MANUAE - A small uninhabited atoll containing two islands and a lagoon. Named originally by Captain Cook as Harvey's Isle and to this day is still referred to as Hervey's Island by locals.
Originally settled by Wiiliam Marsters and his three wives before they relocated to Palmerston as the caretakers.
The future of the island is a bit up in the air as there are private interests that would like to build a luxury tourist resort; whereas the government is leaning toward making it a National Park, it is now declared a marine reserve.
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Do you know there are two
Manuae Atolls?
I would like to point out, to all who are interested, something I recently learned.
I had an image and link to a NASA site with the OTHER Manuae Atoll on this page. This discrepency was kindly pointed out by Patricia Barton of Cook Islands Toursim.
I sent an email inquiry to NASA and received a courteous reply from a scientist PhD at NASA Johnson Space Center, whose research focuses on coral reefs, with explicit directions to find the correct image along with this informative reply:
"Your question was forwarded to our group of scientists... There are two different Manuae atolls in the Pacific, one is in the Society Islands (French Polynesia) at about 16.5 S, 154.5 W. The other is in the Cook Islands at about 19.5 S 159.0 W. I would recommend you download one of the larger images and crop it down around the island for the best effect."
I have done that and this reflects the Manuae image now linked above.
Nasa has updated their databases to reflect and make more clear which island is in the Society Islands and which is a Cook Island.
Click here for the NASA image link of Manuae Coral Reef Atoll in the Society Islands.
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