
The Apolima Strait is about 13 km
wide and separates the two largest islands of
Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...
:
Savai'i to the northwest, and
Upolu to the southeast.
Three small islands lie in the strait. Two of them,
Manono and
Apolima, have small village settlements. Manono is about 3 miles off the west coast of Upolu. Apolima lies near the middle of the strait. The third,
Nu'ulopa is a tiny, uninhabited, rocky outcrop with palm trees, which is surrounded by a natural turtle habitat islet.
The main means of transportation between the two larger islands - passenger and vehicle ferries operated by the Samoa government - run through the strait between
Mulifanua wharf on Upolu and
Salelologa wharf on Savai'i.
The ferry crossing takes about 90 minutes.
Gallery
File:ISS012-E-23610 NASA Savai'i and Upolu.jpg, Apolima Strait with Savai'i (top) and the tip of Upolu below.
File:ApolimafromFerry.jpg, Apolima island.
File:Nu'ulopa island - Samoa.jpg, Heading by boat towards uninhabited Nu'ulopa island (left) with Apolima island (right)
File:Samoa Country map.png, Map of Samoa showing Apolima Strait between Upolu (right) and Savai'i (left).
See also
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Samoan Islands
The Samoan Islands () are an archipelago covering in the central Pacific Ocean, South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and of the wider region of Oceania. Political geography, Administratively, the archipelago comprises all of the Samoa, Indep ...
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Geography of Samoa
References
Straits of Samoa
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