Black Pearl Developers Threaten Pacific Seabirds
CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, March 14, 2001 (ENS) - A tiny coral atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is one of the world's most important seabird breeding areas might fall prey to the development of commercial black pearl farming.
An Australian developer, the Rock Lobster Company, is seeking permission from the Cook Islands government to establish commercial black pearl farming on Suwarrow atoll in the northern Cook Islands.
Local conservationists fear the proposed development will adversely impact on Suwarrow's bird life because up to 100 people may eventually live and work on the island to service pearl farming. Its total land area is only 0.4 square kilometers (247 acres).
Suwarrow atoll is composed of a ring of even smaller points of land surrounding a lagoon in the center of the island. Each miniscule point of land is lush with plants and covered with birds and nests.
"Suwarrow Atoll is the most important seabird breeding site in the Cook Islands and one of the most important sites for birds in the central Pacific," said Dr. Michael Rands, director and chief executive of BirdLife International. "Suwarrow Atoll deserves to be protected from commercial development to preserve its outstanding natural beauty and globally important biodiversity."
Jolene Bosanquet and Jacqui Evans of the Save Our Suwarrow Committee in the Cook Islands believe the atoll has such large bird populations because it was never permanently inhabited by humans. The only inhabitants are three caretakers who are planted there with supplies each May and stay until late November when they are recovered and returned to Rarotonga.
Suwarrow supports the only large colonies of Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata), Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) and Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel) in the Cook Islands.
In addition there is a major colony of Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda), and colonies of Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor) and Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) that breed nowhere else in the northern Cook Islands.
Suwarrow is also an important wintering site for the globally threatened Bristle-thighed Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis).
BirdLife International says the island qualifies as an Important Bird Area (IBA) on three counts - because of its colonies of Lesser frigatebirds which make up nine percent of the world population, its colonies of Red-tailed tropicbirds which amount to three percent of the world population, and exceptionally large colonies of 71,500 pairs of Sooty terns.
"The growing worldwide demand for black pearls, coupled with their relatively low transportation costs make black pearl farming an important growth industry for the Cook Islands," the board says on its website.
The developers are seeking a 60-year lease to farm black-lipped pearl oysters. To help establish pearl farming they propose to import oysters from neighboring Manihiki atoll because the wild stock in Suwarrow's lagoon is already rare.
But recently, an unusually high number of Vibrio bacteria caused significant deaths in pearl shells in the Manihiki lagoon, raising the threat of increased disease on Suwarrow atoll.
The atoll has one of the best harbors in the Pacific, and is a favorite stopover for yachts sailing between French Polynesia and Samoa. This yacht traffic poses another threat to the Suwarrow birds.
The situation was reported to the government last October by New Zealand bird researcher Rhys Jones who spent six weeks on the atoll. Just 103 yachts visited in the month of August 2000, but even that amount of human activity does make the birds "much more nervous, says Jones.
Suwarrow atoll was declared a national park in 1978. But changes in successive laws mean its national park status is considered by some to be invalid. The conservation status of Suwarrow is currently an issue of debate between environmentalists and the government.
To learn the history of Suwarrow Atoll visit: http://www.ck/suwarrow.htm