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island
Lisianski Island
About
20 million years ago, geologic forces raised the tip of a huge coral
bank above sea level. Today, Lisianski Island is 1.5 square kilometers
(381 acres), about the size of Honolulu. Its highest point is a sand
dune about 40 feet above sea level. Though the island is small, the
reef area to the southeast, called Neva Shoals, is huge, covering 979
square kilometers(241,916 acres), an area nearly the size of O`ahu.
A Hawaiian
gourd calabash was spotted on the beach of Lisianski in 1805, when
the ship Neva ran aground there. Captain Iurii Lisianskii (aka Urey
Lisiansky) jettisoned some of the ship's cargo to free themselves
from the shallow waters.
A ship picking
up survivors of a shipwreck introduced mice to the island in 1844.
Rabbits were introduced later, and along with mice, they devastated
the island's ecology and are believed to have caused the demise of
the Laysan rail. Feather collecting began on Lisianski about 1904.
In response to public outcry about the feather trade, Theodore Roosevelt
established the Hawaiian Island Bird Reservation, which included Lisianski,
in 1909. An armed party landed on the island in 1910. They arrested
feather poachers and confiscated and destroyed about 1.4 tons of feathers,
representing 140,400 birds.
Today, Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles are common visitors to Lisianski's
sandy white beaches. Migratory shorebirds seen on the island include the kolea
(golden plover), ulili (wandering tattler), and kioea (bristle-thighed curlew).
Nearly three-fourths of the Bonin petrels nesting in Hawai`i make this island
their home. In some years, more than a million sooty terns visit Lisianski.
Reef
fishes of the nearshore waters are abundant and diverse.
Researchers have found predators near Lisianski's reefs
such as sharks to be very aggressive. Even ulua (Trevally
jacks) will harass divers and small boats. The reefs of
Lisianski and surrounding Neva Shoals are called "coral
gardens" by some scientists because of their abundance
of coral and the variety of growth forms assumed by their
colonies, including structures resembling spires, castles,
and a variety of other shapes. Twenty-four different species
of coral were found in one major survey at Lisianski.
A wide variety
of algae are commonly found close to the island, and some researchers
think that this results from guano (bird droppings) washing into the
ocean and providing nutrients for the algae.
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