Ducie Island
Encyclopedia
Ducie Island is an uninhabited atoll
in the Pitcairn Islands
. It lies 290 miles (466.7 km) east of Pitcairn and has a total area of 1.5 square miles (4 km²), which includes the lagoon. It is 1.5 miles (2 km) long, measured northeast to southwest, and about 1 miles (1.6 km) wide. The island is composed of four islets: Acadia, Pandora, Westward and Edwards.
Despite its sparse vegetation, the atoll is known as the breeding ground of a number of bird species. More than 90% of the world population of Murphy's Petrel
nests on Ducie, while pairs of Red-tailed Tropicbird
s and Fairy Tern
s make around 1% of the world population for each species.
Ducie was first discovered in 1606 by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós
, who named it Luna Puesta, and rediscovered by Edward Edwards, captain of , who was sent in 1790 to capture the mutineers of . He named the island Ducie in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie
. In 1867 it was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act
, but the United Kingdom annexed it on 19 December 1902 as part of the Pitcairn Islands. Due to its inaccessibility and the distance from Pitcairn Island, Ducie is rarely visited today.
on 26 January 1606, during an expedition that began in Callao
, Peru. Supported by Pope Clement VIII
and Philip III of Spain
, Queirós was given the command of the San Pedro, San Pablo and Zabra. The fleet was nicknamed Los Tres Reys Magos ("The Three Wise Men"). The objective of the expedition was to take soldiers, friars and provisions to establish a colony in the Santa Cruz Islands
. Ducie Island was the first of eighteen discoveries on the trip. Queirós named the island Luna Puesta (roughly, "moon that has set"). On the same day, he also sighted two more islands, one that he named San Juan Bautista ("St. John the Baptist"), and the other La Encarnación ("the Incarnation"). It is unclear which one was Henderson island and which one Pitcairn. The confusion was later compounded when a chart produced by Admiral José de Espinosa marked Ducie as La Encarnación, rather than as Luna Puesta.
The island was rediscovered and named Ducie Island on 16 March 1791 by Captain Edward Edwards, of , who had been despatched from Britain in 1790 to arrest the Bounty mutineers
. Edwards named it in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie
, under whom he had served earlier in his career. HMS Pandora turned northwards from Ducie and, because of this change of course, Edwards did not sight the other islands of the group. If HMS Pandora had maintained its course, it would eventually have reached Pitcairn Island and found the Bounty mutineers.
Some of the survivors of the wreck of the whaleship Essex, which had been attacked and sunk by a whale in November 1820, mistakenly believed that they had reached Ducie after a month at sea in two whaleboats. In fact they had reached Henderson Island
. The first recorded landing on Ducie was made in the same year by Captain Thomas Raine of the Surrey, who was searching for the survivors of the Essex. The first comprehensive description of the island was written by Frederick William Beechey
, who arrived in during November 1825. Beechey's expedition did not land in the atoll, but members of the crew navigated around it in small boats. Based on Beechey's survey, the first Admiralty chart of the island was published in 1826. For nearly a hundred years it was the only available map of the island.
On 5 June 1881 the mail ship Acadia ran aground on the island while returning from San Francisco, Peru after unloading its cargo. On the way to Queenstown
or Falmouth for new orders, Master Stephen George calculated a route passing 15 to 20 mi (24.1 to 32.2 km) to the east of Ducie. George left the first mate in command at 6 am. Half an hour later, the first mate saw a white line, which he disregarded on the assumption that it was phosphorescence in the water. Later, realising that it was land, he manoeuvred to avoid running aground, but failed. The look-out excused himself by saying that he thought that the white land was a cloud. The crew made several unsuccessful attempts to re-float the ship, after which the master sailed one of the ship's boats to Pitcairn Island. He was assisted there by the local inhabitants and returned aboard the Edward O'Brien, an American boat, to rescue the rest of the crew. The incident was later investigated in a court in Liverpool, where the ultimate cause of the wreck was left undetermined, though possible causes included a calculation error by the master or an unknown current that carried the ship to the island. The court declared the master not guilty of any wrongdoing. A stone marker with a memorial inscription is located at the landing point on Acadia Islet. It was unveiled to commemorate the recovery of the anchor in 1990. The wreck lies offshore from the memorial stone in about 10 metres of water.
In 1969 the atoll was proposed as an "Island for Science", and was later recommended as a Ramsar Site
. Major expeditions that came to the island to record its biota include the Whitney South Seas Expedition
in 1922, the National Geographic Society-Oceanic Institute Expedition to Southeast Oceania of 1970–71 and the Smithsonian expedition of 1975. More recent expeditions include a new expedition by the Smithsonian in 1987, one by Raleigh International
in the same year, the Sir Peter Scott Commemorative Expedition of 1990–91 and the Pitcairn Scientific Expedition of 1991–92. Because of its inaccessibility, Ducie is rarely approached, but cruise ships make one or two landings per year. In addition, unrecorded visits are known to be made by freighters and tankers that dump residues on the island or in the nearby waters.
, which established that an uninhabited territory with guano
deposits could be claimed as a US possession, so long as it was unclaimed by any other country. Despite claims on several other territories, based on various documents such as the Guano Islands Act, neither the United States nor the United Kingdom recognised the sovereignty claimed by each other. Neither of the two considered that the mere discovery of an island was sufficient to claim sovereignty over it, and often a formal act of possession was considered the proper procedure to claim rights over a territory. Ultimately, the United States did not assert its sovereignty over most of its claimed territories.
Under the 1893 Pacific Order in Council, Pitcairn Island was governed by the High Commissioner of the British Western Pacific Territories
in Fiji. On 19 December 1902, commissioned by R. T. Simmons, the British Consul in Tahiti
, Captain G. F. Jones and a group of Pitcairners visited the nearby islands and annexed them to the United Kingdom. In 1903 Ducie was annexed by the same procedure and placed under the authority of the Western Pacific High Commissioner. R. T. Simmons stated in a dispatch to the Foreign Office
that James Russell McCoy
had assured him that the islands had always been considered as dependencies of Pitcairn, and that he and other Pitcairners had frequently visited them in the past. This claim is contested by Donald McLoughlin on grounds of the distance between Pitcairn Island and Ducie Island and the lack of a suitable boat to navigate the distance between the two, casting doubt on whether they had ever visited Ducie.
On 4 August 1937 Captain J. W. Rivers-Carnac, commander of HMS Leander
, reaffirmed British sovereignty over Ducie by hoisting the Union Flag
and placing boards proclaiming the island to be the property of King George VI
. Ducie was one of several islands thought valuable for potential seaplane
bases, though they did not materialise. In 1953 the Pacific Order in Council ceased to have effect and the British Counsul of Tahiti was appointed Governor of the Pitcairn Islands, which became a separate British colony. A new constitution for the Pitcairn Islands was enacted on 10 February 2010, establishing that Ducie and the rest of the islands are ruled by a governor designated by the British monarch, presently Elizabeth II. The governor has a duty to enforce the provisions of the constitution.
Ducie is located 620 miles (997.8 km) west of the edge of the Easter Plate
. It was formed approximately 8 million years ago, after Oeno Island
was formed by a hotspot
that later caused a magma leak generated in the Oeno lineation. The leak spread over fracture zone
FZ2, which was formed by the third movement of the Pacific Plate
. The atoll is part of the Oeno-Henderson-Ducie-Crough seamount
, speculated to be part of the southern Tuamotus
.
The atoll consists of four islets: Acadia, Pandora, Westward and Edwards. The last three of these can be accessed on foot from Acadia at low tide. The islets were named by Harald Rehder and John Randall, who visited the atoll during an expedition by the Smithsonian Institution
in 1975.
The atoll has a central lagoon, accessible by boat only by way of a channel 100 yards (91.4 m) wide located in the southwest, between Pandora and Westward Islets. It has a maximum depth of 52 feet (15.8 m) and its bottom consists of sand and coral. Whirlpools in the lagoon are common, caused by tunnels that drain the water from the lagoon into the ocean.
, but Westward Islet is not. Pemphis acidula has also been recorded on Ducie; specimens were found during an expedition in 1991. During the expedition of Hugh Cuming
in 1827 and the 1922 Whitney South Sea Expedition, Lepturus
grass was found on Acadia Islet. However, it disappeared when storm waves deforested the island some time before the Smithsonian expedition of 1975. Thus H. foertherianum now dominates the vegetation of the islets. Additionally, there are a number of species of coralline algae
, including Porolithon onkodes, Porolithon gardineri, and Caulerpa racemosa
. The flora of the lagoon consists mainly of dead coral, presumed to have been killed by influxes of cold water. Sparse living coral still can be found; the dominant species is Montipora bilaminata (family Acroporidae
).
, Red-tailed Tropicbird
, Fairy Tern
, Great Frigatebird
, Bristle-thighed Curlew
, Masked Booby
and Red-footed Booby
. A number of gull species, including the Sooty Tern
, Blue Noddy
, Brown Noddy
, Lesser Noddy
and White Tern
, have been recorded, as have several members of the Procellariidae family: Kermadec Petrel
, Trindade Petrel, Murphy's Petrel
and Christmas Shearwater
. The island is particularly important for Murphy's Petrel, as more than 90% of its world population breeds on Ducie. Around 3000 pairs of Christmas Shearwaters, about 5% of the world's total population, can be found on the island too. Meanwhile, the Red-tailed Tropicbirds and Fairy Terns that breed on Ducie are around 1% of the world population of each species. Phoenix Petrel
s, which previously inhabited the atoll, apparently disappeared between the Whitney expedition in 1922 and the 1991–92 Pitcairn Scientific Expedition.
, the blacktip grouper
, and the greasy grouper
are known to cause ciguatera poisoning
. The lagoon is also inhabited by Galapagos shark
s and the whitetip reef shark
. The Galapagos shark is dangerous to humans, while the whitetips are seldom aggressive unless provoked. Five species are found exclusively around the Pitcairn Islands: Sargocentron megalops (a species of squirrelfish), the spiny butterflyfish, the Henderson triplefin (a species of threefin blenny
), an unnamed species of Alticus
(a genus of combtooth blenny
) and an unnamed species of Ammodytes (a genus of sand lance
).
, possibly either an oceanic gecko (Gehyra oceanica) or a mourning gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris). The 1991–92 Pitcairn Scientific Expedition found specimens of both the mourning gecko and the white-bellied skink. The only mammal known to inhabit Ducie is the Polynesian rat
; there has been a successful programme to eradicate these, to aid the conservation of bird species threatened by the increasing rat population. Green sea turtle
s feed on Ducie, but have not been seen to breed there.
Atoll
An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...
in the Pitcairn Islands
Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands , officially named the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, form a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the Pacific...
. It lies 290 miles (466.7 km) east of Pitcairn and has a total area of 1.5 square miles (4 km²), which includes the lagoon. It is 1.5 miles (2 km) long, measured northeast to southwest, and about 1 miles (1.6 km) wide. The island is composed of four islets: Acadia, Pandora, Westward and Edwards.
Despite its sparse vegetation, the atoll is known as the breeding ground of a number of bird species. More than 90% of the world population of Murphy's Petrel
Murphy's Petrel
Murphy's Petrel is a species of seabird and a member of the gadfly petrels. The bird is 38-41 cm in size, with a 97 cm wingspan....
nests on Ducie, while pairs of Red-tailed Tropicbird
Red-tailed Tropicbird
The Red-tailed Tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda, is a seabird that nests across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the rarest of the tropicbirds, yet is still a widespread bird that is not considered threatened. It nests in colonies on oceanic islands....
s and Fairy Tern
Fairy Tern
The Fairy Tern is a small tern which occurs in the southwestern Pacific.There are three subspecies:* Australian Fairy Tern, Sterna nereis nereis - breeds in Australia...
s make around 1% of the world population for each species.
Ducie was first discovered in 1606 by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós , was a Portuguese navigator best known for his involvement with Spanish voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean, in particular the 1595-1596 voyage of Alvaro de Mendaña de Neira, and for leading a 1605-1606 expedition which crossed the Pacific in search of Terra...
, who named it Luna Puesta, and rediscovered by Edward Edwards, captain of , who was sent in 1790 to capture the mutineers of . He named the island Ducie in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie
Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie
Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie was a British politician and naval officer.He served in the Royal Navy, being commissioned lieutenant with a date of seniority of 12 April 1762. By the outbreak of the American War of Independence he had been promoted Captain and was stationed in the West...
. In 1867 it was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act
Guano Islands Act
The Guano Islands Act is federal legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, on August 18, 1856. It enables citizens of the U.S. to take possession of islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and not within the jurisdiction of other...
, but the United Kingdom annexed it on 19 December 1902 as part of the Pitcairn Islands. Due to its inaccessibility and the distance from Pitcairn Island, Ducie is rarely visited today.
History
The island was discovered by Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandes de QueirósPedro Fernandes de Queirós
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós , was a Portuguese navigator best known for his involvement with Spanish voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean, in particular the 1595-1596 voyage of Alvaro de Mendaña de Neira, and for leading a 1605-1606 expedition which crossed the Pacific in search of Terra...
on 26 January 1606, during an expedition that began in Callao
Callao
Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...
, Peru. Supported by Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII , born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was Pope from 30 January 1592 to 3 March 1605.-Cardinal:...
and Philip III of Spain
Philip III of Spain
Philip III , also known as Philip the Pious, was the King of Spain and King of Portugal and the Algarves, where he ruled as Philip II , from 1598 until his death...
, Queirós was given the command of the San Pedro, San Pablo and Zabra. The fleet was nicknamed Los Tres Reys Magos ("The Three Wise Men"). The objective of the expedition was to take soldiers, friars and provisions to establish a colony in the Santa Cruz Islands
Santa Cruz Islands
The Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands. They lie approximately 250 miles to the southeast of the Solomon Islands Chain...
. Ducie Island was the first of eighteen discoveries on the trip. Queirós named the island Luna Puesta (roughly, "moon that has set"). On the same day, he also sighted two more islands, one that he named San Juan Bautista ("St. John the Baptist"), and the other La Encarnación ("the Incarnation"). It is unclear which one was Henderson island and which one Pitcairn. The confusion was later compounded when a chart produced by Admiral José de Espinosa marked Ducie as La Encarnación, rather than as Luna Puesta.
The island was rediscovered and named Ducie Island on 16 March 1791 by Captain Edward Edwards, of , who had been despatched from Britain in 1790 to arrest the Bounty mutineers
Mutiny on the Bounty
The mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789, and has been commemorated by several books, films, and popular songs, many of which take considerable liberties with the facts. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the...
. Edwards named it in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie
Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie
Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie was a British politician and naval officer.He served in the Royal Navy, being commissioned lieutenant with a date of seniority of 12 April 1762. By the outbreak of the American War of Independence he had been promoted Captain and was stationed in the West...
, under whom he had served earlier in his career. HMS Pandora turned northwards from Ducie and, because of this change of course, Edwards did not sight the other islands of the group. If HMS Pandora had maintained its course, it would eventually have reached Pitcairn Island and found the Bounty mutineers.
Some of the survivors of the wreck of the whaleship Essex, which had been attacked and sunk by a whale in November 1820, mistakenly believed that they had reached Ducie after a month at sea in two whaleboats. In fact they had reached Henderson Island
Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands)
Henderson Island is an uninhabited raised coral atoll in the south Pacific Ocean, that in 1902 was annexed to the Pitcairn Islands colony, a South Pacific Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom. Measuring long and wide, it has an area of and is located northeast of Pitcairn Island at . The...
. The first recorded landing on Ducie was made in the same year by Captain Thomas Raine of the Surrey, who was searching for the survivors of the Essex. The first comprehensive description of the island was written by Frederick William Beechey
Frederick William Beechey
Frederick William Beechey was an English naval officer and geographer. He was the son of Sir William Beechey, RA., and was born in London.-Career:...
, who arrived in during November 1825. Beechey's expedition did not land in the atoll, but members of the crew navigated around it in small boats. Based on Beechey's survey, the first Admiralty chart of the island was published in 1826. For nearly a hundred years it was the only available map of the island.
On 5 June 1881 the mail ship Acadia ran aground on the island while returning from San Francisco, Peru after unloading its cargo. On the way to Queenstown
Queenstown, Tasmania
Queenstown is a town in the West Coast region of the island of Tasmania. It is located in a valley on western slopes of Mount Owen on the West Coast Range.It had a population of 5,119 people . At the 2006 census, Queenstown had a population of 2,117....
or Falmouth for new orders, Master Stephen George calculated a route passing 15 to 20 mi (24.1 to 32.2 km) to the east of Ducie. George left the first mate in command at 6 am. Half an hour later, the first mate saw a white line, which he disregarded on the assumption that it was phosphorescence in the water. Later, realising that it was land, he manoeuvred to avoid running aground, but failed. The look-out excused himself by saying that he thought that the white land was a cloud. The crew made several unsuccessful attempts to re-float the ship, after which the master sailed one of the ship's boats to Pitcairn Island. He was assisted there by the local inhabitants and returned aboard the Edward O'Brien, an American boat, to rescue the rest of the crew. The incident was later investigated in a court in Liverpool, where the ultimate cause of the wreck was left undetermined, though possible causes included a calculation error by the master or an unknown current that carried the ship to the island. The court declared the master not guilty of any wrongdoing. A stone marker with a memorial inscription is located at the landing point on Acadia Islet. It was unveiled to commemorate the recovery of the anchor in 1990. The wreck lies offshore from the memorial stone in about 10 metres of water.
In 1969 the atoll was proposed as an "Island for Science", and was later recommended as a Ramsar Site
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...
. Major expeditions that came to the island to record its biota include the Whitney South Seas Expedition
Whitney South Seas Expedition
The Whitney South Seas Expedition to collect bird specimens for the American Museum of Natural History , under the initial leadership of Rollo Beck, was instigated by Dr Leonard C. Sanford and financed by Harry Payne Whitney, a thoroughbred horse-breeder and philanthropist.Beck, an expert bird...
in 1922, the National Geographic Society-Oceanic Institute Expedition to Southeast Oceania of 1970–71 and the Smithsonian expedition of 1975. More recent expeditions include a new expedition by the Smithsonian in 1987, one by Raleigh International
Raleigh International
Raleigh International is a UK-based youth and sustainable development charity that aims to help people of all backgrounds and nationalities to discover their full potential through their work to improve communities and protect the environment....
in the same year, the Sir Peter Scott Commemorative Expedition of 1990–91 and the Pitcairn Scientific Expedition of 1991–92. Because of its inaccessibility, Ducie is rarely approached, but cruise ships make one or two landings per year. In addition, unrecorded visits are known to be made by freighters and tankers that dump residues on the island or in the nearby waters.
Sovereignty
Although Captain Edward Edwards discovered the atoll in 1791, Ducie was not considered a British possession. In 1867 Ducie was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands ActGuano Islands Act
The Guano Islands Act is federal legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, on August 18, 1856. It enables citizens of the U.S. to take possession of islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and not within the jurisdiction of other...
, which established that an uninhabited territory with guano
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...
deposits could be claimed as a US possession, so long as it was unclaimed by any other country. Despite claims on several other territories, based on various documents such as the Guano Islands Act, neither the United States nor the United Kingdom recognised the sovereignty claimed by each other. Neither of the two considered that the mere discovery of an island was sufficient to claim sovereignty over it, and often a formal act of possession was considered the proper procedure to claim rights over a territory. Ultimately, the United States did not assert its sovereignty over most of its claimed territories.
Under the 1893 Pacific Order in Council, Pitcairn Island was governed by the High Commissioner of the British Western Pacific Territories
British Western Pacific Territories
The British Western Pacific Territories was the name of a colonial entity, created in 1877, for the administration, under a single representative of the British Crown, styled High Commissioner, of a series of relatively minor Pacific islands in and around Oceania...
in Fiji. On 19 December 1902, commissioned by R. T. Simmons, the British Consul in Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, Captain G. F. Jones and a group of Pitcairners visited the nearby islands and annexed them to the United Kingdom. In 1903 Ducie was annexed by the same procedure and placed under the authority of the Western Pacific High Commissioner. R. T. Simmons stated in a dispatch to the Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
that James Russell McCoy
James Russell McCoy
James Russell McCoy served as Magistrate of the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Island 7 times, between 1870 and 1904. McCoy was among the first wave of settlers to return to Pitcairn from Norfolk Island in 1859. He was the son of Matthew McCoy and Margaret Christian...
had assured him that the islands had always been considered as dependencies of Pitcairn, and that he and other Pitcairners had frequently visited them in the past. This claim is contested by Donald McLoughlin on grounds of the distance between Pitcairn Island and Ducie Island and the lack of a suitable boat to navigate the distance between the two, casting doubt on whether they had ever visited Ducie.
On 4 August 1937 Captain J. W. Rivers-Carnac, commander of HMS Leander
HMNZS Leander
HMNZS Leander was a light cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II. She was the lead ship of a class of eight ships, the Leander class light cruiser and was initially named HMS Leander.- History :...
, reaffirmed British sovereignty over Ducie by hoisting the Union Flag
Union Flag
The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...
and placing boards proclaiming the island to be the property of King George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
. Ducie was one of several islands thought valuable for potential seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
bases, though they did not materialise. In 1953 the Pacific Order in Council ceased to have effect and the British Counsul of Tahiti was appointed Governor of the Pitcairn Islands, which became a separate British colony. A new constitution for the Pitcairn Islands was enacted on 10 February 2010, establishing that Ducie and the rest of the islands are ruled by a governor designated by the British monarch, presently Elizabeth II. The governor has a duty to enforce the provisions of the constitution.
Geography
Ducie lies 290 miles (466.7 km) east of Pitcairn Island and is the southernmost atoll in the world. Its land area is 170 acre (0.6879662 km²) and its maximum elevation, occurring on the Westward islet, is 15 feet (4.6 m).Ducie is located 620 miles (997.8 km) west of the edge of the Easter Plate
Easter Plate
The Easter Plate is a small tectonic plate or microplate in the southeastern Pacific. The plate is bounded on the west by the Pacific Plate, and the east by the Nazca Plate. The entire plate is covered by the Pacific Ocean...
. It was formed approximately 8 million years ago, after Oeno Island
Oeno Island
Oeno Island or Holiday Island is a coral atoll in the South Pacific Ocean, part of the Pitcairn Islands overseas territory.-Geography:...
was formed by a hotspot
Hotspot (geology)
The places known as hotspots or hot spots in geology are volcanic regions thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the mantle elsewhere. They may be on, near to, or far from tectonic plate boundaries. There are two hypotheses to explain them...
that later caused a magma leak generated in the Oeno lineation. The leak spread over fracture zone
Fracture zone
A fracture zone is a linear oceanic feature--often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers long--resulting from the action of offset mid-ocean ridge axis segments. They are a consequence of plate tectonics. Lithospheric plates on either side of an active transform fault move in opposite directions;...
FZ2, which was formed by the third movement of the Pacific Plate
Pacific Plate
The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate....
. The atoll is part of the Oeno-Henderson-Ducie-Crough seamount
Seamount
A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface , and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of depth. They are defined by oceanographers as...
, speculated to be part of the southern Tuamotus
Tuamotus
The Tuamotus or the Tuamotu Archipelago are a chain of islands and atolls in French Polynesia. They form the largest chain of atolls in the world, spanning an area of the Pacific Ocean roughly the size of Western Europe...
.
The atoll consists of four islets: Acadia, Pandora, Westward and Edwards. The last three of these can be accessed on foot from Acadia at low tide. The islets were named by Harald Rehder and John Randall, who visited the atoll during an expedition by the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in 1975.
- Acadia Islet, along the atoll's north and east rim, is larger than the other three islets combined, measuring 140 acres (55 hectares). Very long and thin, the islet is largely forested and is composed of ridges of coral rubble. It is named after the Acadia, a ship that was wrecked on Ducie in 1881.
- Pandora Islet, in the south, is the second largest. It is composed of sand and coral rubble that borders the lagoon. It is named after HMS Pandora.
- Edwards Islet lies immediately to the east of Pandora Islet and has the same characteristics. It is named after Edward Edwards, captain of HMS Pandora.
- Westward Islet, west of Pandora Islet, is the smallest. It appears sandy from a distance, but the soil is composed of coral rubble and dead shells. Its highest point rises 15 feet (4.6 m) above average sea level. It is named after the Westward, the ship that carried the members of the National Geographic SocietyNational Geographic SocietyThe National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
and the Oceanic Institute during their 1970–71 expedition.
The atoll has a central lagoon, accessible by boat only by way of a channel 100 yards (91.4 m) wide located in the southwest, between Pandora and Westward Islets. It has a maximum depth of 52 feet (15.8 m) and its bottom consists of sand and coral. Whirlpools in the lagoon are common, caused by tunnels that drain the water from the lagoon into the ocean.
Flora
The vegetation in the atoll is sparse, because of the lack of fresh water. Only two species of vascular plant are currently known to grow there – one of the smallest such floras on any island. Acadia, Pandora and Edwards Islets are forested with Heliotropium foertherianumHeliotropium foertherianum
Heliotropium foertherianum 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 Polynesia. Common names include Tree Heliotrope, Velvet...
, but Westward Islet is not. Pemphis acidula has also been recorded on Ducie; specimens were found during an expedition in 1991. During the expedition of Hugh Cuming
Hugh Cuming
Hugh Cuming was an English collector who was interested in natural history, particularly in conchology and botany. He has been described as the "Prince of Collectors"....
in 1827 and the 1922 Whitney South Sea Expedition, Lepturus
Lepturus
Thintail is a grass genus in the Poaceae family. The related monotypic genus Hainardia was formerly included in Lepturus. Species within this genus are often found in tropical or subtropical ecosystems; an example occurrence is on certain islands within the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral...
grass was found on Acadia Islet. However, it disappeared when storm waves deforested the island some time before the Smithsonian expedition of 1975. Thus H. foertherianum now dominates the vegetation of the islets. Additionally, there are a number of species of coralline algae
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...
, including Porolithon onkodes, Porolithon gardineri, and Caulerpa racemosa
Caulerpa racemosa
Caulerpa racemosa is a species of green alga, a seaweed in the family Caulerpaceae. It is commonly known as sea grapes and is found in many areas of shallow sea around the world...
. The flora of the lagoon consists mainly of dead coral, presumed to have been killed by influxes of cold water. Sparse living coral still can be found; the dominant species is Montipora bilaminata (family Acroporidae
Acroporidae
Acroporidae is a family of small polyped stony corals in the phylum Cnidaria. The name is derived from the Greek "akron" meaning "summit" and refers to the presence of a corallite at the tip of each branch of coral. They are commonly known as staghorn corals and are grown in aquaria by reef...
).
Birds
Though no terrestrial birds are found on the atoll, Ducie Island is well known for the seabirds that breed there. Birds that have been recorded nesting on the atoll include the Red-billed TropicbirdRed-billed Tropicbird
The Red-billed Tropicbird, Phaethon aethereus, also known as the Boatswain Bird is a tropicbird, one of three closely related seabirds of tropical oceans.-Distribution and habitat:...
, Red-tailed Tropicbird
Red-tailed Tropicbird
The Red-tailed Tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda, is a seabird that nests across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the rarest of the tropicbirds, yet is still a widespread bird that is not considered threatened. It nests in colonies on oceanic islands....
, Fairy Tern
Fairy Tern
The Fairy Tern is a small tern which occurs in the southwestern Pacific.There are three subspecies:* Australian Fairy Tern, Sterna nereis nereis - breeds in Australia...
, Great Frigatebird
Great Frigatebird
The Great Frigatebird is a large dispersive seabird in the frigatebird family. Major nesting populations are found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as a population in the South Atlantic....
, Bristle-thighed Curlew
Bristle-thighed Curlew
The Bristle-thighed Curlew, Numenius tahitiensis, is a large shorebird that breeds in Alaska and winters on tropical Pacific islands. It has a long, decurved bill and bristled feathers at the base of the legs. Its length is about 43 cm and wingspan about 84 cm...
, Masked Booby
Masked Booby
The Masked Booby, Sula dactylatra, is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. This species breeds on islands in tropical oceans, except in the eastern Atlantic; in the eastern Pacific it is replaced by the Nazca Booby, Sula granti, which was formerly regarded as a subspecies of Masked Booby...
and Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby
The Red-footed Booby, Sula sula, is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. As suggested by the name, 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...
. A number of gull species, including the Sooty Tern
Sooty Tern
The Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscatus , is a seabird of the tern family . It is a bird of the tropical oceans, breeding on islands throughout the equatorial zone. Colloquially, it is known as the Wideawake Tern or just wideawake...
, Blue Noddy
Blue Noddy
The Blue Noddy is a species of tern in the Sternidae family. It is also known as the Blue-grey Noddy.It is found in American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga , Tuvalu and Hawaii. It has occurred as a vagrant in Australia and...
, Brown Noddy
Brown Noddy
The Brown Noddy or Common Noddy is a seabird from the tern family. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related Black Noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black...
, Lesser Noddy
Lesser Noddy
The Lesser Noddy , also known as the Sooty Noddy, is a species of tern in the Sternidae family.It is found in Comoros, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates.- References :...
and White Tern
White Tern
The White Tern is a small seabird found across the tropical oceans of the world. It is sometimes known as the Fairy Tern although this name is potentially confusing as it is the common name of the Fairy Tern Sternula nereis...
, have been recorded, as have several members of the Procellariidae family: Kermadec Petrel
Kermadec Petrel
The Kermadec Petrel is a species of seabird in the Procellariidae family.-Distribution:It is found in Australia, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Micronesia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Pitcairn, and the United States....
, Trindade Petrel, Murphy's Petrel
Murphy's Petrel
Murphy's Petrel is a species of seabird and a member of the gadfly petrels. The bird is 38-41 cm in size, with a 97 cm wingspan....
and Christmas Shearwater
Christmas Shearwater
The Christmas Shearwater, 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....
. The island is particularly important for Murphy's Petrel, as more than 90% of its world population breeds on Ducie. Around 3000 pairs of Christmas Shearwaters, about 5% of the world's total population, can be found on the island too. Meanwhile, the Red-tailed Tropicbirds and Fairy Terns that breed on Ducie are around 1% of the world population of each species. Phoenix Petrel
Phoenix Petrel
The Phoenix Petrel, Pterodroma alba is a medium-sized, up to long, tropical seabird with a wingspan of . It has a dark brown upperparts plumage, white below and whitish throat. Both sexes are similar....
s, which previously inhabited the atoll, apparently disappeared between the Whitney expedition in 1922 and the 1991–92 Pitcairn Scientific Expedition.
Fish
In the lagoon there are around 138 fish species, which also inhabit southeastern Oceania, the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean. The lagoon is noted for its poisonous fishes and dangerous sharks. The yellow-edged lyretailYellow-edged lyretail
Yellow-edged lyretail is the common name for the species Variola louti. It is also commonly known as the lyretail grouper or the coronation cod.-Range:...
, the blacktip grouper
Blacktip grouper
The blacktip grouper is a member of the Serranidae, the family which includes the sea basses as well as the groupers.-Distribution:The blacktip grouper is widely distributed; it is found from the Red Sea to South Africa, as far north as Korea, and in the waters around Australia.-Description:The...
, and the greasy grouper
Greasy grouper
Also known as the Arabian Grouper. Its common Arabic name is Hamoor .-Description:The Greasy grouper grows up to 75cm in length. Its head and body are pale greenish grey or brown with round spots, varying from orange-red to dark brown. A group of black spots may be visible on the body at the base...
are known to cause ciguatera poisoning
Ciguatera
Ciguatera is a foodborne illness caused by eating certain reef fishes whose flesh is contaminated with toxins originally produced by dinoflagellates such as Gambierdiscus toxicus which lives in tropical and subtropical waters. These dinoflagellates adhere to coral, algae and seaweed, where they are...
. The lagoon is also inhabited by Galapagos shark
Galapagos shark
The Galapagos shark is a species of requiem shark, family Carcharhinidae, found worldwide. This species favors clear reef environments around oceanic islands, where it is often the most abundant shark species...
s and the whitetip reef shark
Whitetip reef shark
The whitetip reef shark is a species of requiem shark, family Carcharhinidae, and the only member of its genus. A small shark usually not exceeding in length, this species is easily recognizable by its slender body and short but broad head, as well as tubular skin flaps beside the nostrils, oval...
. The Galapagos shark is dangerous to humans, while the whitetips are seldom aggressive unless provoked. Five species are found exclusively around the Pitcairn Islands: Sargocentron megalops (a species of squirrelfish), the spiny butterflyfish, the Henderson triplefin (a species of threefin blenny
Threefin blenny
Threefin or triplefin blennies are blennioids, small perciform marine fish of the family Tripterygiidae. Found in tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, the family contains approximately 150 species in 30 genera...
), an unnamed species of Alticus
Alticus
Alticus is a genus of combtooth blennies found in the Pacific and Indian oceans.-Species:* Alticus anjouanae * Pacific leaping blenny Alticus arnoldorum * Kirk's blenny Alticus kirkii...
(a genus of combtooth blenny
Combtooth blenny
Combtooth blennies are blennioids; perciform marine fish of the family Blenniidae. They are the largest family of blennies, with approximately 371 species in 53 genera represented...
) and an unnamed species of Ammodytes (a genus of sand lance
Sand lance
A sand lance or sandlance is a fish belonging to the family Ammodytidae. Several species of sand lance are commonly known as "sand eels" or "sandeels", though they are not related to true eels. Another variant name is launce, and all names of the fish are references to its slender body and...
).
Terrestrial vertebrates
Lizards that inhabit the island include the white-bellied skink (Emoia cyanura), photographed by E. H. Quayle during an expedition in 1922, and a lizard reported in the journal of an expedition in 1935 by James Chapin. The species of the latter was uncertain, but it was thought to be a geckoGecko
Geckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 cm to 60 cm....
, possibly either an oceanic gecko (Gehyra oceanica) or a mourning gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris). The 1991–92 Pitcairn Scientific Expedition found specimens of both the mourning gecko and the white-bellied skink. The only mammal known to inhabit Ducie is the Polynesian rat
Polynesian Rat
The Polynesian Rat, or Pacific Rat , known to the Māori as kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the Brown Rat and Black Rat. The Polynesian Rat originates in Southeast Asia but, like its cousins, has become well travelled – infiltrating Fiji and most Polynesian...
; there has been a successful programme to eradicate these, to aid the conservation of bird species threatened by the increasing rat population. Green sea turtle
Green Sea Turtle
The Green sea turtle or green turtle is a large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus Chelonia. Its range extends throughout tropical and subtropical seas around the world, with two distinct populations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
s feed on Ducie, but have not been seen to breed there.