The Indispensable Reefs are a chain of three large coral

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

s in the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down t ...

. They are located about south of

Rennell Island Rennell Island, locally known as Mugaba, is the main island of two inhabited islands that make up the Rennell and Bellona Province in the nation state of Solomon Islands. Rennell Island has a land area of and is about long and wide. It is ...

. The chain stretches over a length of and its average width is . Administratively the Indispensable Reef belongs to the Rennell and Bellona Province of

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

. They are locally called "Goto'akau". The three atolls are steep-to and each encloses a large deep

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'') an ...

. They are separated by deep passages wide. The atolls of the Indispensable Reef are aligned in a NW-SE direction: * North Reef is long, and up to wide. The rim of the atoll has two narrow openings in the north and northwest. The reef has a total area of , including lagoon and reef flat. There are no islets. *Middle Reef is long. Little Nottingham Islet is a small islet located near the centre of the reef. Besides its main lagoon, Middle Reef has a separate smaller northern lagoon. The total area is about . *South Reef is long and up to wide. It encloses a lagoon deep. The total area exceeds .

History

The ship ''Neptune'' struck Indispensable Reef on 3 August 1868, and was lost. The crew was rescued by the ''SS Boomerang.'' During the Battle of the Coral Sea on 7 May 1942, two Japanese carrier attack planes B5N2 (EI-306 and probably EI-302) flying reconnaissance mission from the carrier ''Shokaku'' ditched on Indispensable Reef due to lack of fuel. 80-G-7661

In 1983, the Solomon Islands Government apprehended a vessel from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

that had been poaching the

giant clam ''Tridacna gigas'', the giant clam, is the best-known species of the giant clam genus ''Tridacna''. Giant clams are the largest living bivalve molluscs. Several other species of "giant clam" in the genus ''Tridacna'' are often misidentified as ...

stocks around Indispensable Reef. Corals and endangered fish species are also being plundered for the aquarium trade.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20080120072247/http://solomonislands.com.sb/indispensablereefs.html * Corals: * Sunken ships

* Ecological concern

Uninhabited islands of the Solomon Islands Reefs of the Pacific Ocean Atolls of the Solomon Islands Landforms of the Coral Sea Coral reefs Rennell and Bellona Islands {{SolomonIslands-geo-stub

History

See also

References

External links