Nanumaga

Nanumanga or Nanumaga is a reef island and a district of the Oceanian island nation of Tuvalu. It has a surface area of about 3 km2 with a population of 491 (2017 census). On 9 May 1824 a French government expedition under Captain Louis Isidore Duperrey of the ship La Coquille sighted Nanumaga. The US Exploring Expedition visited in 1841. Louis Becke, who later became a writer, became the resident trader for the Liverpool firm of John S. de Wolf and Co. on Nanumaga from about April 1880 until the trading-station was destroyed later that year in a cyclone. Becke later wrote The Rangers of the Tia Kau that describes a shark attack at the Tia Kau reef between Nanumea and Nanumaga. The population of Nanumaga from 1860 to 1900 is estimated to be between 300 and 335 people. Nanumaga Post Office opened around 1925. In 1986 it became a centre of debate when Pacific archaeologists discovered the submerged Caves of Nanumanga, and found what they argued was the remains of fire created by pre-historic inhabitants. The Nanumaga landscape consists of the main village settlements of Tonga and Tokelau, the two main pits for swamp taro (Cyrtosperma merkusii), (known in Tuvalu as Pulaka), the mangrove forest surrounding the internal lagoons and the areas of general vegetation which includes coconuts, pandanus trees and other vegetation types. The island has an oval outline, with the longer axis oriented north–south. A fringing reef surrounds the whole island, which makes local fishing and transport into and out of the island difficult. There are two brackish-water lagoons, the largest, Vaiatoa, having four islands. Vaiatoa Lagoon is located in the north of the island while the smaller Ha’apai Lagoon is in the south. A causeway has been construct to the south of Vaiatoa Lagoon linking the village areas of Tonga and Matematefaga. There are mangrove trees, native broadleaf forest and coconut palms. The two recorded mangrove species in Tuvalu are the common Togo (Rhizophora stylosa) and the red-flowered mangrove Sagale (Lumnitzera littorea).