia, Czech Republic
* Traianoupoli, Greece, called Hana during the Ottoman period
* Hana, Norway, a borough in the city of Sandnes, Norway
West Asia
* Hana, Iran, a city ...
harbor in a 17-foot
Boston Whaler, and went missing in subsequent high seas. The boat and buried remains of Moorman were discovered away on Bokak in 1988.
![V73T Ham Shack](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/V73T_Ham_Shack.jpg)
In 1988, the US firm Admiralty Pacific proposed to use the Bokak lagoon as a dump for millions of tons of solid waste. The proposal involved shipping 3.5 million tons of waste the first year and up to 25 million tons and 30 ships after five years.
In August, 2003, two ham radio enthusiasts from Texas camped on Sibylla Island for 76 hours to inaugurate the first Taongi ham station, call sign V73T, and assigned the IOTA reference number OC-263. The station transmitted from coordinates .
The
Dominion of Melchizedek
The Dominion of Melchizedek (DoM) is a micronation known for facilitating large scale banking fraud in many parts of the world during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Origin and status
The Dominion of Melchizedek was unilaterally declared in 1990 by ...
, an unrecognized
micronation, claims sovereignty over Bokak, based on a 45-year lease allegedly granted by the Iroji Lablab.
[ Cyberfraud: The fictitious "Dominion of Melchizedek] The rights conveyed to DOM cannot be greater than the traditional leader possessed themself. As such they are still subject to the Government of the Marshall Islands and are not independent.
Currently, historic remains include an abandoned camp/homestead, several wrecked ships and the remnant of the former World War Two Japanese communication outpost.
See also
*
Desert island
A desert island, deserted island, or uninhabited island, is an island, islet or atoll that is not permanently populated by humans. Uninhabited islands are often depicted in films or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereot ...
*
List of islands
This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water
A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another plane ...
Footnotes
References
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External links
UNEP Protected Areas Program ProfileAtoll Research Bulletin Archive Home PageU.S. Dept. of Energy OPENnet advanced search page (search full text field on string "Taongi").
Additional papersfro
DG406, Theories of Governance Pacific Studies Program, PIAS-DG, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji
Phantoms, A True StoryA Taongi visitor's photolog
{{Authority control
Atolls of the Marshall Islands
Ratak Chain
Uninhabited islands of the Marshall Islands