Tabuaeran: lagoon shore at dusk

Tabuaeran is an atoll—one of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean—located at Latitude 3° 51' 36" North – Longitude 159° 21' 52" West. The island is also known as Fanning Atoll (both names are recognised by Kiribati constitution). The maximum elevation is about 3 m (10 ft) above high tide.

Tabuaeran has a population of 1,900, principally Gilbertese settlers brought from Kiribati by Fanning Island Plantations, Ltd, to work in the copra industry (copra is the meat of the coconut). Reef fishes and shellfishes, babai, coconut, pigs, chickens, and seaweed (limu) grown in lagoon are local foods, supplementing a main diet of imported rice and tinned meats.

Tabuaeran is a weekly port of call for the Norwegian Star (Norwegian Cruise Lines) whose base port is Honolulu. The island's major exports are copra and hand crafts (including cowrie shell, shark tooth knives, and stamps). A supply ship from Australia calls two or three times a year.

History

At some 900 miles distant, Tabuaeran is one of the closest landfalls to the Hawaiian Islands, and the atoll was possibly used as a stopover by the Polynesians who first settled Hawai'i. Artifacts have been discovered that indicate possible early settlements by people from Polynesia — probably the Cook Islands and Tonga.

The atoll was first charted by the American Captain Edmond Fanning on November 6, 1798, on the USS Betsy and was named for him. At the time, the atoll was uninhabited, and in fact, like all of the Line Islands, has no truly native population.

Fanning was next claimed by the British in 1889, who blasted coral heads in the deep, natural opening— thereafter called English Channel—on the west side of the lagoon. Tabuaeran once hosted a station on the Trans-Pacific cable between Canada and Australia, a part of the All Red Line. In 1914 (World War I), the Cable Station was shelled by a German gunboat, and the station slightly damaged. In 1939 the atoll was incorporated into the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, much later (1979) gaining independence as part of the Republic of Kiribati.