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This is the quarterly newsletter for the region.

Atolls and the cyclone hazard : a case study of the Tuamotu islands. = Les atolls et le risque cyclonique : le cas des Tuamotu

The effects of mining on the environment of high islands : a case study of nickel mining in New Caledonia = Les effets de l'exploitation des iles hautes : le cas de l'extration du minerail de nickel en Nouvelle-Caledonie

Satawal is a small flat coral island in the west central Caroline Islands about 1050 km east-south-east of Yap Island, at latitude 7'21' N, longitude 147'02' E. Although its surface is locally somewhat irregular, its greatest height is not more than about 4 meters above mean low water. Its long axis is about east-west and its area is 1.3 square km. It is surrounded by a fringing reef upward of 100 meters wide. It has no lagoon, so would be classified according to Tayama's scheme as a table reef. From the viewpoint of land ecology it is an atoll. The substratum varies from sandy to boulders, with some peat very locally. The beaches are sandy around the western half, of pebbles and cobbles around the eastern half.

Fais (Tromelin) is an elevated coral island, surrounded by interrupted cliffs 15-20 meters high, lying some 140 miles east of Yap Island, at latitude 9'46' N, longitude 140'31' E in the western Caroline Islands. It has an area of 2.8 square km, and has a population of about 300 people, Micronesians, speaking a dialect of the Ulithi-Woleai tongue. As with many such raised coral islands, valuable calcium phosphate deposits occur on Fais, the greater portion of which was removed and exported during the period of Japanese rule (1914-1945).

The Tokelaus are a chain of three atolls, soutii of the Phoenix Group and north of the Sarnoas. Distances (in statute miles) froin Apia, Western Samoa, are approxi~i~ately 300 to Fakaofo, 330 to Nukunono, and 400 to Atafu. Annual rainfall for each atoll is usually in excess of 100 inches but they have experienced long dry spells. llurricanes occasionally pass througii the group and several motus of I4ukunono atoll were swept by waves in the storni of January 29 and 30, 1966.

Rangiroa is the largest atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago, and since the institution of a regular air service, the most accessible; yet in common with other Tuamotuan atolls it has rarely been visited by scientists and is barely mentioned in the literature. Dana (1849) published brief notes following the Wilkes Expedition; but the only full account is that by Agassiz (1903). Agassiz's descriptions are, however, verbose and imprecise, and marred by misinterpretations of major atoll features. In the study of Tuamotuan atolls, a major reference point is provided by the reports of the 1952 Pacific Science Board Expedition to Raroia Atoll, led by N. D. Newell. Major reports resulting from this expedition are those of Newel1 (1953, 1956) on geology and geomorphology; Doty and others (1954), Doty and Morrison (1954), and blorrison (1954) on plant and animal systematics and ecology; Harry (1953) on ichthyology; and Danielsson (1954, 1956) on culture and econoinic life. More recently, Ranson (1962 and earlier papers) has published accounts ofllikueru and other atolls, and detailed work has been carried out in connection with the French weapons tests at Mururoa at the eastern end of the archipelago (Lalou and others 1966, Chauveau and others 1967)

The avifauna of the Marshall and Gilbert Islands and the sur- rounding ocean consists of 79 species, of which 37 are seabirds and 42 are land and fresh-water birds. Of these 79 species, 20 are recorded here for the first time. One species, a procellarid, is recorded here as a new breeding record for the area. In addition, many species are new records for the 50 atolls and islands located within the area. Collected bird specimens from the Marshall-Gilbert area now total 1,133 (44 species), of which 585 (43 species) were collected by the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program. The average number of bird species per island is 13 in the Marshall-Gilbert area. A higher number of species exists in the extreme northern Marshalls than elsewhere in the area; the number decreases southward to the southern Marshalls; an increase occurs in the extreme southern Marshalls and further increases in the Gilberts. This north-south variation may be traced to a number of environmental factors.

A conference for considering and reviewing of SPREP work programme

The South Pacific Commission (SPC) Area (Fig. 18) extends from 130°W to 130°E, on either side of the international dateline, between the two tropics. It is unequally distributed as regards latitude, with two thirds of its area in the Southern Hemisphere and one third in the Northern Hemisphere. Its eastern area corresponds roughly to the central South Pacific, and its western portion to the western Pacific, excluding the areas of the Coral Sea to the South and the Philippine Sea to the North which wash the Australian and Philippines coastlines respectively.