 NASA picture of Hao Atoll | |
  Hao | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Pacific Ocean |
| Coordinates | 18°4′31″S140°56′43″W / 18.07528°S 140.94528°W /-18.07528; -140.94528 |
| Archipelago | Tuamotus |
| Area | 720 km2 (280 sq mi) (lagoon) 35 km2 (14 sq mi) (above water) |
| Length | 50 km (31 mi) |
| Width | 14 km (8.7 mi) |
| Highest elevation | 3 m (10 ft) |
| Administration | |
France | |
| Overseas collectivity | French Polynesia |
| Administrative subdivision | Îles Tuamotu-Gambier |
| Commune | Hao |
| Largest settlement | Otepa |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 1009[1] (2022) |
Hao | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
 | |
 Location of Hao | |
| Coordinates:18°04′31″S140°56′43″W / 18.0753°S 140.9453°W /-18.0753; -140.9453 | |
| Country | France |
| Overseas collectivity | French Polynesia |
| Subdivision | Îles Tuamotu-Gambier |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–2026) | Yseult Butcher[2] |
Area 1 | 65.0 km2 (25.1 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[1] | 1,227 |
| • Density | 18.9/km2 (48.9/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC−10:00 |
| INSEE/Postal code | 98720 /98767 |
| Elevation | 0–3 m (0.0–9.8 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Hao, orHaorangi,[3] is a largecoralatoll in the central part of theTuamotu Archipelago. It has c. 1000 people living on 35 km2 (14 sq mi). It was used to house the military support base for thenuclear tests onMururoa. Because of its shape,French explorerLouis Antoine de Bougainville named it "Île de la Harpe" (Harp Island).
Hao is 920 km (570 mi) east ofTahiti. It is 50 km (31 mi) long and 14 km (8.7 mi) wide. Thelagoon is the fourth largest atoll in French Polynesia (afterRangiroa,Fakarava, andMakemo) and has only one navigable passage, atKaki, on the north end of the atoll where strong currents prevail up to 20knots withbores. The lagoon covers an area of 720 km2.
The climate is maritime, with temperatures oscillating between 23 and 32 °C throughout the year.
The chief town is the village ofOtepa, where the main economic activity is the cultivation ofpearls.
The main village is Otepa, and the population was 1,066 inhabitants in the 2012 census,[4] with a strongdemographic increase since the establishment of the Pacific Experimentation Center (CEP) base for nuclear testing. However, in the last census conducted in 2022, a slight drop in the number of settlers is noted, reaching 1,009 people.
Most of the population of the Atoll followChristianity as a result of the missionary activity of both Catholic andProtestant groups and French colonization. TheCatholic Church began its activity in the region in the 19th century and has a religious building in the area called St. Peter's Church (Église de Saint-Pierre),[5] located in Otepa, the largest town on the island and attached to theMetropolitan Archdiocese of Papeete with headquarters on the island ofTahiti.
The first recorded European arriving on Hao wasPedro Fernández de Quirós on 10 February 1606. He named itConversion de San Pablo.[6] He was followed byJosé Andía y Varela in 1774.
Because of its shape,French explorerLouis Antoine de Bougainville named it "Île de la Harpe" (Harp Island). In some maps it also appears asBow Island.[3][7]
Hao was the firstatoll of the Tuamotus that Russian explorerFabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen visited in 1820 on the shipsVostok andMirni.
In the late-1980s, two French intelligence (DGSE) operatives were briefly confined to the military base on the island after France obtained their release from aNew Zealand prison for sinking theGreenpeace shipRainbow Warrior. Their earlier-than-agreed-uponrepatriation from the island by the French government became a diplomatic incident betweenNew Zealand andFrance.
Hao's military airfield, now known asHao Airport, was transferred to the civilian authorities in 2000. This airport (IATA:HOI,ICAO:NTTO) serves many of the smaller easternTuamotus, whose landing strips are too short to land aircraft large enough to make the flight toTahiti. Its 3.46 km (2.15 mi) runway was to be a designatedTransoceanic abort landing sites for theSpace Shuttle, had it taken on flight operation from theVandenberg launch facility, which never came to be.
The economic future of the atoll remains in question: themilitary base, which was the support base fornuclear testing on the nearbyMururoa atoll, was permanently shut down in 2002, along with its many support facilities, including theelectrical anddesalinization plants and thehospital. The livelihood of many of the atoll's inhabitants was directly tied to the military base.
Together with 11 other islands, Hao forms thecommune ofHao,[8] which is part of theadministrative subdivision ofÎles Tuamotu-Gambier.[9] The seat of the commune is the village Otepa.[8] The commune consists of three associated communes: Hao (including the uninhabited islandsAhunui,Nengonengo,Manuhangi andParaoa),Amanu (including the uninhabited islandsRekareka andTauere) andHereheretue (including the uninhabited islandsAnuanuraro andAnuanurunga and the inhabited islandNukutepipi). As of the 2022census, the commune's total population was 1,227.[1]
| Climate data for Hao (1991–2020 normals) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 29.6 (85.3) | 29.8 (85.6) | 30.3 (86.5) | 29.7 (85.5) | 28.9 (84.0) | 27.9 (82.2) | 27.3 (81.1) | 27.2 (81.0) | 27.5 (81.5) | 28.1 (82.6) | 28.9 (84.0) | 29.3 (84.7) | 28.7 (83.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 27.5 (81.5) | 27.6 (81.7) | 28.1 (82.6) | 27.6 (81.7) | 27.0 (80.6) | 26.0 (78.8) | 25.4 (77.7) | 25.2 (77.4) | 25.4 (77.7) | 25.9 (78.6) | 26.8 (80.2) | 27.2 (81.0) | 26.6 (79.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 25.4 (77.7) | 25.5 (77.9) | 26.0 (78.8) | 25.6 (78.1) | 25.0 (77.0) | 24.1 (75.4) | 23.5 (74.3) | 23.3 (73.9) | 23.3 (73.9) | 23.8 (74.8) | 24.6 (76.3) | 25.1 (77.2) | 24.6 (76.3) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 162.5 (6.40) | 158.5 (6.24) | 108.4 (4.27) | 127.1 (5.00) | 110.4 (4.35) | 101.6 (4.00) | 75.1 (2.96) | 56.6 (2.23) | 83.0 (3.27) | 109.8 (4.32) | 117.5 (4.63) | 171.6 (6.76) | 1,382.1 (54.41) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 14.9 | 12.3 | 11.1 | 11.6 | 10.6 | 10.3 | 9.8 | 7.3 | 7.8 | 10.0 | 10.7 | 12.6 | 129.1 |
| Source:World Meteorological Organization[10] | |||||||||||||
Hao Airport (IATA:HOI,ICAO:NTTO) is in the island's north. It is used as a base by Air Tahiti, the domestic airline of French Polynesia.
During the 1960s, the Pacific Experimental Center base generated most of the atoll's economic activity. The infrastructures built during these years are numerous: a major airfield with a 3,380 m runway (classified byNASA as an emergency landing strip in case of a technical problem with thespace shuttle Columbia), a cargo port, a 15 km road, desalination units, electric generators and a hospital.
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Since 2000, the atoll'sprivate sector activities have been mainly related to pearl farming, fishing (with the export to Tahiti of about ten tons of seafood per year)[11] and copra harvesting.
On August 23, 2017,Chinese businessman Wang Cheng,[12] chairman of Tahiti Nui Ocean Foods, announced inPapeete his intention to invest €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) to create an aquaculture farm on Hao that could produce up to 50.000 tons per year of lagoon fish (mainly groupers and humphead wrasse, but also sea cucumbers) for export. TheFrench Polynesian government supports the project, which has been five years in the making, and which, according to its promoter, should allow the theoretical creation of nearly three hundred jobs during the thirty months of construction, and five hundred jobs (90% of which should be attributed to Polynesians)[13] from the start of operations, allowing the diversification of theeconomic activity of the atoll, depopulated since the withdrawal of the French army. Some earthworks were carried out in March 2018, but the works, which were to be completed in 2020, are regularly postponed.[14]
On the one hand, many questions are being raised about theenvironmental impact of the project, which is causing concern among many elected representatives.[15] In addition, on February 25, 2020, the director of the company in charge of the work was given a three-year suspended prison sentence forforgery. In December 2019, Wang Cheng was heard by investigators under the open hearing system as part of a preliminary investigation into suspicions of "abuse of social assets" initiated in January 2019 by the investigation section (SR) of the Papeetegendarmerie.[16]
Haoairfield hosts, on average, about 800 flights and between 12 and 15,000 passengers per year, 30% of whom are in transit.[17]
The municipality also hosts a secondary school for the children of the southern Tuamotu andGambier atolls, as well as, for the past few years, the Center for Education in Appropriate Technologies for Development (CETAD), a vocational training institute specialized in sea-related professions. Most of the teachers come from metropolitan France for a period of two to four years.
Hao acquired a modern desalination plant in 2005.Electricity is permanently supplied by generators (EDT-ELECTRA). In 2006, the municipality was equipped with street lighting powered by two wind turbines and solar panels. Finally, the landing of the Natituasubmarine cable and its commissioning in December 2018 allows Hao to be connected to Tahiti and to the global high-speedInternet.[18]
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| Other | |
