Pohnpei
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Pohnpei (formerly known as Ponape) is the name of one of the states in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and one of the Senyavin Islands (part of the larger Caroline Islands group). Palikir, the FSM's capital, is located on Pohnpei. Pohnpei International Airport (IATA code PNI) is located near Kolonia, on a small island off the north coast.
Pohnpei is the largest, highest, most populated, and most developed single island in the FSM. It is also considered to be the most user friendly of the group, and it is widely regarded as the most beautifully diverse island in all of Micronesia.
Pohnpei is one of the wettest places on earth with annual recorded rainfall exceeding 300 inches each year in certain mountainous locations.
Geography
The Federated States of Micronesia is an independent, sovereign nation made up of Pohnpei and three other states; Chuuk, Kosrae, and Yap. Together, the FSM comprises approximately 607 small islands in the Western Pacific spreading over almost 1,700 miles from east to west just above the equator some 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii and about 1,800 miles north of eastern Australia above Papua New Guinea.
On the globe, Pohnpei can be found due North of Australia's East coast slightly above the equator.
While the FSM's total land area is quite small and amounts to approximately 270 square miles, it occupies more than one million square miles of the Pacific Ocean. It ranges from Kosrae farthest to the East, then to Pohnpei, Chuuk, and finally to Yap farthest to the West. Each of the four States is centered around one or more main high islands, and all but Kosrae include numerous outlying atolls.
At over 2,500 feet, Pohnpei's tallest peaks are lush and verdant towering above a gentle talus slope at lower elevations around its 80 mile circumference.
The FSM was formerly a part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), but formed its own constitutional government on May 10, 1979. Other neighboring island entities, and also members of the TTPI, formulated their own constitutional governments and became the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the Republic of Palau (ROP). The FSM is an independent, sovereign nation with a seat in the United Nations.
The population of Pohnpei is approximately 34,000. Pohnpei is more ethnically diverse than any other island in the FSM. This is largely due to it being home to the capitol of the national government, which employs hundreds of people from the other FSM States having distinct ethnic and cultural origins. The indigenous makeup also includes people from the outer islands within the State, which comprise multiple regional ethnicities.
The majority of the population consider themselves ethnic Pohnpeian but from more than a century of foreign occupation Pohnpei is truly the FSM's melting pot, a veritable hodge-podge mix of Austral-Asian Pacific Islanders and Japanese, German, Spanish, Chamorro, Pilipino, American, Australian and other Western European people.
History
Pohnpei was first sighted by the Russian navigator Fyodor Litke in 1828. From the mid 1800s to early 1900s, whalers, missionaries, the Spanish and Germans came to/took over the island. The island was a Japanese territory in World War II, Japan having acquired Pohnpei along with the rest of the Carolines, the Marshalls, and the Marianas (less American-owned Guam) as war reparations from Germany. However, the island was one of those bypassed by the US Navy during the island-hopping amphibious campaigns of 1943-1945. The military facilities were shelled on several occasions, including by the battleships USS Massachusetts (BB-59) and Iowa (BB-61), as well as being attacked by the aircraft of Cowpens (CVL-25). In 1945, when the Japanese lost the war, all Japanese citizens were forced off the island. Many of their Pohnpeian families remained.
The Federated States of Micronesia achieved independence in 1986.
It has long since been a tucked away tropical haven under indirect U.S. control.
Surfing
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With its spectacular and relatively unspoiled coral reefs, Pohnpei has long had a following among deep-sea fishermen and SCUBA enthusiasts. But it was not until recently that Pohnpei was thrust into the international surfing limelight.
Pohnpei is host to Palikir Pass, a reef pass often referred to by the surf industry as "P-Pass". Located in Sokehs Municipality and situated in the northwest quadrant of the island's protective barrier reef, it was long known as an underground destination among surfing purists. Pohnpei was first mentioned by name in a 1986 edition of Surfer magazine and was later featured in the magazine's "Surf Report" publication from February 1998.
Although Palikir Pass was also prominently displayed on the cover of "Surfer's" 2000 Collector's Edition, it remained for the most part undiscovered and free from commercial exploitation until 2004.
Dan Malloy and Mike Todd were the first professional surfers to ride Palikir Pass in quality conditions. Renowned photographer Rob Gilley recorded the event and wrote about it without revealing the location in October 2000. The first person to have surfed Palikir Pass is Allan Hamilton. He challenged it alone for years starting in the late 1980s.
Surfing in Pohnpei was pioneered by Hamilton, Mark Hepner and Bruce "Whitey" Talley more than 12 years before others arrived claiming discovery in 2004 or later.
Palikir Pass was the site of the Innaugural Hobgood Challenge (IHC) surfing competition in 2007. The IHC was the first ever professional surfing competition in Pohnpei or the FSM. It was sanctioned by the Association of Surfing Professionals [ASP] as a junior men's event but they declined to acknowledge the location.
Palikir Pass has been recognized as one of the best formed right-hand reef pass surf breaks in the world.
Nearby islands
- The atoll of Pingelap, located several hundred miles to the east of Pohnpei, but part of Pohnpei State, is notable for the prevalence of the extreme form of color blindness known as maskun. Maskun is relatively rare but often shows up in communities with small gene-pools. Pingelap was featured in the book, The Island of the Colorblind, by neurologist Oliver Sacks.
- The ancient artificial islands of Nan Madol are near to Pohnpei.
- Oroluk Atoll
Government and Politics
Municipalities
References
Pohnpei in fiction
Pohnpei plays a central role in the fictional Cthulhu Mythos, in which it is only about ten days journey by fast ship from the fictional island of R'lyeh, the place where the fictional character Cthulhu currently resides. Several stories by H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth and others use this island as a setting or contain references to it.
Pohnpei's role in the Mythos was inspired by the ruins of Nan Madol (see above), which had already been used as the setting for a lost race story by Abraham Merritt, The Moon Pool, in which the islands are called Nan-Tauach. Some people believe Nan Madol to be connected to the lost continent of Lemuria.
Books
- The Island of the Colour-blind, Oliver Sacks, Publisher: Pan Macmillan (June 6, 1997), paperback, ISBN 0-330-35234-2.