Indispensable Reef - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Indispensable Reefs are a chain of three large coral atoll

Atoll

An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...

s in the Coral Sea

Coral Sea

The Coral Sea is a marginal sea off the northeast coast of Australia. It is bounded in the west by the east coast of Queensland, thereby including the Great Barrier Reef, in the east by Vanuatu and by New Caledonia, and in the north approximately by the southern extremity of the Solomon Islands...

. They are located about 50 km south of Rennell Island

Rennell Island

Rennell Island, locally known as Mungava, is the main island of two inhabited islands that make up the Rennell and Bellona Province in the Solomon Islands. Rennell Island has a land area of that is about long and wide. It is the second largest raised coral atoll in the world with the largest lake...

, separated from it by Rennel Trough. The chain stretches over a length of 114 km and its average width is 18 km.

Administratively the Indispensable Reef belongs to the Rennell and Bellona Province of the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

.

The three atolls are steep-to and each encloses a large deep lagoon

Lagoon

A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...

. They are separated by deep passages two to three km wide. of the Indispensable Reef are aligned in a NW-SE direction:

North Reef is 18 km long, and up to 7 km wide. The rim of the atoll has two narrow openings in the north and northwest. The reef has a total area of 100 km², including lagoon and reef flat. There are no islets.

Middle Reef is 51 km long. Little Nottingham Islet is a small islet located near the center of the reef. Besides its main lagoon, Middle Reef has a separate smaller northern lagoon. The total area is about 300 km².

South Reef is 21 km long and up to 8 km wide. It encloses a lagoon 18 to 35 meters deep. The total area exceeds 100 km².

History

The ship Neptune struck Indispensable Reef on August 3 1868 and was lost. The crew was rescued by the SS Boomerang.

During the Battle of the Coral Sea

Battle of the Coral Sea

The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4–8 May 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged...

on May 7, 1942 a two Japanese carrier attack planes B5N2

Nakajima B5N

|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Bridgwater, H.C. and Peter Scott. Combat Colours Number 4: Pearl Harbor and Beyond, December 1941 to May 1942. Luton, Bedfordshire, UK: Guideline Publications, 2001. ISBN 0-9539040-6-7....

(EI-306 and probably EI-302) flying reconnaissance mission from the carrier Shokaku

Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku

Shōkaku was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the lead ship of her class. Along with her sister ship , she took part in several key naval battles during the Pacific War, including the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands...

ditched on Indispensable Reef due to lack of fuel.

In the 1980s the Solomon Islands Government apprehended a vessel from Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

that had been poaching the giant clam

Giant clam

The giant clam, Tridacna gigas , is the largest living bivalve mollusc. T. gigas is one of the most endangered clam species. It was mentioned as early as 1825 in scientific reports...

stocks of Indispensable Reef. Corals and endangered fish species are also being plundered for the aquarium trade.