Vostok Island

File:Kiribati-Vostok-highlighted.png

Vostok covers a land area of {{convert|24|ha|abbr=off}}. Its nearest neighbors are Flint Island, {{convert|158|km|mi|abbr=off}} south-southeast; Caroline Atoll (renamed Millennium Island), {{convert|230|km|mi|abbr=off}} to the east; and Penrhyn, {{convert|621|km|mi|abbr=off}} to the west. It is {{convert|1.3|km|mi|1|abbr=off}} in length, and is triangular-shaped.{{cite web |last = Resture |first =Jane | work= janeresture.com |title= Vostok Island, Line Islands |url= http://www.janeresture.com/kiribati_line/vostok.htm| access-date=15 May 2015}}

Beaches on the island range between {{convert|25|and|30|m|ft|abbr=off}} wide, composed of coral sand and rubble. There is no lagoon or fresh water on the island, and no known freshwater lens. Vostok's major portion is covered with a pure stand of Pisonia trees rooted in moist peat soil one meter thick.{{cite journal |url=https://vl-nocache.eightyoptions.com.au/sites/default/files/66_1.pdf |last1=Clapp |first1=Roger B. |last2=Sibley |first2=Fred C. |title=The vascular flora and terrestrial vertebrates of Vostok Island, South-Central Pacific |journal=Atoll Research Bulletin |volume=144 |date=16 February 1971 |pages=1–9 |doi=10.5479/si.00775630.144.1 |access-date=27 October 2021}} These trees, with heights of up to {{convert|30|m|ft|abbr=off}}, grow so densely that no other plants can grow beneath them.

The island's dense foliage looks dark from when viewed above. This gives the island the appearance of a mysterious black hole when seen on Google Earth which generated speculation in 2021, leading to many to believe that the island is being censored from public view. However this conclusion is easily refuted by other mapping services and publicly available images. {{citation |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/59164705 |publisher=BBC |title=The mystery behind Google Maps' 'black hole' in the Pacific Ocean |date=5 Nov 2021}}

The herbs Boerhavia repens and Sesuvium portulacastrum round out the known vegetation.{{cite web |url=https://www.sprep.org/attachments/Publications/BEM/Directory_Wetlands_Kiribati_2014.pdf |title=Directory of Wetlands of Kiribati - 2014 |last1=Watkins |first1=Doug |last2=Batoromaio |first2=Kiritian |publisher=SPREP |date=2014 |page=87 |access-date=27 October 2021}} Although coconut seedlings were planted on Vostok in 1922 they failed to grow despite being successfully cultivated on the nearby islands of Caroline and Flint.

Noteworthy fauna includes several species of seabirds, including the red-footed booby (Sula sula), great frigatebird (Fregata minor), lesser frigatebird (F. ariel), black noddy (Anous minutus), white tern (Gygis alba), masked booby (Sula dactylatra), brown booby (S. leucogaster) and brown noddy (Anous stolidus). The Polynesian rat and the copper-tailed skink (Emoia cyanura), together with coconut crabs and green turtles, completes the known land fauna.

According to a 1966 article in Pacific Islands Monthly, there is no evidence of Polynesian settlement of Vostok Island prior to European discovery. Cook Islanders from Manihiki and Penrhyn atoll – the nearest inhabited islands to Vostok – interviewed in 1924 reported that they had no name for the island and were unaware of its existence.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-331794890/view?sectionId=nla.obj-338884887 |title=Vostok Island's History Is Yet To Be Made |work=Pacific Islands Monthly |volume=37 |issue=9 |pages=86–87 |date=1 September 1966 |access-date=27 October 2021 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The island was first sighted in 1820 by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named the island for his ship Vostok (the name means "East" in Russian). Various whalers sighted the island over the following decades and believed it to be undiscovered, giving it the additional names of Stavers Island, Reaper Island, Leavitts Island and Anne Island.

In 1841, the island was visited by USS Porpoise of the United States Exploring Expedition, which was unable to land due to heavy surf. Vostok was claimed by the United States under the Guano Act of 1856, but was never mined for phosphate. In 1874, guano entrepreneur John T. Arundel was granted licence to the island by the British Colonial Office. The coal barque Tokatea was wrecked on the island in 1879, with its crew making the first recorded landing and subsequently escaping to Tetiꞌaroa in the ship's boats. Arundel visited Vostok in 1883 to assess its potential and completed a survey for the Admiralty Office.

Vostok formed part of the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, until becoming a part of newly independent Kiribati in 1979. American claims on the island were vacated in the Treaty of Tarawa in the same year.{{cite web |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1836.htm |title=US Department of State Background Note |website=2009-2017.state.gov |date= |access-date=}}

Vostok Island is designated as the Vostok Island Wildlife Sanctuary.{{cite web |author1=Edward R. Lovell |author2=Taratau Kirata |author3=Tooti Tekinaiti | work= Centre IRD de Nouméa |title= Status report for Kiribati's coral reefs|date =September 2002 |url= http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers14-11/010032214.pdf| access-date=15 May 2015}}{{cite book| last = Paine | first = James R.| title = IUCN Directory of Protected Areas in Oceania | publisher = World Conservation Union| year = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-8248-1217-1}} In 2014 the Kiribati government announced the establishment of a 12-nautical-mile fishing exclusion zone around each of the southern Line Islands (Caroline, Flint, Vostok, Malden, and Starbuck).{{cite web| last = Warne| first = Kennedy| work = National Geographic| title = A World Apart – The Southern Line Islands| date = September 2014| url = http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/explore/pristine-seas/southern-line-islands/| access-date = 15 May 2015| archive-date = 21 August 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170821050200/http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/explore/pristine-seas/southern-line-islands/| url-status = dead}}

Its isolated nature means it is rarely visited, save by the occasional scientist or yachter. Passengers aboard the Golden Princess see it on the ship's route from French Polynesia to Hawaii. Landing is said to be difficult, and no harbor or anchorage exists.

File:Vostok AKK wind-shorn Pisonia.jpg|Wind-shorn Pisonia trees on Vostok Island

File:Vostok AKK Pisonia.jpg|Virgin forest of Pisonia trees covering Vostok Island

File:Vostok AKK Coast.jpg|Western coastline of Vostok Island

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• [http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/explore/pristine-seas/southern-line-islands/ National Geographic - Southern Line Islands Expedition, 2014] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170821050200/http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/explore/pristine-seas/southern-line-islands/ |date=2017-08-21 }}
• [http://www.janeresture.com/kiribati_line/vostok.htm Article at Jane's Oceania Home Page] - includes a sketch map
• [http://www.theoceanadventure.com/NemoIE03/DAY19Nemo.html Article at Looking For Nemo Expedition's site] - includes photo and sketch map
• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101223043232/http://www.oceandots.com/pacific/line/vostok.php |date=December 23, 2010 |title=Oceandots - Vostok Island }} - satellite photograph

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Category:Uninhabited islands of Kiribati

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