The Shepherd Islands (coordinates ) are a group of islands lying between the larger islands of Epi and

Éfaté Efate (french: Éfaté) is an island in the Pacific Ocean which is part of the Shefa Province in Vanuatu. It is also known as Île Vate. Geography It is the most populous (approx. 66,000) island in Vanuatu. Efate's land area of makes it Vanua ...

, in the Shefa province of

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of ...

. The aggregate land area is . They were named by

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

after

Anthony Shepherd Anthony Shepherd (c. 1721-1796) was a British astronomer. He was the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, Plumian Professor at the University of Cambridge between 1760 and 1796. He published astronomical tables, and was a ...

, a British astronomer and friend of Cook. From north to south, the principal islands are:

Laika Laika (russian: link=no, Лайка; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 space ...

Tongoa Tongoa Island is an inhabited island in Shefa Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. Geography Tongoa is the largest island of Shepherd Islands archipelago. The island is heavily vegetated and shows geothermal activity. Tongoa is of recent ...

(Kuwaé),

Buninga Buninga Island is an inhabited island in Shefa Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. The island is a part of Shepherd Islands The Shepherd Islands (coordinates ) are a group of islands lying between the larger islands of Epi and Éfaté, in ...

(Mbining),

Ewose Ewose is a small uninhabited island in the Shefa Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. Geography The island of Ewose lies off the south-west coast of Tongoa Island and is a part of Shepherd Islands archipelago. The island spans by . The ter ...

, Falea,

Tongariki Tongariki Island is an inhabited island in Shefa Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. The island is a part of Shepherd Islands archipelago. Geography Tongariki is a small island of volcanic origin located in the eastern Shepherd Islands, hav ...

(Atong), Émaé (Mai),

Makura Makura, locally known as Makira, is a small inhabited island in Shefa Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. Makura is a part of the Shepherds Islands archipelago. Geography The estimated terrain elevation above the sea level is some 132 met ...

(Emwae), Mataso (Matah), and

Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

(Étarik). Émaé and Tongoa are the largest islands in the group. The region includes two submarine volcanoes, Kuwae and Makura. The islands are principally in the outlines of the calderas of these volcanoes. The highest of the islands is Émaé, at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance ( height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. Th ...

, Tongariki is also above .

Population and languages

At the 2009 census the population numbered 3634. The Shepherd Islands are quite densely populated. There is little economic activity although fishing is very good. Many people move to Port Vila to find work. Most of the islands are inhabited by

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, V ...

ns like most of Vanuatu, but Émaé and

are Polynesian outliers. Other than Emae, on which is spoken a Futunic language, there are, according to ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...

'', two languages spoken on the other islands: North Éfaté, spoken on Tongoa; and Namakura, spoken on Mataso, Makura, Tongoa, and Tongariki. These are all also spoken on the island of Éfaté, and are closely related to one another and the other languages of Éfaté and central Vanuatu in the language group

Central Vanuatu languages The Central Vanuatu languages form a linkage of Southern Oceanic languages spoken in central Vanuatu. Languages Clark (2009) Clark (2009) provides the following classification of the Central Vanuatu languages, divided into geographic areas. Outl ...

References

Islands of Vanuatu Shefa Province Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean {{Vanuatu-geo-stub