Ouvéa Island or Uvea Island is one of the

Loyalty Islands Loyalty Islands Province (, ) is one of the three top-level administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia. It encompasses the Loyalty Islands () archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located northeast of the New Caledonian mainland of Grande Terre. ...

, in the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, an overseas territory of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The island is part of the commune (municipality) of

Ouvéa Ouvéa () or Uvea is a commune in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The settlement of Fayaoué , on Ouvéa Island, is the administrative centre of the commune. Geography Ouv ...

, in the

Loyalty Islands Province Loyalty Islands Province (, ) is one of the three top-level administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia. It encompasses the Loyalty Islands () archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located northeast of the New Caledonian mainland of Grande Terre. ...

of New Caledonia.

Geography

The crescent-shaped island, which belongs to a larger

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

, is long and wide. It lies north east of ''Grande Terre'', New Caledonia's mainland.

History

Ouvéa is a

Polynesian outlier Polynesian outliers are a number of culturally Polynesian societies that geographically lie outside the main region of Polynesian influence, known as the Polynesian Triangle; instead, Polynesian outliers are scattered in the two other Pacific su ...

originally settled by

Polynesian navigators Polynesian is the adjectival form of Polynesia. It may refer to: * Polynesians, an ethnic group * Polynesian culture, the culture of the indigenous peoples of Polynesia * Polynesian mythology, the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia * Polyn ...

who named it for their home island, Uvea Island. Some of their descendants still speak the

West Uvean language West Uvean (also Uvean or Faga Ouvéa; ''Fagauvea'' in the vernacular) is a Polynesian outlier language spoken on the island of Ouvéa, in the Loyalty island group of New Caledonia, and in the capital of Nouméa. West Uvean has been studied b ...

Demographics

Ouvéa is home to around 3,000 people who are organized into tribes divided into Polynesians and Melanesians by ethnic descent. The

Iaai language Iaai (Iaai pronunciation: ; ) is a language of Ouvéa Island (New Caledonia). It shares the island of Ouvéa with West Uvean, Fagauvea, a Polynesian outlier language. Iaai is the sixth-most-spoken language of New Caledonia, with 4078 speakers a ...

is spoken on the island.

Flora and fauna

Ouvéa has rich marine resources and is home to many sea turtles, species of fish, coral as well as a native parrot, the

Uvea parakeet The Ouvea parakeet (''Eunymphicus uvaeensis'') or Uvea parakeet, is a species of parrot in the genus ''Eunymphicus'', in the family Psittaculidae. It is endemic to the island of Uvea in the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia. The species was once co ...

, that can only be found on the island of Ouvéa. A large

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

called the

coconut crab The coconut crab (''Birgus latro'') is a terrestrial species of giant hermit crab, and is also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest terrestrial arthropod known, with a weight up to . The distance from the tip of one leg to ...

or ' can also be found on the islands. The large blue crabs live in palm tree plantations and can grow to several kilos in size. They are a land based species and do not venture into the ocean. Ouvéa is also home to trophy

bonefish The bonefish (''Albula vulpes'') is the type species of the Bonefishes, bonefish family (Albulidae), the only family in order Albuliformes. Taxonomy Bonefish were once believed to be a single species with a global distribution, however 9 differ ...

that inhabit the nutrient rich "flats" of the atoll.

References

Islands of New Caledonia Loyalty Islands {{NewCaledonia-geo-stub