ZECO TRAVEL TALK

Flint Island is the southernmost of the Line Islands chain, some 720 kilometers NNW of Papeete, Tahiti. It seems likely that Magellan was the first to discover Flint Island on February 4th, 1521. We discovered Flint Island some 487 years later and we couldn’t help but wonder what Flint might have looked like in Magellan’s time.

The following is John Earle’s impression upon our arrival on Flint Island. John is a research associate in Ichthyology at Honolulu’s Bishop Museum and has traveled extensively through this part of the central Pacific Ocean in search of new species. He is one of our on board lecturers and natural history guides on this voyage from Hawaii through the Line Islands and on to French Polynesia.

“From aboard the Clipper Odyssey, Flint Island looked invitingly lush and green, and very unlike dry, desolate Starbuck Island, which would have taxed the survival resources even of wily Gilligan. I stepped ashore from the Zodiac onto a rocky platform and waded through several tide pools filled with cowering fish to a dazzling white sand beach, which encircles the island. Beyond the fringing beach was a thick jungle of coconut and Pisonia trees. It was like a Robinson Crusoe island.

Upon entering the forest, we encountered a colony of nesting black noddies and attracted the attention of white terns, several of which fluttered just above my head, staring intently at me with their dark eyes and uttering cries that sounded like ‘poing, poing.’ We came upon a machine gun pillbox constructed of coral blocks that must have dated from World War II and was now the home of an immense coconut crab, which guarded the entrance with waving claws. I found several other coconut crabs and gingerly brought one out of the jungle for others in the group to admire. This crab was a striking blue, but others we saw were different hues of orange and brown. Several were of such a size that I instinctively backed away. There was no shame in this as these crabs were the size of medicine balls. Their menacing claws are strong enough to rip and shred the shell from a coconut only to crush the meat as though it was a banana. This amazing creature is an endangered species throughout most of its range because it is highly sought after by locals, who have called it a ‘land lobster.’ With no flying insects to pester us, the whole experience was idyllic. I vowed to return someday. Read more