Ducie Atoll

Ducie Atoll rises barely above a remote expanse of the South Pacific, east of Pitcairn and Henderson. Its lagoon is enclosed by four low islets, Acadia, Pandora, Westward and Edwards. The whole formation is only about one and a half miles long and one mile wide, with the water of the lagoon included in that modest area. No permanent population gives the place the character of a settlement; its importance lies in the landfall it offers amid open ocean and in the life gathered upon its shores.

The atoll’s sparse cover is deceptive. It shelters nesting grounds used by large numbers of seabirds, including more than ninety percent of the world population of Murphy’s petrel. Christmas shearwaters, red-tailed tropicbirds and white terns also breed there in significant numbers. Green turtles feed in the surrounding water, although they have not been recorded nesting on the atoll.

Spanish explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós first sighted the atoll in 1606 and called it Luna Puesta. In 1791 Edward Edwards reached it during the search for the Bounty mutineers and named it after Baron Ducie. Its isolation has long protected the bird colonies.