View source for Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands)

{{short description|Largest of the Pitcairn Islands, British Overseas Territories}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox UNESCO World Heritage Site
| WHS         = Henderson Island
| image       = Henderson Island Map.jpg
| caption     = Map of Henderson Island
| location    = [[Pacific Ocean]]
| Type        = Natural
| criteria    = vii, x
| ID          = 487
| year        = 1988
| website     = {{URL|https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/487}}
| locmapin    = Pacific Ocean
| map_caption = Location of Henderson Island in the Pacific Ocean
| relief      = 1
| coordinates = {{coord|24|22|30|S|128|19|30|W|display=inline,title}}
}}

'''Henderson Island''' is an uninhabited island in the south [[Pacific Ocean]]. It is part of the [[Pitcairn Islands|Pitcairn Island Group]], together with [[Pitcairn Island|Pitcairn]], [[Oeno Island|Oeno]], and [[Ducie Island|Ducie]] Islands. Measuring {{convert|9.6|by(x)|5.1|km|mi}}, it has an area of {{cvt|37.3|km2|sqmi}} and is located {{cvt|193|km|nmi mi}} northeast of [[Pitcairn Island]], which is the only inhabited island of the group. It has poor soil and little fresh water, and is unsuitable for agriculture. There are three beaches on the northern end and the remaining coast comprises steep (mostly undercut) cliffs up to {{cvt|15|m|ft|round=5}} in height. In 1902, it was annexed to the [[Pitcairn Islands]] colony, which is now a [[British Overseas Territories|British Overseas Territory]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lasky |first=Jack |date=2024 |title=Henderson Island |url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/henderson-island |access-date=2025-10-04 |website=EBSCO Research}}</ref>

Henderson is one of the last two [[raised coral atoll]]s in the world whose ecosystems remain relatively unaffected by human contact, along with [[Aldabra]] in the [[Indian Ocean]]. In 1988, it was designated a [[World Heritage Site]] by the United Nations. Ten of its 51 flowering plants, all four of its land birds and about a third of the identified insects and [[gastropods]] are [[endemic]] – a remarkable diversity given the island's size.<ref name="UNESCO_description" />

== History ==
The island was settled by [[Polynesians]] – possibly as early as 800&nbsp;AD – but by the 1600s it had been abandoned. There is good evidence that the island was continuously occupied for a 600-year period sometime between those dates.<ref name = Weisler1/> The reasons for the inhabitants' disappearance remain uncertain, but they may relate to an exhaustion of resources<ref name = Weisler1/> and to the disappearance around the same time of the Polynesians on [[Pitcairn Islands|Pitcairn Island]], on whom those on Henderson will have relied for many of the basics of life, especially for the stone needed to make tools.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Diamond |first=Jared |title=Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed |year=2005 |publisher=Penguin Group |isbn=0-670-03337-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/collapsehowsocie00diam}}</ref> The Pitcairn Polynesians may in turn have disappeared because of the decline of nearby [[Mangareva]]; thus, Henderson was at the end of a chain of small, dependent colonies of Mangareva.<ref name = Weisler1>{{cite journal |last=Weisler |first=Marshall I. |title=Henderson Island prehistory: colonization and extinction on a remote Polynesian island |journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society |volume=56 |issue=1–2 |pages=377–404 |year=1995 |doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.1995.tb01099.x |doi-access=}}</ref> The Polynesians that disappeared may have later migrated further to a bigger island to the east in [[Easter Island]], for it has been noted that the jumping-off points for the early [[Polynesians|Polynesian]] colonization of Easter Island originally from Mangareva are more likely to have been from Pitcairn and Henderson, which lie about halfway between Mangareva and Easter.<ref name=":0" /> Great similarity between the [[Rapa Nui language]] and [[Mangareva language|Early Mangarevan]],<ref name=":0" /> similarities between a statue found in Pitcairn and some found in Easter Island,<ref name=":0" /> resemblance of tool styles in Easter Island to those in Mangareva and Pitcairn,<ref name=":0" /> and correspondences of skulls found in Easter Island to two found in Henderson<ref name=":0" /> all suggest that Henderson and Pitcairn were early Mangareva stepping-stones to Easter Island,<ref name=":0" /> which, in 1999, [[Hōkūleʻa#Closing the Triangle (1999–2000)|a voyage with reconstructed traditional Polynesian boats]] was able to reach from Mangareva after merely a seventeen-and-a-half-day voyage.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web |title=The Voyage to Rapa Nui 1999–2000 |url=http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/hawaiian/voyaging/pvs/rapanuiback.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101112064209/http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/hawaiian/voyaging/pvs/rapanuiback.html |archive-date=12 November 2010 |publisher=Polynesian Voyaging Society}}</ref>

On 29 January 1606, Portuguese captain [[Pedro Fernandes de Queirós]], leading a Spanish expedition in search of the fabled great south land ([[Terra Australis]]), was the first European to see the island, and named it ''San Juan Bautista''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brand |first=Donald D. |title=The Pacific Basin: A History of its Geographical Explorations |publisher=The American Geographical Society |location=New York |year=1967 |page=136}}</ref> More than 200 years later, on 17 January 1819, Captain Henderson of the [[East India Company|British East India Company]] ship ''Hercules'' rediscovered the island. Six weeks later, on 2 March 1819, Captain Henry King, of the ''Elizabeth'', landed on the island to find the king's colours already flying. His crew scratched the name of their ship into a tree, and for a while the island was known as both Elizabeth and Henderson Island. Thomas Raine, master of the ship ''Surry'' of London, named it Henderson's Island because it appeared to him, from a conversation he had with James Henderson at [[Valparaíso]], to have been Henderson's discovery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dehner |first=Steve |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LraODwAAQBAJ&q=armchair+navigator+steve+dehner&pg=PA1 |title=The Armchair Navigator I |date=2020 |access-date=26 April 2021 |archive-date=1 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901041357/https://books.google.com/books?id=LraODwAAQBAJ&q=armchair+navigator+steve+dehner&pg=PA1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 20 November 1820, a [[sperm whale]] rammed and sank the Nantucket [[whaler|whaleship]] [[Essex (whaleship)|''Essex'']] (a report of which inspired [[Herman Melville]] to write ''[[Moby-Dick]]''), and the ship's 20 crewmen arrived at Henderson on 20 December in three small [[whaleboat]]s. They found the island's only known drinkable water source – a brackish spring on the north shore, exposed at half tide – and ate fish, birds, eggs, crabs and [[Lepidium|peppergrass]], but within a week they had largely exhausted the readily available food. Therefore, on 27 December, the three boats set sail for South America, leaving behind Thomas Chappel, Seth Weeks and William Wright, who chose to stay and survived until their rescue several months later, on 9 April 1821.<ref name="Heffernan1990">{{cite book |author-first=Thomas Farel |author-last=Heffernan |title=Stove by a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qgaD97DaxfQC&pg=PA84 |access-date=25 July 2013 |date=1990 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6244-9 |pages=62–84 |archive-date=16 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716050902/https://books.google.com/books?id=qgaD97DaxfQC&pg=PA84 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1902, Henderson Island, along with [[Oeno Island|Oeno]] and [[Ducie Island|Ducie]] islands, was formally annexed to the [[British Empire]] by Captain G. F. Jones, who visited the islands in a cutter with a crew of Pitcairn Islanders. In August 1937, [[HMNZS Leander|HMS ''Leander'']], on a journey from Europe to New Zealand, carried out an aerial survey of Henderson, Oeno and Ducie, and, on each island, a British flag was planted and an inscription was nailed up proclaiming: "This island belongs to [[Britannic Majesty|H.B.M.]] King George VI".<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Rehder HA |author2=Randall JE |date=15 January 1975 |title=Ducie Atoll: Its history, physiography and biota |journal=Atoll Research Bulletin |pages=1–55 |volume=183 |url=http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/atollresearchbulletin/issues/00183.pdf |doi=10.5479/si.00775630.183.1 |access-date=6 June 2013 |archive-date=18 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518120738/http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/atollresearchbulletin/issues/00183.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Henderson.JPG|thumb|Henderson Island]]
In 1957, a 27-year-old American, Robert Tomarchin, lived the life of a castaway on the island for approximately two months, accompanied by a pet chimpanzee, apparently as a publicity stunt, until people from Pitcairn rescued him in two longboats.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/pitcairn/monkey.shtml |first=Mark |last=Winthrop |title=The Henderson Island monkey story |access-date=21 May 2011 |archive-date=16 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016041909/http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/pitcairn/monkey.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the early 1980s, the American businessman [[Arthur M. Ratliff|Arthur "Smiley" Ratliff]] expressed interest in establishing a mansion for himself on the island, with an airstrip.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Serpell J |issue=5 May 1983 |journal=New Scientist |page=320 |title=Desert island risk |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fdvrCZFHhGgC&pg=PA320 |date=1983 |access-date=14 September 2020 |archive-date=1 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901041357/https://books.google.com/books?id=fdvrCZFHhGgC&pg=PA320 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Island Council (Pitcairn)|Pitcairn Island Council]] approved his plans but, after environmentalists lobbied to protect the natural ecology and environment of the island, the British [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]] overrode the decision and vetoed the proposed development. Henderson Island was listed as a [[World Heritage Site]] in 1988.<ref name="UNESCO_description">{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/487 |title=UNESCO World Heritage listing |access-date=21 May 2011 |archive-date=2 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802131945/http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/487 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019, a group of scientists, journalists, film makers, and artists took part in an expedition to Henderson Island to investigate [[plastic pollution]] and marine litter on the island. Five members of the expedition became stranded on the island when their inflatable craft capsized.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vance/McGregor |first1=Andrea/Iain |title=Desert Island Dump |url=https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/07/henderson-island-rubbish-plastic-ocean-waste/chapter1/ |access-date=25 July 2019 |publisher=Stuff |date=25 July 2019 |archive-date=26 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726144119/https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/07/henderson-island-rubbish-plastic-ocean-waste/chapter1/ |url-status=live }}</ref>  In 2021, Pitcairn Islanders participated in a scientific expedition to assess the effects of climate change.<ref>{{cite web |last=Vance |first=Andrea |title=Pitcairn Islanders refuse to let Covid-19 halt vital climate change research |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126192391/pitcairn-islanders-refuse-to-let-covid19-halt-vital-climate-change-research |publisher=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]] |date=29 August 2021 |access-date=29 August 2021 |archive-date=29 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210829182728/https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126192391/pitcairn-islanders-refuse-to-let-covid19-halt-vital-climate-change-research |url-status=live }}</ref>

In March 2022 a [[Royal Navy]] survey by [[HMS Spey (P234)|HMS ''Spey'']], as part of an effort to update maritime charts regarding British Overseas Territories, found the island to be {{convert|1|nmi|lk=in}} south of its indicated position. The existing data dates to an [[aerial survey]] in 1937, indicating a calculation error when the chart was produced.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mehta |first1=Amar |title=Royal Navy finds uninhabited Henderson Island has been marked on charts in the wrong place for 85 years |url=https://news.sky.com/story/royal-navy-finds-uninhabited-henderson-island-has-been-marked-on-charts-in-the-wrong-place-for-85-years-12563407 |publisher=[[Sky News]] |date=11 March 2022 |archive-date=11 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311165149/https://news.sky.com/story/royal-navy-finds-uninhabited-henderson-island-has-been-marked-on-charts-in-the-wrong-place-for-85-years-12563407 }}</ref>

== Natural resources ==
Since the introduction of aluminium-hulled long-boats in the 20th century, Pitcairners have made regular trips to Henderson to harvest the wood of [[Thespesia populnea|''miro'']] and [[Cordia subcordata|''tou'']] trees. Usually, they venture to Henderson once per year, but they may make up to three trips if the weather is favourable. Pitcairners carve the wood into [[:wikt:curio|curios]] for tourists, from which they derive much of their income.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ukotcf.org/pdf/henderson.pdf |first1=M. de L. |last1=Brooke |first2=I. |last2=Hepburn |first3=R. J. |last3=Trevelyan |title=Henderson Island World Heritage Site Management Plan 2004–2009 |publisher=Foreign and Commonwealth Office |location=London |year=2004 |page=19 |access-date=31 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070719142224/http://www.ukotcf.org/pdf/Henderson.pdf |archive-date=19 July 2007 }}</ref>

== Geography ==
[[File:Henderson01 AKK.jpg|right|thumb|A view along the northern beach]]
Henderson Island is a [[raised coral atoll]] that, with [[Pitcairn Island|Pitcairn]], [[Ducie Island|Ducie]] and [[Oeno Island|Oeno]] islands, forms the [[Pitcairn Islands|Pitcairn Island Group]]. The nearest major landmass is the continent of South America, more than {{cvt|5000|km|nmi mi}} away to the east. This [[coral]] [[limestone]] island sits atop a [[conical]] (presumed volcanic) mound, rising from a depth of roughly {{cvt|3500|m}}. Its surface is mostly reef-rubble and dissected limestone – an extremely rugged mixture of steep, jagged pinnacles and shallow sinkholes. The island is mostly encircled by steep limestone cliffs up to {{cvt|15|m|ft|round=5}} high.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.travellerspoint.com/guide/Henderson_Island/ |title=Henderson Island |publisher=Travellers Point |access-date=12 August 2023}}</ref>

There are three main beaches, on the northwest, north, and northeast shores, and the north and northwest beaches are fringed by reefs. The depression at the island's centre is thought to be a raised lagoon. There is only one known [[potable]] water source, a brackish spring on the north shore exposed at half tide, rising from a crevice in flat rock, large surfaces of which compose the face of the beach. The surrounding ocean tidal range is about {{convert|1|m|ftin}} at [[spring tide]].<ref name="UNESCO_description" />

== Flora ==
[[File:Milo closeup.jpg|thumb|''[[Thespesia populnea]]'']]
Apart from five species bordering the beaches, including coconut palms, the vegetation is undisturbed. Henderson Island is covered by {{convert|5|to|10|m|0|adj=on}} tall tangled [[scrub forest]], more thinly covered in the central depression. It has 51 native species of flowering plants, ten of which are [[endemic]] to the island. Dominant tree species include [[coconut palms]], ''[[Pandanus tectorius]]'','' [[Thespesia populnea]]'' (miro), ''[[Heliotropium foertherianum]]'', ''[[Cordia subcordata]]'' (tou), ''[[Guettarda speciosa]]'', ''[[Pisonia grandis]]'', ''[[Geniostoma hendersonense]]'', ''[[Nesoluma st-johnianum]]'', ''[[Hernandia stokesii]]'', ''[[Myrsine hosakae]]'', and ''[[Celtis|Celtis sp.]]''<ref name="Graves_1992">{{cite journal |author=Graves GR |title=The endemic land birds of Henderson Island, Southeastern Polynesia: Notes on natural history and conservation |journal=The Wilson Journal of Ornithology |volume=104 |issue=1 |pages=32–43 |year=1992 |url=https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v104n01/p0032-p0043.pdf |jstor=4163114 |access-date=29 January 2018 |archive-date=4 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200704162639/https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v104n01/p0032-p0043.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Fauna ==
[[File:ViniStepheniGronvold.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Henderson lorikeet]] (''Vini stepheni''), also known as the Stephen's lorikeet, is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae, [[endemic]] to Henderson Island.]]

=== Birds ===
The island has been identified by [[BirdLife International]] as an [[Important Bird Area]] for its endemic landbirds and breeding seabirds.<ref>BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Henderson Island. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710124603/http://www.birdlife.org/ |date=10 July 2007 }} on 21 January 2012.</ref>  The island is home to four extant endemic land bird species – the [[Henderson fruit dove]], [[Stephen's lorikeet|Henderson lorikeet]], [[Henderson reed warbler]] and the flightless [[Henderson crake]]. Of the fifteen non-endemic [[seabird]] species found, nine or more are believed to breed on the island.<ref name="UNESCO_description" /> Breeding colonies of the globally endangered [[Henderson petrel]] formerly existed on Ducie but were wiped out by invasive rats by 1922. It is believed to now nest uniquely on Henderson Island.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2010/11/n011p047.pdf |title=Potential for rat predation to cause decline of the globally threatened Henderson petrel ''Pterodroma atrata'': evidence from the field, stable isotopes and population modelling |date=10 March 2010 |access-date=16 May 2017 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304063445/http://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2010/11/n011p047.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> 

Three species of the family [[Columbidae]] – the [[Henderson ground dove]], the [[Henderson imperial pigeon]] and the [[Henderson archaic pigeon]]<ref>{{cite book |editor1=Clark, G. |editor2=Leach, F. |editor3=O'Connor, S. |author1=Worthy, Trevor H. |author2=Wragg, Graham M.  |date=2008 |chapter=A new genus and species of pigeon (Aves: Columbidae) from Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group |title=Terra Australis 29. Islands of Inquiry: Colonisation, seafaring and the archaeology of maritime landscapes |pages=499–510 |publisher=ANU E Press, The Australian National University, Canberra |isbn=978-1-921313-89-9 |url=http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p26551/pdf/ch31.pdf}}</ref> – as well as the [[Henderson sandpiper]], were formerly endemic to the island, but became extinct around 1000&nbsp;AD after the arrival of Polynesians. Remains of an undescribed subspecies of the still-extant [[Pacific swallow|Pacific Swallow]] have also been found. Bones associated with prehistoric Polynesian settlement sites dating to somewhere between 500 and 800 years ago include those of the [[Polynesian storm petrel]], and of [[Christmas shearwater]] and [[red-footed booby]] that still visit but no longer nest. It is hypothesized that the Polynesian settlers may have driven these bird species, along with six terrestrial snail species, to local extinction, and this loss of a ready and regular food supply may have contributed to the Polynesians' subsequent disappearance.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.pnas.org/content/82/18/6191.full.pdf+html |author=Steadman DW, Olson SL |title=Bird remains from an archaeological site on Henderson Island, South Pacific: Man-caused extinctions on an "uninhabited" island |journal=PNAS |volume=82 |issue=18 |pages=6191–6195 |date=1 September 1985 |doi=10.1073/pnas.82.18.6191 |pmid=16593606 |pmc=391018 |bibcode=1985PNAS...82.6191S |doi-access=free |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924165009/http://www.pnas.org/content/82/18/6191.full.pdf+html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = "Weisler"/>

=== Other animals ===
[[File:Henderson Island-110256.jpg|thumb|[[Hermit crab]]]]
The invertebrate species are largely unknown but a third of [[List of non-marine molluscs of the Pitcairn Islands|the island's known non-marine gastropods]] and insects are endemic.<ref name="UNESCO_description" /> There are also [[crabs]], including [[coconut crabs]]. There are no native mammals but the [[Polynesian rat|Pacific rat]], introduced by Polynesians 800 years ago, abounds.<ref name="birdlife">{{cite web |author=RSPB |url=http://www.birdlife.org/community/2011/12/aircraft-carrier-and-helicopters-come-to-unique-islands-rescue/ |title=Aircraft carrier and helicopters come to unique island's rescue |publisher=BirdLife |date=20 December 2011 |access-date=16 May 2017 |archive-date=19 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719162536/http://www.birdlife.org/community/2011/12/aircraft-carrier-and-helicopters-come-to-unique-islands-rescue/ |url-status=live }}</ref> One species of [[gecko]] (''[[Lepidodactylus lugubris]]'') and three species of [[skink]] (''[[Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus]]'', ''[[Emoia cyanura]]'', ''[[Ornithuroscincus noctua]]'') have been recorded, and are also suggested to have been introduced by Polynesians.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gill|first=B. I. |date=1993 |title=The lizards of the Pitcairn Island Group, South Pacific |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03014223.1993.10422857 |journal=New Zealand Journal of Zoology |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=161–164|doi=10.1080/03014223.1993.10422857 }}</ref> There are also reports of a second unidentified gecko which may be endemic, and [[green sea turtles]] nest on the beaches.<ref>{{cite web |author=Pacific Union College |url=https://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/pitcairn/wetlands_henderson.shtml |title=The Wetlands: Henderson Island |publisher=Pacific Union College |access-date=13 Jan 2025 }}</ref>

=== Biological risk ===
Land bird populations appear to be relatively stable but there is a high risk of introduction to the island of predators, disease vectors, and diseases by unauthorized landings of yachts. Introduction of the Eurasian [[black rat]] or the [[domestic cat]] would be likely to cause almost immediate extinction of the ground-dwelling [[Henderson crake]] and possibly other species. The endemic birds may have no immunity to the fatal [[avian pox]] which is transmitted by biting flies such as [[Hippoboscidae]].<ref name="Graves_1992" />

Between July and November 2011, a partnership of the Pitcairn Islands Government and the [[Royal Society for the Protection of Birds]] implemented a poison baiting programme aimed at eradicating the [[Polynesian rat|Pacific rat]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-241934 |title=Henderson Island Restoration Project |author=Royal Society for the Protection of Birds |access-date=28 May 2012 |archive-date=19 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119045357/http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-241934 |url-status=live }}</ref> Mortality was massive but of the 50,000 to 100,000 population, 60 to 80 individuals survived, and the population has now fully recovered.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Amos |first1=W. |last2=Nichols |first2=H.J. |last3=Churchyard |first3=T. |last4=Brooke |first4=M. de L. |title=Rat eradication comes within a whisker! A case study of a failed project from the South Pacific |journal=Royal Society Open Science |date=20 April 2016 |doi=10.1098/rsos.160110 |pmid=27152226 |volume=3 |issue=4 |article-number=160110 |pmc=4852649 |bibcode=2016RSOS....360110A}}</ref>

== Plastic debris ==
Research published in April 2017<ref name="2017-05-09_PNAS" /> looked at debris on several beaches, and reported "the highest density of [[plastic rubbish]] anywhere in the world" as a result of the [[South Pacific Gyre]]. The beaches contain an estimated 37.7 million items of debris together weighing {{convert|17.6|t|LT ST|abbr=off}}. In a study [[transect]] on North Beach, each day 17 to 268 new items washed up on a {{convert|10|m|0|adj=on}} section. The study noted that purple hermit crabs (''[[Coenobita spinosus]]'') make their homes in plastic containers washed up on beaches, and the debris may reduce shoreline gastropod diversity, may contribute to a reduction in the number of sea turtle laying attempts and may increase the risk of entanglement for coastal-nesting seabirds.<ref name="2017-05-16_ABC">[http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-05-16/plastic-pollution-on-henderson-island-in-south-pacific/8527370 Remote South Pacific island has highest levels of plastic rubbish in the world] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112040438/http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-05-16/plastic-pollution-on-henderson-island-in-south-pacific/8527370 |date=12 November 2020 }}, Dani Cooper, [[ABC News Online]], 16 May 2017</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Hunt |first1=Elle |title=38 million pieces of plastic waste found on uninhabited South Pacific island |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/15/38-million-pieces-of-plastic-waste-found-on-uninhabited-south-pacific-island |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=16 May 2017 |date=15 May 2017 |archive-date=15 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515203345/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/15/38-million-pieces-of-plastic-waste-found-on-uninhabited-south-pacific-island |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=No one lives on this remote Pacific island – but it's covered in 38 million pieces of our trash |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/16/no-one-lives-on-this-remote-pacific-island-but-its-covered-in-38-million-pieces-of-our-trash/ |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=16 May 2017 |archive-date=16 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516204544/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/16/no-one-lives-on-this-remote-pacific-island-but-its-covered-in-38-million-pieces-of-our-trash/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In June 2019, an expedition organised by the UK Government attempted to remove some of the plastic debris from the island's East beach. The team collected six tonnes of rubbish, but weather conditions hampered efforts to take the rubbish off the island.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vance/McGregor |url=https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/07/henderson-island-rubbish-plastic-ocean-waste/chapter2/ |title=Desert Island Dump: Chapter 2 |publisher=Stuff |access-date=26 July 2019 |archive-date=27 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727210211/https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/07/henderson-island-rubbish-plastic-ocean-waste/chapter2/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Vance/McGregor |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/117512804/plastic-rubbish-could-finally-be-removed-from-worlds-most-polluted-place |title=Plastic rubbish could finally be removed from world's most polluted place |website=Stuff |access-date=17 August 2020 |date=16 December 2019 |archive-date=17 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191217045157/https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/117512804/plastic-rubbish-could-finally-be-removed-from-worlds-most-polluted-place |url-status=live }}</ref> Plastic gathered during this expedition was taken for recycling, being manufactured into new objects for use on Pitcairn Island and other island communities in the region.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Abos |first=Maïté |date=2024-01-25 |title=Cleaning up the world's most polluted island |url=https://plasticodyssey.org/en/2024-henderson-island-expedition/ |access-date=2024-02-24 |website=Plastic Odyssey |language=en-US}}</ref> A followup expedition in July 2022 collected further plastic.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/129249667/upsetting-scenes-as-trash-returns-to-previously-cleared-paradise-henderson-island |title=Upsetting scenes as trash returns to previously cleared paradise, Henderson Island |publisher=Stuff |author=Andrea Vance |date=17 July 2022 |access-date=12 August 2023}}</ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed">
Henderson Island-110244.jpg|East beach
Henderson Island-110240.jpg|Northwest beach
Henderson Island-110250.jpg|Northwest beach
Henderson Island-110248.jpg|North beach
Henderson Island-110263.jpg|North beach
</gallery>

== References ==
{{reflist|30em |refs = 
<ref name = "Weisler">{{cite journal |first=Marshall I. |last=Weisler |title=The Settlement of Marginal Polynesia: New Evidence from Henderson Island |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |volume=21 |issue=1 |date=Spring 1994 |pages=83–102 |jstor=530246 |doi=10.1179/jfa.1994.21.1.83}}</ref>
<ref name="2017-05-09_PNAS">{{cite journal |last1=Lavers |first1=Jennifer L. |last2=Bond |first2=Alexander L. |year=2017 |title=Exceptional and rapid accumulation of anthropogenic debris on one of the world's most remote and pristine islands |journal=[[PNAS]] |volume=114 |issue=23 |pages=6052–6055 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1619818114 |pmid=28507128 |pmc=5468685 |bibcode=2017PNAS..114.6052L | doi-access = free}}</ref>
}}

== Further reading ==
{{Portal|Islands}}
* [[Jared Diamond]] (2005), ''[[Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed]]'', ch. 3.
* [[Nathaniel Philbrick]] (2001), ''[[In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex]]'', [[Penguin Books]] 2001.
* {{cite book |author=Chase, Owen |title=Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex |publisher=W. B. Gilley |year=1821 |id=No ISBN}} New York.
* {{cite book |author=Nickerson, Thomas |title=The Loss of the Ship "Essex" Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats |publisher=Nantucket Historical Society |year=1984}}
* Kelly, Celsus (1966), ''La Austrialia del Espíritu Santo: the journal of Fray Martin de Munilla, O.F.M., and other documents relating to the voyage of Pedro Fernández de Quirós to the South Sea (1605-1606) and the Franciscan Missionary Plan (1617-1627)'', Cambridge, published by the [[Hakluyt Society]] at [[Cambridge University Press]], (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 2nd ser., no. 126–127).

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070810010855/http://www.winthrop.dk/hender.html The Henderson Island Website]}}
* [https://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=487 Henderson Island – UNESCO]
* [http://www.navegar-es-preciso.com/news/henderson-island/ Isla Henderson] (Spanish)
* [https://www.google.com/maps/@-24.337525,-128.340729,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sxOORDWwQGwQXSDjouKtlBg!2e0!3e5 Google Street View of the north and north-east beaches, May 2013]

{{Pitcairn}}
{{Outlying territories of European countries}}
{{World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:World Heritage Sites in the Pitcairn Islands]]
[[Category:Uninhabited islands of the Pitcairn Islands]]
[[Category:Important Bird Areas of the Pitcairn Islands]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Oceania]]
[[Category:2nd-millennium establishments in the Pitcairn Islands]]
[[Category:1902 establishments in the British Empire]]
[[Category:Atolls of the Pitcairn Islands]]
[[Category:Endemic Bird Areas]]