Palmyra Report

[mems]

My friend Greg Moss just got back from guiding on Palmyra Island



He took down a couple of TFO Axiom II X 12wt rods to try out and loved them on big GT's



Really nice Peach trigger



And the bonefishing is just stupid there

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In the 1940s my father was in the US Navy stationed on Palmyra working on aircraft.

In the 1980s I took my father to Christmas Island, very near Palmyra, which he said was very similar.


Some years ago I believe the 'Federal Fish & Wildlife' and the 'Nature Conservancy' bought Palmyra from a private party.

It is now a fantastic place to study the marine life on and around the atoll.

If you donate "a large some of money" to the marine sanctuary I think you can go fishing there.

[peterkoistinen]

Palmyra... I read a really interesting book that was set mostly on Palmyra in the 1970s.

It's a true crime/trial story called "And the Sea Will Tell" by Vincent Bugliosi (he prosecuted Charles Manson, but he's defense attorney in this trial).

There's a movie too, same title. But as always, the book is way better.

It was a fascinating story ( to me anyway)

[mems]

I got to guide there, very fishy, and very sharky. I was in the same concrete pill box where Buck cut up and burned Mac's body and bones. Can still see the burn marks on the floor. Sad thing that is right next to a rope swing and their favorite swimming hole on the main island. Read the book, doesn't tell you how good the fishing is there. The place has an eerie feeling to it.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

There are 4 atolls in that area just above the equator.

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Christmas Island or Kiribati Atoll that is a very famous fisheries with some history too. The British and Americans staged on Christmas to set off the hydrogen bomb tests in the 1950s. Kiritimati (also known as Christmas Island) is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name is derived from the English word "Christmas" written in Gilbertese according to its phonology, in which the combination ti is pronounced s, giving [kiˈrɪsmæs].

The island has the greatest land area of any atoll in the world, about 388 square kilometres (150 square miles);[1] its lagoon is roughly the same size. The atoll is about 150 km (93 mi) in perimeter, while the lagoon shoreline extends for over 48 km (30 mi).[2] Kiritimati comprises over 70% of the total land area of Kiribati, a country encompassing 33 Pacific atolls and islands.[3]

It lies 232 km (144 mi) north of the equator, 2,160 km (1,340 mi) south of Honolulu, and 5,360 km (3,330 mi) from San Francisco. Kiritimati is in the world's farthest forward time zone, UTC+14, and is therefore one of the first inhabited places on Earth to experience New Year's Day. (see also Caroline Atoll, Kiribati). Although it lies 2,460 km (1,530 mi) east of the 180th meridian, the Republic of Kiribati realigned the International Date Line in 1995, placing Kiritimati to the west of the dateline.

Nuclear tests were conducted on and around Kiritimati by the United Kingdom in the late 1950s, and by the United States in 1962. During these tests, the island was not evacuated, exposing the i-Kiribati residents and the British, New Zealand, and Fijian servicemen to nuclear radiation. The entire island is a Wildlife Sanctuary;[4] access to five particularly sensitive areas is restricted.[1]

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Fanning Atoll or Tabuaeran, also known as Fanning Island, is an atoll that is part of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean and part of Kiribati. The land area is 33.73 square kilometers, and the population in 2015 was 2,315. The maximum elevation is about 3 m above high tide. The lagoon has an area of 110 square kilometers.

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Washington Atoll or Teraina is a coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean and part of the Northern Line Islands which belong to Kiribati. Obsolete names of Teraina are New Marquesas, Prospect Island, and New York Island. The island is located approximately 4.71° North latitude and 160.76° West longitude. It has a fresh water lagoon.

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Palmyra Atoll also referred to as Palmyra Island, is one of the Northern Line Islands (southeast of Kingman Reef and north of Kiribati). It is located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly one-third of the way between Hawaii and American Samoa. North America is about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) northeast and New Zealand the same distance southwest, placing the atoll at the approximate center of the Pacific Ocean. The land area is 4.6 sq mi (12 km2), with about 9 miles (14 km) of sea-facing coastline and reef. There is one boat anchorage known as West Lagoon, accessible from the sea by a narrow artificial channel.

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Kingman Reef is a largely submerged, uninhabited, triangle-shaped reef, 9.0 nmi east-west and 4.5 nmi north-south, in the North Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between the Hawaiian Islands and American Samoa. It has an area of 3 hectares and is one of the unincorporated territories of the United States in Oceania.

[mems]

Hey Bill good info on the islands. The first one though is the Australian Christmas Island and not Kiribati in the line islands. I was going to do a trip to CI and then a week on Fanning when Covid hit and cancelled the trip. I might get to Fanning Island next year. Have not fished Washington Island. Palmyra Island was great to fish, but the Nature Conservancy has it under tight regulations. Kingman reef would be a crazy place to fish. They did a study of the biomass in Hawaii and found that 10% of the biomass is apex predators here then it goes down with the majority being small shrimp crustaceans etc. So they thought is was a pyramid type of structure. The same group did a study on palmyra and found that 60% of the biomass there is apex predators like sharks and GTs. Then they took a similar study at Kingman reef and found 80% of the biomass there are apex predators. So we have a totally different view of what a healthy environment looks like. Lots of predators, and all the other fish have to stay in their lane or they get moped up. It seems humans take out the apex predators to get the desired fish them selves and that screws up the natural order. The real world is a dangerous place, we just made it artificial for our consumption and enjoyment.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Opps..........wrong Christmas Island..............thanks Don.



I took groups to Christmas Island 13 times in the 1980s and 1990s.

My wife Marilyn went on 3 of these wonderful trips.

As many other, we got connected to some of the locals and bought them gifts.


We brought them nylon shorts and sports shoes.


John Sullivan on a return trip brought them lots of baseball equipment.


They communicated all over the flat island with old portable CB units.

So we brought them more CBs so they could all stay in touch with each other.


We also brought them old portable Singer sewing machines which was a wonderful thing to have.


Most of our friends over there have passed away now because they only live into their 50s.


Marilyn and I have very fond memories from our trips to Christmas Island.