Vostok Island


Vostok Island is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the Line Islands belonging to Kiribati. Other names for the island include Anne Island, Bostock Island, Leavitts Island, Reaper Island, Wostock Island or Wostok Island. The island was first sighted in 1820 by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named the island for his ship Vostok.

Geography, flora and fauna

Vostok is located at and covers a land area of. Its nearest neighbors are Flint Island, south-southeast; Caroline Atoll, to the east; and Penrhyn, to the west. It is in length, and is triangular-shaped.
Beaches on the island range between wide, composed of coral sand and rubble. There is no lagoon or fresh water on the island, and no known freshwater lens. Vostok's major portion is covered with a pure stand of Pisonia trees rooted in moist peat soil one meter thick. These trees, with heights of up to, grow so densely that no other plants can grow beneath them. The herbs Boerhavia repens and Sesuvium portulac astrum round out the known vegetation.
Coconut seedlings were planted on Vostok in 1922 and failed, although on the nearby islands of Caroline and Flint there are existing coconut palms.
Noteworthy fauna includes several species of seabirds, including the red-footed booby, great frigatebird, lesser frigatebird, black noddy, white tern, masked booby, brown booby and brown noddy. The Polynesian rat and the azure-tailed skink, together with coconut crabs and green turtles, completes the known land fauna.

History

The island was first sighted in 1820 by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named the island for his ship Vostok. Vostok was claimed by the United States under the Guano Act of 1856, but was never mined for phosphate. It is unknown whether the island has ever been inhabited, although the presence of rats suggests that ancient Polynesians might have at least visited. No evidence of permanent settlement has ever been found.
Vostok formed part of the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, until becoming a part of newly independent Kiribati in 1979. American claims on the island were vacated in the Treaty of Tarawa in the same year.
Vostok Island is designated as the Vostok Island Wildlife Sanctuary. In 2014 the Kiribati government announced to establish a 12-nautical-mile fishing exclusion zone around each of the southern Line Islands.
Its isolated nature means it is rarely visited, save by the occasional scientist or yachter. Passengers aboard the Golden Princess see it on the ships route from French Polynesia to Hawaii. Landing is said to be difficult, and no harbor or anchorage exists.

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