Ouvéa Island is one of the Loyalty Islands

Loyalty Islands

The Loyalty Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific. They are part of the French territory of New Caledonia, whose mainland is away. They form the Loyalty Islands Province , one of the three provinces of New Caledonia...

, in the archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

 of New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

, an overseas territory of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. The island is part of the commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 (municipality) of Ouvéa

Ouvéa

Ouvéa is a commune in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The settlement of Fayaoué , on Ouvéa Island, is the administrative centre of the commune of Ouvéa. -Geography:...

, in the Islands Province of New Caledonia.

Geography

The crescent-shaped island, which belongs to a larger 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...

, is 50 km (31.1 mi) long and 7 km (4.3 mi) wide. It lies northeast of Grande Terre, New Caledonia's mainland.

Demographics

Ouvéa is home to around 3,000 people that are organized into tribes divided into Polenesian, Melanesian and Walisian by ethnic descend. The Iaai language

Iaai language

The Iaai language is a language of Ouvéa Island, New Caledonia. Although it had only 1,500 speakers as of 1996, it is becoming taught in schools in New Caledonia in an effort to preserve it....

 is spoken on the island.

Flora and fauna

Ouvéa has rich marine resources and is home to many sea turtles, species of fish, coral as well as a native parrot, the Uvea Parakeet

Uvea Parakeet

The Ouvea Parakeet or Uvea Parakeet, is a species of parrot in the genus Eunymphicus, in the Psittacidae family. It is endemic to the island of Uvea in the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia...

, that can only be found on the island of Ouvéa.

A large crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

 called coconut crab

Coconut crab

The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is a species of terrestrial hermit crab, also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper size limit of terrestrial animals with exoskeletons in today's atmosphere at a weight of up to...

or can also be found on the islands. The large crabs live in palm tree plantations and are blue in colour and can grow to several kilos in size. They are a land based species and do not venture into the ocean.

Ouvéa is also home to trophy Bonefish that inhabit the nutrient rich "flats" of the atoll.