Aguiguan (also Aguigan and Aguihan, based on the Spanish rendition of the native name, Aguijan, which is still used) is a small bean-shaped coralline island in the

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonwea ...

chain in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. It is situated south-west of

Tinian Tinian ( or ; old Japanese name: 天仁安島, ''Tenian-shima'') is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of th ...

, from which it is separated by the

Tinian Channel The Tinian Channel is an eight kilometre-wide channel in the Northern Mariana Islands. It lies to the south of the island of Tinian(15°00'N., 145°38'E.) is northeast of Aguijan Island, separating it from the island of Aguijan. Together, the two i ...

. Aguiguan and neighboring

Island together form

Tinian Municipality Tinian Municipality is one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern Mariana Islands. It consists of the islands of Tinian and Aguijan Aguiguan (also Aguigan and Aguihan, based on the Spanish rendition of the native name, Aguijan, wh ...

, one of the four main political divisions that comprise the Northern Marianas.

History

It is likely that first sighting by Europeans occurred during the Spanish expedition of

Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East ...

, or by its continuation by Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa being charted as ''Santo Ángel''. It was visited by the Spanish missionary

Diego Luis de San Vitores Diego Luis de San Vitores, SJ (November 12, 1627 – April 2, 1672) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who founded the first Catholic church on the island of Guam. He is responsible for establishing the Christian presence in the Mariana Islands. He ...

in 1669. Aguiguan was administered as part of the Spanish Mariana Islands from the 16th century to 1899, when the Northern Marianas were sold by Spain to the

German Empire The German Empire (), Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditar ...

. Under Germany, it administered as part of

German New Guinea German New Guinea (german: Deutsch-Neu-Guinea) consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups and was the first part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , ...

. During World War I, Aguiguan came under the control of the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent for ...

and was administered as part of the

South Seas Mandate The South Seas Mandate, officially the Mandate for the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean Lying North of the Equator, was a League of Nations mandate in the "South Seas" given to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations following W ...

. During World War II, the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

maintained a garrison on Aguigan. This garrison is noteworthy because of its surrender to Allied forces September 4, 1945, two days after the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

. The surrender was unique as it was the only surrender hosted by a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter, the '' USCG 83525''. US Navy Admiral Marshall R. Greer received the surrender of the Japanese Second Lieutenant Kinichi Yamada. Following World War II, Aguiguan came under the control of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

and was administered as part of the

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. History Spain initially claimed the islands that later composed the territory of the Trus ...

. Since 1978, the island has been part of the

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonwea ...

Geography

Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 k-13b (Tinian Channel crop)

Aguiguan is only in size, with a length of and a width of . It is nicknamed “Goat Island” due to the large number of

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

goats present there. Much of the native vegetation on Aguigan has been destroyed by goats. Aguiguan is uninhabited and is seldom visited because it is surrounded by sheer steep cliffs. However, a 2002 survey of the island did find a handful of native species there, including the

Mariana fruit bat The Mariana fruit bat (''Pteropus mariannus''), also known as the Mariana flying fox, and the ''fanihi'' in Chamorro, is a megabat found only in the Mariana Islands and Ulithi (an atoll in the Caroline Islands). Habitat loss has driven it to en ...

, the Polynesian

sheath-tailed bat Emballonuridae is a family of microbats, many of which are referred to as sac-winged or sheath-tailed bats. They are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The earliest fossil records are from the Eocene. Descr ...

and the

Micronesian megapode The Micronesian megapode or Micronesian scrubfowl (''Megapodius laperouse'') is an endangered megapode which inhabits islands of the Western Pacific Ocean. Description The Micronesian megapode is a stocky medium-sized bird that is mostly dark b ...

''Megapodius laperouse''.

Naftan Rock

Approximately off the south-west shore of Aguiguan is Naftan Rock, in elevation.

Important Bird Area

Aguigan and Naftan Rock have been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because they support populations of

white-throated ground dove The white-throated ground dove (''Pampusana xanthonura'') is a species of ground dove in the genus ''Gallicolumba''. It is classified as near-threatened. This species was formerly in the genus ''Alopecoenas'' Sharpe, 1899, but the name of the ...

s, Mariana fruit doves, Mariana swiftlets,

Micronesian myzomela The Micronesian myzomela (''Myzomela rubratra'') is a species of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. The species forms a superspecies with a number of related and similar looking island and mainland myzomelas across the Pacific and Austra ...

s, rufous fantails, Aguiguan reed warblers, golden and Saipan white-eyes, and

Micronesian starling The Micronesian starling (''Aplonis opaca'') is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest and subtropical or tro ...

s. Aguigan also supports

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same envir ...

breeding colonies, with 120 pairs of brown boobies and 450 pairs of

brown noddies The brown noddy or common noddy (''Anous stolidus'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related black noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black. The b ...

reported, while Naftan Rock is home to several thousand seabirds.

References

* Russell E. Brainard et al.
''Coral reef ecosystem monitoring report of the Mariana Archipelago: 2003–2007''

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

Fisheries, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2012).

References

External links

U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office, Daily Chronology of Coast Guard History
(Entry for 4 September)
archive

and ttps://web.archive.org/web/20140427193501/http://gaebler.info/sonstiges/marianen.htm#aguijan Aguijan
Google: Aguijan
From the website https://web.archive.org/web/20110728145947/http://www.uscg83footers.org/new_page_8.htm - Vessel corrected to be the Coast Guard Cutter 83525 Researched by Larry Richter, USCG Ret {{Northern Mariana Islands Former German colonies Islands of the Northern Mariana Islands Coral islands Uninhabited islands of the Northern Mariana Islands Important Bird Areas of the Northern Mariana Islands Seabird colonies

History

Geography

Naftan Rock

Important Bird Area

See also

References

References

External links