Rawaki Islands (Phoenix Islands)
The Rawaki Islands are a remote group of eight small islands and atolls, lying across the equator, 800 km
southeast from the Gilbert Islands and 1,200 km north from Samoa.
There are three atolls, five low coral islands and two submerged reefs (Winslow Reef and Carondelet Reef), with
a total land area of 28 km². Formerly known as the Phoenix Islands, the group name was changed in 1979 when
they became part of the then newly independent nation of Kiribati — which also includes the
Gilbert Islands, Line Islands and the solitary island of
Banaba.
Of all the islands — Abariringa (Kanton), Enderbury, Rawaki (Phoenix), Manra (Sydney), Birnie, McKean, Nikumaroro (Gardener), and Orona (Hull) — only Abariringa is inhabited, the remaining islands being considered too resource poor for habitation. Although attempts to settle some of the islands (Nikumaroro, Orona and Manra) were initiated the 1930s, they were to be abandoned by the 1960's.
The territory of the Rawaki Islands also includes two remote reefs that contain no permanent land: Carondelet Reef, 124 km southeast from Nikumaroro; and Winslow Reef, 240 km northwest from the island of McKean. Both are shallow platform reefs that are completely submerged, with Carondelet Reef being about 3-4 m underwater at low tide.
Geologically the Rawaki Islands can be divided into two groups. In the west are the two islands of McKean and Nikumaroro and the two reefs of Carondelet and Winslow, forming a chain of some 500 km in length. All four of these emergent or near-emergent seamounts are located upon the central sections of the Tokelau Seamount Chain. The three atolls of the Tokelau group are located at the southern end of the chain, with the northern end being marked by the islands of Howland and Baker. The islands of Abariringa, Enderbury, Manra, Orona and Rawaki are all located upon an eastwards extension of the Tokelau Seamount chain, where they form a crescent of seamounts arranged around the southern, eastern and northern sides of the small island of Birnie.
The islands of the Rawaki group display the classic remote island and atoll characteristics of the central Pacific, features which include: steep reef drop-offs, low biodiversity, harsh island habitats and large seabird nesting colonies. Because of their extreme isolation and lack of severe disturbance by human settlement, many of the reefs to be found in the Rawaki Islands are in a near pristine condition and as such have been put forward for World Heritage listing. The Rawaki Islands are protected by the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) — one of the world's largest marine protected areas, encompassing some 410,500 km².
The Rawaki Islands are home to large numbers of seabirds. McKean Island (see below) has the world's largest nesting population of Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel) with up to 85,000 birds. There are at least 16 other species of seabirds that inhabit the islands — with a total population estimated to be over one million in number.
The islands of McKean and Birnie are important wildlife sanctuaries. Birnie (with an area of 0.2 km²) is the smallest of the Rawaki islands, located 88 km north-northwest from Rawaki, measuring 1.2 km by 500 m, with a centrally located hypersaline lagoon. McKean (0.6 km²), located 280 km southwest from Abariringa, is a low and flat, circular-shaped, coral island surrounded by a fringing reef. The two islands — particularly McKean — are important sites for breeding seabirds, with major breeding populations of Lesser Frigatebirds (Fregata ariel), Grey-backed Terns (Sterna lunata), Brown Noddies (Anous stolidus), White-throated Storm Petrels (Nesofregatta albigularis) and Blue-grey Noddies (Procelsterna cerulea).
