Location
SPREP LIBRARY
Publisher
The Smithsonian Institution
Publication Year:
1975
Publication Place
Washington, DC
Physical Description:
18 p.
Call Number
[EL]
Relevant Countries
Tonga
Collection
Material Type
Language
English
Record ID:
34707
Legacy PEIN ID:
74708
General Notes
Available online
Available online
Subject Heading(s)
Sand cays - Tonga
Marine resources - Tonga
Natural resources - Tonga
Protected areas - Oceania
Protected areas - Management
Marine resource
Marine resource management
Marine resources - Pacific - Oceania
Protected areas
Marine resources - Tonga
Tonga
Abstract
Tongatapu, like Tahiti, was visited by many early European navigators and was one of the first of the South Pacific islands to be charted in any detail. Though it was discovered (and named Amsterdam Island) by Tasman in January 1643 (Sharp 1968, 152-158), the first comments on the sand cays of the surrounding reefs were made by Cook during his second voyage, with the Resolution and Adventure, in October 1773. On this occasion Cook spent less than a week at Tongatapu, anchored in the northwest, and commented that "it would have taken up more time than I could spare to have surveyed these parts Minutely as there are a number of small Islots and reefs of rocks extending to the NE even further than we could see" (1961, 261). His naturalists, the Forsters, did not describe the cays, though Georg Forster remarked on the emersion of reef limestones on Tongatapu and its similarity to the continuing emergence of the land in Scandinavia (1777, I, 453). Cook returned on his last voyage in 1777, with the Resolution and Discovery, and stayed for a month. He anchored near modern Nuku'alofa and landed on Pangaimotu and possibly other islands (1967, 124-125, 155, 890). He charted the area but gave no description of the cays.
Location
SPREP LIBRARY
Publisher
The Smithsonian Institution
Publication Year:
1975
Publication Place
Washington, DC
Physical Description:
18 p.
Call Number
[EL]
Relevant Countries
Tonga
Collection
Material Type
Language
English
Record ID:
34707
Legacy PEIN ID:
74708
General Notes
Available online
Record Created: 21-May-2008
Record Modified: 02-Mar-2021