Carteret Islands

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The Carteret Atoll seen from space. Courtesy NASA.

The Carteret Islands (also known as Carteret Atoll, Tulun or Kilinailau Islands/Atoll) are Papua New Guinea islands located 86 km (53 mi) north-east of Bougainville in the South Pacific. The atoll is a scattering of low lying islands in a horseshoe shape stretching 30 km (19 mi) in north-south direction, with a total land area of 0.6 square kilometers and a maximum elevation of 1.5 m (5 ft) above sea level.

The group is made up of islands called Han, Jangain, Yesila, Yolasa and Piul, and were collectively named after the British navigator Philip Carteret who discovered them in the sloop Swallow in 1767. As of 2005 about one thousand people live on the islands. Han is the most significant island with the others being small islets in the lagoon. The island is near the edge of the large geologic formation called the Ontong Java Plateau.

1 History
2 Flooding
- 2.1 Cause of Carteret Inundation
3 Ongoing Relocation
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

When visited in 1830 by Benjamin Morrell in the schooner Antarctic, several islands had a native population which was growing several crops. One small island was uninhabited and covered with heavy timber. With the approval of the area's ruler Morrell's crew began construction on the southwest corner of the island in the northeast part of the atoll, with the intent to harvest snail meat and edible bird nests for the Chinese market. Departing after a fatal attack on his crew, Morrell named the islands the Massacre Islands.^[1]^[2]

Food staples have been cultivated taro, coconut, and fish. The area had been inhabited for about 1,000 years before European contact in about 1880, when the copra trade and other activities altered the economy and customs. Population grew rapidly in the early 1900s, and overcrowding in the 1930s caused a population decline.^[1] In the 1990s the islanders were identified as economic refugees.^[3] Although taro has been a cultivated crop planted in watered areas, by 2002 that had been forgotten by an island leader who complained about wild taro no longer growing.^[4]

[edit] Flooding

It was widely reported in November 2005 that the islands have progressively become uninhabitable, with an estimate of their total submersion by 2015. The islanders have fought a more than twenty years battle,^{[citation needed]} building a seawall and planting mangroves. However, storm surges and high tides continue to wash away homes, destroy vegetable gardens and contaminate fresh water supplies. The natural tree cover on the island is also being impacted by the incursion of saltwater contamination of the fresh water table.

[edit] Cause of Carteret Inundation

View of Huene from Iolassa Island. Huene used to be one island but has now been bisected by the ocean

Paul Tobasi, the atolls' district manager with PNG's Bougainville province, and many other environmental groups^[who?] have suggested that the flooding is the result of sea-level rise associated with global warming. He also stated that small tidal waves were becoming more frequent.^[4]

The Carteret islands likely consist of a base of coral that sits atop an extinct volcanic mount. In the usual geological course of events first proposed by Charles Darwin, such islands eventually subside due to weathering and erosion, as well as isostatic adjustments of the sea floor. It has also been speculated that dynamite fishing^[4] in the Carterets such as occurred in the island during the prolonged Bouganville conflict may be contributing to the increased inundation. Coral reefs buffer against wave and tidal action, and so their degradation may increase an island's level of exposure to those forces. Another suggestion is that tectonic movement may be causing the gradual subsidence of the atoll. ^[5]

[edit] Ongoing Relocation

On November 25, 2003, the Papua New Guinean government authorized the government-funded total evacuation of the islands, 10 families at a time; the evacuation was expected to be completed by 2007, but access to funding caused numerous delays.

In October 2007 it was announced that the PNG government would provide two million kina (USD $736,000) to begin the relocation, to be organized by Tulele Peisa of Buka, Bougainville. ^[6]

CNN has reported that the Carteret islanders will be the first island community in the world to undergo an organized relocation, in response to their island sinking. The people of the Carteret are being called the world's first environmental refugees.^[7]