The Tuamotu Archipelago
Home of the Puamotu people, the Tuamotu Archipelago is an enormous arc of exclusive coral atolls and lies between the Society Islands and the Marquesas Islands. The 76 islands have a land area of 343 square miles and range from unbroken circles of coral surrounding a lagoon, to glistening chains of coral islets – sounds like heaven to me!
Only 30 of the atolls are uninhabited and the rest have small populations, limited by food, water and space, and approximately 16,000 people live between the 46 inhabited islets. The Puamotu people subsist on a coconut and fish economy and valuable nuts grow on nearly all motus, with fish exporting an economic mainstay of some atolls.
The pearling industry started in the late 1800’s and was the major source of income, with extensive free diving to depths of 200 feet by natives in order to harvest the pearl-bearing oysters. This technique disappeared shortly after World War 2 when oysters of a suitable size could only be found at depths challenging the local free divers. The mother-of-pearl had been used for making buttons, but after the war, the world’s clothing business introduced artificial buttons reducing the demand for mother-of-pearl oysters and shrank the small gathering season under government regulations to a few locations. The business revived with the introduction of the cultured black pearl by the Japanese Mikimoto Company and since 1970 it has become a valuable asset for the atolls. The black colour refers not to the colour of the pearl itself, but to the use of the black-lipped oyster as the surrogate parent in the Mikimoto culturing technique. In Papeete, three market auctions are held yearly - in February, June and October - where buyers with worldwide jewellery interests bid on the pearls. These auctions have become the focal point of Tahiti’s new found economy following the demise of the nuclear testing programme.
In 1963 the facilities that the French used for support bases for their nuclear testing programme were located on the atolls of Moruroa, Fangataufa, Turea, Hao and Anaa and the first atmospheric test was launched in 1966 over Moruroa. A total of 175 atmospheric and underground tests were conducted with the final test in Fangataufa in 1996. That last series of 8 tests defied a worldwide moratorium on nuclear testing and sparked an uproar creating a lot of ill-will for France. Most test facilities have now been dismantled, but visits can be made to the former support bases with due regard to the lingering threat of aging nuclear bi-products still remaining and leftover construction hazards – I think we’ll give them a miss then!
We are heading to Rairoa for our first stop and may possibly visit Makemo and Taenga before heading to Fakarava where Geoff’s son Nick and his wife Kate and three boys are joining us for a couple of weeks.