Hao, or Haorangi, is a large

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gro ...

in the central part of the

Tuamotu Archipelago The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (french: Îles Tuamotu, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extendin ...

. It has c. 1000 people living on . It was used to house the military support base for the

nuclear test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, Nuclear weapon yield, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detona ...

s on

Mururoa Moruroa (Mururoa, Mururura), also historically known as Aopuni, is an atoll which forms part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is located about southeast of Tahiti. Administratively Moruroa Atoll ...

. Because of its shape,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

explorer

Louis Antoine de Bougainville Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville (, , ; 12 November 1729 – August 1811) was a French admiral and explorer. A contemporary of the British explorer James Cook, he took part in the Seven Years' War in North America and the American Revolutio ...

named it "Île de la Harpe" (Harp Island).

Geography

Hao is east of

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

. It is long and wide. The

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into '' coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons ...

is the fourth largest atoll in French Polynesia (after Rangiroa, Fakarava, and Makemo) and has only one navigable passage, at Kaki, on the north end of the atoll where strong currents prevail up to 20

knots A knot is a fastening in rope or interwoven lines. Knot may also refer to: Places * Knot, Nancowry, a village in India Archaeology * Knot of Isis (tyet), symbol of welfare/life. * Minoan snake goddess figurines#Sacral knot Arts, entertainme ...

with bores. The lagoon covers an area of 720 km². The climate is maritime, with temperatures oscillating between 23 and 32 °C throughout the year. The chief town is the village of Otepa, where the main economic activity is the cultivation of

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

Demography

The main village is Otepa, and the population was 1066 inhabitants in the 2012 census, with a strong

demographic Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...

increase since the establishment of the Pacific Experimentation Center (CEP) base for nuclear testing. However, in the last census conducted in 2017, a slight drop in the number of settlers is noted, reaching 1027 people.

Religion

Most of the population of the Atoll is a follower of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

as a result of the missionary activity of both Catholic and

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

groups and French colonization. The

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

began its activity in the region in the 19th century and has a religious building in the area called St. Peter's Church (''Église de Saint-Pierre''), located in Otepa, the largest town on the island and attached to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Papeete with headquarters on the island of

History

The first recorded European arriving on Hao was Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 10 February 1606. He named it ''Conversion de San Pablo''. He was followed by José Andía y Varela in 1774. Because of its shape,

explorer

named it "Île de la Harpe" (Harp Island). In some maps it also appears as Bow Island. Hao was the first

of the Tuamotus that Russian explorer

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (russian: Фадде́й Фадде́евич Беллинсга́узен, translit=Faddéy Faddéevich Bellinsgáuzen; – ) was a Russian naval officer, cartographer and explorer, who ultimatel ...

visited in 1820 on the ships ''Vostok'' and ''Mirni''. In the late-1980s, two French intelligence ( DGSE) operatives were briefly confined to the military base on the island after France obtained their release from a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

prison for sinking the

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

ship ''Rainbow Warrior''. Their earlier-than-agreed-upon

repatriation Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

from the island by the French government became a diplomatic incident between

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Hao's military airfield, now known as

Hao Airport Hao Airport is an airport on Hao Island in French Polynesia. The airport is from the village of Otepa. Its unusually long runway (for the atoll's present population) was constructed to permit large transport aircraft (carrying materials for n ...

, was transferred to the civilian authorities in 2000. This airport serves many of the smaller eastern

Tuamotus The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (french: Îles Tuamotu, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extendin ...

, whose landing strips are too short to land aircraft large enough to make the flight to

. The economic future of the atoll remains in question: the

military base A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...

, which was the support base for

nuclear testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

on the nearby

atoll, was permanently shut down in 2002, along with its many support facilities, including the

electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

and desalinization plants and the

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergen ...

. The livelihood of many of the atoll's inhabitants was directly tied to the military base.

Administration

Together with 11 other islands, Hao forms the commune of Hao,Décret n°72-407 du 17 mai 1972 portant création de communes dans le territoire de la Polynésie française

Légifrance Légifrance is the official website of the French government for the publication of legislation, regulations, and legal information. Access to the site is free. Virtually complete, it presents or refers to all concerned institutions or administrat ...

which is part of the administrative subdivision of

Îles Tuamotu-Gambier The Îles Tuamotu-Gambier (french: Îles Tuamotu-Gambier or ''Archipels des Tuamotu et des Gambier'' or ''Archipel des Tuamotu-Gambier'' or ''Tuamotu-Gambier'' or officially ''subdivision administrative des (Îles) Tuamotu-Gambier'') is an administ ...

.Décret n° 2005-1611 du 20 décembre 2005 pris pour l'application du statut d'autonomie de la Polynésie française

The seat of the commune is the village Otepa. The commune consists of three associated communes: Hao (including the uninhabited islands Ahunui, Nengonengo, Manuhangi and Paraoa), Amanu (including the uninhabited islands

Rekareka Rekareka, Tehuata or Tu-henua, is an atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is located in the Centre East of the group, 83 km southeast from Raroia, and lies 70 km NW of Tauere, its nearest neighbor. The shoal water ...

and

Tauere Tauere Atoll or Taouere, also known as Te Putua, is a small atoll of the central Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is located northwest of Hao Atoll's westernmost point. Tauere Atoll is squarish in shape. It measures across. The is ...

) and

Hereheretue Hereheretue or Hiri-oro is an atoll in French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean. It is the northernmost island of the Duke of Gloucester Islands group, or Îles du Duc de Gloucester, a subgroup of the Tuamotu group. Hereheretue's nearest neighbour is ...

(including the uninhabited islands

Anuanuraro Anuanuraro is an atoll in French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Duke of Gloucester Islands, a subgroup of the Tuamotu group. Anuanuraro's nearest neighbor is Anuanurunga, which is located about 29 km to the southeast. Anuanura ...

and

Anuanurunga Anuanurunga is an atoll in French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Duke of Gloucester Islands, a subgroup of the Tuamotu group. Anuanurunga's nearest neighbor is Nukutepipi, which is located about to the ESE. Anuanurunga is a very ...

and the inhabited island

Nukutepipi Nukutepipi, or Nuku-te-pipi is an atoll in French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Duke of Gloucester Islands, a subgroup of the Tuamotu group. Nukutepipi's nearest neighbor is Anuanurunga, which is located about 22 km to the WN ...

). As of the 2017

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

, the commune's total population was 1258.

Transport

is in the island's north. It is used as a base by Air Tahiti, the domestic airline of French Polynesia.

Economy

During the 1960s, the Pacific Experimental Center base generated most of the atoll's economic activity. The infrastructures built during these years are numerous: a major airfield with a 3,380 m runway (classified by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

as an emergency landing strip in case of a technical problem with the

space shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program n ...

Columbia), a cargo port, a 15 km road, desalination units, electric generators and a hospital. Atoll de Hao (prise de vue - l'infirmerie)

Fishing, pearl farming and aquaculture

Since 2000, the atoll's

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

activities have been mainly related to pearl farming, fishing (with the export to Tahiti of about ten tons of seafood per year) and copra harvesting. On August 23, 2017, Chinese businessman Wang Cheng, chairman of Tahiti Nui Ocean Foods, announced in

Papeete Papeete ( Tahitian: ''Papeete'', pronounced ) is the capital city of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the French Republic in the Pacific Ocean. The commune of Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti, in the administrative subd ...

his intention to invest €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) to create an aquaculture farm on Hao that could produce up to 50. 000 tons per year of lagoon fish (mainly groupers and humphead wrasse, but also sea cucumbers) for export. The

French Polynesia )Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze") , anthem = , song_type = Regional anthem , song = "Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui" , image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of French ...

n government supports the project, which has been five years in the making, and which, according to its promoter, should allow the theoretical creation of nearly three hundred jobs during the thirty months of construction, and five hundred jobs (90% of which should be attributed to Polynesians) from the start of operations, allowing the diversification of the

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

activity of the atoll, depopulated since the withdrawal of the French army. Some earthworks were carried out in March 2018, but the works, which were to be completed in 2020, are regularly postponed. Air

On the one hand, many questions are being raised about the

environmental impact Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

of the project, which is causing concern among many elected representatives. In addition, on February 25, 2020, the director of the company in charge of the work was given a three-year suspended prison sentence for

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forb ...

. In December 2019, Wang Cheng was heard by investigators under the open hearing system as part of a preliminary investigation into suspicions of "abuse of social assets" initiated in January 2019 by the investigation section (SR) of the Papeete

gendarmerie Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...

Tertiary sector and public services

Hao

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

hosts, on average, about 800 flights and between 12 and 15,000 passengers per year, 30% of whom are in transit. The municipality also hosts a secondary school for the children of the southern Tuamotu and Gambier atolls, as well as, for the past few years, the Center for Education in Appropriate Technologies for Development (CETAD), a vocational training institute specialized in sea-related professions. Most of the teachers come from metropolitan France for a period of two to four years. Hao acquired a modern desalination plant in 2005.

Electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...

is permanently supplied by generators (EDT-ELECTRA). In 2006, the municipality was equipped with street lighting powered by two wind turbines and solar panels. Finally, the landing of the Natitua submarine cable and its commissioning in December 2018 allows Hao to be connected to Tahiti and to the global high-speed

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

References

External links

History of Hao Atoll
* ttp://www.pacific-image.pf/pages/boutic/dboutic_cdrom_sp132.html Atoll list (in French)br>Oceandots

{{authority control Communes of French Polynesia Atolls of the Tuamotus