Cook Islands Govt.

casts covetous eye on land beneath the sea

By a staff writer

THE newly self-governing Cook Islands, whose total land area is only 92i square miles, has been thinking recently in terms of terri torial aggrandisement.

With no islands left to annex or fight over in its immediate vicinity, the Cook Islands Government has shown an interest in taking possession of Beveridge Reef, an under-sea “atoll”, about 125 miles south-east of Niue, and 290 miles east-north-east of the nearest Cook Island, Palmerston.

The government’s original reason for wanting to own the reef was that it thought it might abound in crayfish like partly-exposed South Minerva Reef, which was annexed to Tonga for this reason last November.

Many sharks

However, when the Cook Is lands trader Tagua visited Beve ridge Reef in April to investigate its crayfish potential, her crew found only one crayfish—and this was so “skinny” that the man who caught it thought “it must have been starving”.

On the other hand, the lagoon of the reef was found to be so infested with sharks that the Tagua’s crew could see “at least a dozen at all times” during the two days she stayed there. Parrot fish, gropers and many other fish also abounded.

The numerous sharks could constitute sufficient reason for the Cook Islands Government to annex the reef, as shark liver is now in demand for medical use and fetches high prices.

If an annexation ceremony should take place, it will be the first specific annexation of an un exposed reef in the South Pacific, although PIM understands that the search for oil has led to cases else where, in such places as the Carib bean.

An article in the official Cook Islands News by the editor, Mr.

Walter Hambuechen, says the

Cook Islands Government has made representations to the New Zealand Department of External Affairs on a claim for sovereignty over Beveridge Reef.

The reef is so little visited and, until the Tagua’s visit, so little was known about it that even the Pacific Islands Pilot does not give its position.

However, Captain Don Silk, of the Tagua, took sights to establish this and found it to be: 20 deg. 02 min. S. latitude, and 167 deg. 46 min. W. longitude. This put the reef six miles from its charted position!

Mr. Hambuechen’s article on the Tagua’s visit says the lagoon at the reef is about the same size as Palmerston Island (i.e., about six square miles), A ring of breakers smashes on the reef, but the waters within the lagoon are still.

The reef is barely two feet under water. The deepest depth within the lagoon is about seven fathoms.

The Tagua entered the lagoon through a turbulent pass about 300 ft wide, with a depth of about 14 fathoms. She anchored about half a mile inside, and the crew explored it in an outboard boat.

“One of the most unusual things about Beveridge,” Captain Silk re ported, “is the amount of dead coral. Most of the lagoon floor is pure white sand, smooth and even. The only living coral ap pears just within the inner edge of the reef descending into the lagoon.”

"Poor prospects"

The Tagua’s crew saw two varieties of shark—the white tipped type, which appeared the more common, and the “quick tempered” papera, which is much respected by Cook Islands divers.

The men speared many fish, but saw no pearl shell.

Mr. Hambuechen said in his article that, with no pearl shell and no crayfish. Captain Silk was of the opinion that Beveridge Reef presented poor prospects of ex ploitation.

But he added: “The vast num bers of sharks might at some time present a possibility. Life maga zine for April 3, 1967, notes that the price of shark liver once rose to £5OO a ton, and today new medical uses have been discovered for the liver.”