Kure-Atoll

Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / height Missing

The Kure Island or the Kure Atoll (. Hawaiian: Mokupapapa, in engl as Ocean Iceland called ) is located in the northern Pacific and belongs politically to the U.S. state of Hawaii and geographically to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands; It is in northwest direction seen the last, outermost island of this chain.

Geography

Kure is nearly 2,000 miles from Honolulu removed to the neighboring Atoll Midway is 80 km away and the International Date Line about 150 km. Kure is the northernmost coral atolls worldwide. It is an atoll with a diameter of about 9 and a circumference of about 25 miles and includes several small islands. The largest of these islands, Iceland Green, has an area of ​​only 0.78 km ², the total land area of the islands is 0.86 km ². The fringing reef of the atoll is open only at one point and thus allows smaller vessels the entrance to the lagoon. Kure has no permanent residents will, but visited regularly by staff of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services.

The total area of the atoll is 58 km ². The lagoon is up to 15 meters deep.

History

The atoll was discovered probably in 1820 by the Russian captain Kure, but this is not definite evidence. Maybe it was only discovered in 1823 by Captain Benjamin Morrell. Secured, however, is that in the aftermath repeatedly ships wrecked on the reef, among others on 9 July 1837 British ship Gledstanes or on 29 October 1870, the USS Saginaw. Due to the remote location of the island it took some many months before the castaways were rescued.

On Kure was until 1992 a LORAN station of the United States Coast Guard, there is also a small, fortified airfield.

Wildlife ( fauna)

The atoll is an important breeding area for seabirds. So come here under other before the Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster ), the Laysan Albatross ( Phoebastria immutabilis ) and the Great Frigatebird ( Fregata minor). On Kure is also a significant population of the Hawaiian monk seal, whose current population is estimated at about 100 to 125 copies.

The entire atoll is a bird sanctuary and part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monuments and not for research purposes without authorization from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services, and generally only be entered.