COCONUT CRABS
There were about twenty people living on the atoll, it was incredible how unexplored this place was compared with most of the other islands in the region. The place is really inaccessible, even by sail boat standards, because to enter the pass you have to navigate an extremely narrow channel with a current running up to 7 knots. It was very tense for us to enter as our boat was about 10 meters wide and the channel was maybe 18 meters across so there was not much room for error. Once inside the lagoon, it was like being back in the time. We met a local family living there and their youngest son, Hio, showed us how they live self sufficiently, not dependant on supplies that come by boat once a month, or the bigger boat that shows up every 8 months to collect the copra (sundried coconut to make oil), one of their only sources of work. He showed us how they collect rainwater, tend the garden, keep chickens, and their cunning fishing techniques. But the thing that left a lasting impression was the amount of coconut trees we saw underwater, hundreds of meters from land, taken by a cyclone 10 year ago. A lot of islanders left the atoll after they lost everything. Now, they’re planting new coconut trees to recover the island and for the water and food those trees supply. We also discovered that there was another animal that was happy about the new coconut trees been planted: the famous coconut crab. It was Nana’s dream to see the biggest terrestrial crustacean in the world and to her surprise Hio found one so we could see it up close.
