Pearl and Hermes Atoll
Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / height Missing
The Pearl and Hermes Atoll (Hawaiian: Holoikauaua, formerly known in English as the Pearl and Hermes Reef ) is an uninhabited atoll in the Pacific Ocean, about 2000 km from Honolulu away. It belongs geographically to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and politically to the U.S. state of Hawaii.
Geography
The oval-shaped atoll is about 29 km long and 17 km wide and is surrounded by an open in the southwest reef. To Atoll include six small, sandy and flat islands with a total land area of only 0.36 km ². The next Midway Islands are in the west and Lisianski in the southeast.
The total area of the atoll is 320 km ². The lagoon is up to 26 meters deep.
Depending on whether the current double - Seal Island, Kittery or as two islands is considered as one, one one eight or nine islands in the atoll.
Four islands have a stable vegetation. These are Grass Iceland, North Iceland, Iceland Seal, and Southeast Iceland. Little North Iceland has grown in recent decades. Kittery Iceland is occasionally flooded and despite its size has no vegetation. The other three islands, Iceland Bird, Planetree Iceland Iceland and sand are little more than sandbars. The island Planetree Iceland ( Iceland between Bird and Southeast Iceland ) has no official name, which is recognized by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names. The island was named by the crew of Coast Guard buoy-laying vessel according to this ship in March 1964.
Islands
The islands of the atoll are listed clockwise, starting in the northwest:
! 527.9263065324.262528527 ° 56 'N, 175 ° 44' W27.926305555556 - 175.73747222222
! 527.9120005324.256167527 ° 55 ' N, 175 ° 45' W27.912 - 175.74383333333
! 527.7898895324.182722527 ° 47 ' N, 175 ° 49' W27.789888888889 - 175.81727777778
! 527.7933335324.170000527 ° 48 ' N, 175 ° 50' W27.793333333333 - 175.83
! 527.7935835324.157389527 ° 48 ' N, 175 ° 51' W27.793583333333 - 175.84261111111
! 527.7936675324.149833527 ° 48 ' N, 175 ° 51' W27.793666666667 - 175.85016666667
! 527.7744725324.092667527 ° 46 ' N, 175 ° 54' W27.774472222222 - 175.90733333333
! 527.7636945324.057556527 ° 46 ' N, 175 ° 57' W27.763694444444 - 175.94244444444
! 527.7636945324.057556527 ° 46 ' N, 175 ° 57' W27.763694444444 - 175.94244444444
1) Planetree Iceland does not appear on the census cards. 1974 an area of 100 by 500 feet has been reported. At the same time it is said that the island would be flooded at high tide. This would make it strictly speaking no longer be an island but a sand bank, and her face would apply rather than land area.
2) Seal - Kittery Iceland is currently a double island.
History
The atoll was discovered on April 26, 1822, when the two English whaling ships Pearl and Hermes were stranded on the reef. Unlike other islands in the northwest of Hawaii was in 1854 by the Hawaiian King Kamehameha III. annexed. Because of its small land area, the atoll was of little interest - discovered in 1927 by Captain William Greig Anderson big banks with pearl oysters ( Pinctada margaritifera ). Within only a few years, almost all of the balances have been eliminated, so that the Pearl fishing was declared illegal in 1929.
Fauna and Flora
The Pearl and Hermes Atoll is within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monuments, and is the richest in species of the island chain. Mention may be White tips ( Carcharhinus galapagensis ) Sandbankhai ( Carcharhinus plumbeus ), Japanese angelfish ( Centropyge interrupta ) and parrotfish ( Scarinae ). In over 770 km ² large reef 33 species occur in stony corals ( Scleractinia ).