The Biak Islands (, also Schouten Islands or Geelvink Islands) are an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

group of

Southwest Papua Southwest Papua (; ) is the 38th provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia to be created, and was split off from West Papua (province), West Papua on 8 December 2022. Despite being named "southwest", this is actually a misnomer and this prov ...

province, eastern

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

in the

Cenderawasih Bay Cenderawasih Bay (, "Bird of Paradise Bay"), also known as Sarera Bay () and formerly Geelvink Bay (), is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua, New Guinea, Indonesia. Geography ''Cenderawasih Bay'' is a lar ...

(or Geelvink Bay) 50 km off the north-western coast of the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. The group consists of the main islands of

Biak Biak is the main island of Biak Archipelago located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua (province), Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak has many atolls, reefs, and corals. The largest popula ...

, Supiori and

Numfor Numfor (also Numfoor, Noemfoor, Noemfoer) is one of the Biak Islands (also known as the Schouten Islands) in Papua (Indonesian province), Papua province, northeastern Indonesia. It was the site of conflict between Empire of Japan, Japanese and ...

, and numerous smaller islands, mostly covered in

rain forest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

. The population of the archipelago is about 130,000.

History

The first recorded sighting by Europeans of the Schouten Islands was by the Portuguese navigator

Jorge de Menezes Jorge de Menezes (also spelt Meneses) (c. 1498 – 1537) was a Portuguese explorer. Due to a monsoon, he was forced to reside in Versya, posited by Pieter Anton Tiele as Waisai, between 1526 and 1527. Menezes called the region ''Ilhas dos Papuas' ...

in 1526. On the voyage from

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

to Maluku, via northern Borneo, he was further carried eastward by a storm and strong winds. Jorge de Menezes landed at

, where he was forced to winter. Inspired by Malay, Moluccan or local Papuan names, he named the archipelago, and eventually the coasts of western Papua "Islands of Papuas". Biak was thenceforth called in Portuguese maps or , and . The archipelago was also sighted by Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra who landed on

Yapen Yapen (also Japen, Jobi) is an island of Papua (province), Papua, Indonesia. The Yapen Strait separates Yapen and the Biak Islands to the north. It is in Cenderawasih Bay off the north-western coast of the island of New Guinea. To the west is ...

on June 24, 1528, when trying to return from

Tidore Tidore (, lit. "City of Tidore Islands") is a city, island, and archipelago in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, west of the larger island of Halmahera. Part of North Maluku Province, the city includes the island of Tidore (with three sm ...

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

. The islands were named (Golden Islands in Spanish). In 1545 they were visited by Íñigo Ortiz de Retes on board the

galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal. They were first used as armed cargo carriers by Europe, Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail, and they were the principal vessels dr ...

''San Juan''. UB Utrecht - Nova Guinea Vol 4 - Karte 2 - Karte des Geelvink-Busens

The archipelago was first mapped in the Portuguese charts of Gaspar Viegas (c. 1537), an anonymous map of 1540, and on the maps of João de Lisboa and of Bartolomeu Velho (c. 1560), and by other Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch maps. The Schouten Islands were eventually named after Dutch explorer

Willem Schouten Willem Cornelisz Schouten (1625) was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route to the Pacific Ocean. Biography Willem Cornelisz Schouten was born around 1567 in Hoorn, Holland, Seve ...

, who explored them in 1615. The Tidore Sultanate had tributary ties with the islands. Seafarers from the region used to regularly pay homage to the sultan.

Demographics

The Biak Islands are among the most densely populated parts of Southwest Papua province.

Ecology

Terrestrial

These small islands have been designated the

Biak–Numfoor rain forests The Biak–Numfoor rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in Indonesia. The ecoregion covers the islands of Biak, Supiori, Numfoor, and several smaller islands, which lie in Cenderawasih Bay north of Yapen and New Guinea. Geograph ...

. They have the most highly

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

avifauna Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...

of any single area in the New Guinea region. The forest consists of similar types of trees to that on mainland New Guinea. There are over 100 bird species on the islands, of which 11 to 16 are

, that is, restricted to this small island group. These include:

black-winged lory The black-winged lory (''Eos cyanogenia''), also known as the Biak red lory, is a medium-sized, about long, long-tailed Lories and lorikeets, lory. It has a bright red plumage, black shoulder, red Iris (anatomy), iris, an orange red Beak, bill an ...

(''Eos cyanogenia''); the small tree-climbing

Geelvink pygmy parrot The Geelvink pygmy parrot (''Micropsitta geelvinkiana'') is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae endemic to Biak and Numfoor islands in Western New Guinea. The name Geelvink comes from a Dutch ship and family called Geelvinck. It has ...

(''Micropsitta geelvinkiana''); Biak scrubfowl (''Megapodius geelvinkianus''); Geelvink imperial pigeon (''Ducula geelvinkiana''); Geelvink fruit dove (''Ptilinopus speciosus''); Biak coucal (''Centropus chalybeus''); two

tree kingfisher The tree kingfishers, also called wood kingfishers or Halcyoninae, are the most numerous of the three family (biology), subfamilies of birds in the kingfisher family, with around 70 species divided into 12 genus, genera, including several specie ...

s, Biak paradise kingfisher (''Tanysiptera riedelii'') and Numfor paradise kingfisher (''Tanysiptera carolinae''); Biak gerygone (''Gerygone hypoxantha''); Biak monarch (''Monarcha brehmii''); Biak flycatcher (''Myiagra atra'');

long-tailed starling The long-tailed starling (''Aplonis magna'') is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is endemic to the Schouten Islands off West Papua, in Indonesia, an important area of bird endemism. The species was once treated as part of a su ...

(''Aplonis magna''); and Biak white-eye (''Zosterops mysorensis''). As well as the birds, there are a number of endemic mammals, although there are only 29 mammal species on the islands. The endemics include: Biak naked-backed fruit bat (''Dobsonia emersaa'') a species of barebacked fruit bat (so-called because their wings are attached to the back rather than the sides, giving this type of bat a different appearance to most species; a marsupial

Biak glider The Biak glider (''Petaurus biacensis'') is a species of marsupial in the family Petauridae. It is endemic to the Schouten Islands in the western region of Papua Province, Indonesia. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies In Taxon ...

(''Petaurus biacensis''); Japen rat (''Rattus jobiensis''); and two species of giant naked-tailed rat, ''

Uromys boeadii The Biak Island uromys or Biak giant rat (''Uromys boeadii'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are either the largest or second-largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 870 species, ...

'' and '' Uromys emmae''. The islands also have a number of endemic butterflies and one endemic spider ''

Diolenius ''Diolenius'' is a genus of jumping spiders that was first described by Tamerlan Thorell in 1870. Species it contains sixteen species, found only in Indonesian New Guinea (provinces of Papua and West Papua), Papua New Guinea and on the Moluccas: ...

angustipes''. Much of the forest has been cut down for logging or to clear land for planting especially on Biak Island, which is the most populous in the area, although logging has slowed. There are two protected areas, which are close to each other: Pulau Supiori Nature Reserve, which is most of Supiori Island; and Biak Utara Nature Reserve which is an area on Biak Island just across the bridge from Supiori. However the logging industry may return, while birds are vulnerable to collectors and just because they have such a limited range of habitat on these small islands. The area needs more study.

Marine

The seas around the Biak Islands are part of the

Coral Triangle The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ...

, a marine region which has the world's greatest diversity of coral reef species. Diving in the waters off Biak is a popular activity for tourists. The islands have two

marine protected area A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity ...

s. The Biak Numfor Locally Managed Marine Area, established in 2015, protects Numfor's eastern coast and the southern coast of Biak. Padaido Marine Recreation Park, established in 2009, protects the waters around the

Padaido Archipelago The Padaido Islands, also known as the Padaido Archipelago, is a group of Islands in Indonesia's Papua Province. They lie in Cenderawasih Bay, south and southeast of the island of Biak. The archipelago consists of many small islands and coral re ...

, a group of small islands lying south and southeast of Biak."KKPN Padaido.". ''Protected Planet.''. Accessed 11 July 2021

/ref>

References