Ocean Watch Susan Scott

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Fact tidbits
complement
book’s maps

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Years ago, when I was out of high school but still on the farm, I met a worldly young man in love with the South Pacific.

"Someday," he said, "I'm going to travel to Micronesia, find a deserted island and live there alone for a whole year." (This was the '60s. He needed to find himself.)

I'd never heard of Micronesia at the time, and when he described it to me, I didn't believe him. Countless, pristine tropical islands, mostly uninhabited, scattered for thousands of miles throughout the Pacific Ocean? The guy had to be on drugs.

Years later, I moved to Hawaii and soon earned my scuba certification. As I waited for my tanks to be filled one day, a friendly dive shop worker told me about the store's owner. "She's one lady from Palau," he told me proudly. "Palau!"

By that time, I'd discovered that Micronesia did indeed exist along with dozens of other island groups, and I had even heard of Palau. But keeping straight what lay where and which island belonged to what group was beyond me.

So I bought a map called Pacific Islands and hung it up -- no small task in my sailboat home. Then, when someone mentioned Nukuhiva or Kosrae or other islands, countries or territories, I would look it up on my map.

Now, after 20 years of living in Hawaii and roaming the Pacific, I'm pretty good at locating places like Viti Levu and Espiritu Santo. Still, island names often come up that leave me completely blank.

My old map is long gone, but this week, while browsing through stacks of books at a big discount store, I found a new resource for us island-lovers. It's an attractive book called "Atlas of the Pacific Islands," co-published by Honolulu's Bess Press and the Australian branch of John Wiley and Sons.

The author, Max Quanchi, has been teaching Pacific Island history since 1973 at universities in Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Best of all, he has visited all the countries and territories in the region. Both Quanchi's teaching skills and travel experience show.

One of my favorite features in this book is the scattering of facts that complement the colorful, easy-to-read maps. For instance, we've all heard the term "archipelago," but why are some island groups, such as Hawaii, placed in this category and others are not?

The word "archipelago," the book explains, refers to the peaks of an underwater mountain range. With more than 13,000 islands, Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world.

Here are some other facts I learned about our neighboring nations:

>> The life expectancy for men in PNG is 51 years; for women, 52.
>> In Hawaii the life expectancy for men is 76; for women, 82.
>> In PNG the number of people per doctor is 13,699.
>> The number of people per doctor in Australia is 416. In the United States, 358.
>> At 53 percent, Vanuatu has the lowest literacy rate in the South Pacific.
>> Nauru has a 99 percent literacy rate.
>> The population of Nauru is 12,088.
>> Copra, the dried coconut meat exported by many island nations, is used to make soap, detergent, cosmetics, cooking oil and diesel fuel.

I don't know if my friend made it to his dream island, but I hope so. I made it to mine.

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See the Columnists section for some past articles.

Marine science writer Susan Scott can be reached at http://www.susanscott.net.