Ducie Island

Ducie is the last land at the eastern end of the Pitcairn group, an atoll of four islets around a lagoon with nobody on it and nothing built, several hundred kilometres from the nearest inhabited place. Murphy's petrels nest here in numbers that make the island internationally important for the species, along with frigatebirds, terns and boobies. It sits inside the Pitcairn Islands marine reserve. The atoll is the last land before a very long stretch of open Pacific to the east.

Background

The atoll covers 1.5 square miles including its lagoon, measuring 1.5 miles from northeast to southwest with a width of about 1 mile, and its four islets are Acadia, Pandora, Westward and Edwards. Of all the Murphy's petrels on earth, more than 90% nest here. Pedro Fernandes de Queirós sighted it on 26 January 1606, the first of eighteen discoveries on his voyage, and called it Luna Puesta. Edward Edwards came upon it again on 16 March 1791 and named it after Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie. Thomas Raine made the first recorded landing in 1820, and Frederick William Beechey, who arrived in November 1825, wrote the first full description. Cruise ships call once or twice a year.

Source: Wikipedia, "Ducie Island"

The landscape

• The petrel colony - Murphy's petrels nesting in internationally significant numbers.
• The four islets - the ring of low land around the lagoon.
• The isolation - hundreds of kilometres from the nearest inhabited land.
• The marine reserve - the protection covering the surrounding ocean.

When to go

April to October is cooler and calmer for the passage. Access depends entirely on arranging a vessel. Seabird nesting runs through much of the year.

Practical notes

There is no scheduled access of any kind; reaching Ducie needs a private vessel and permission. Landings are restricted to protect the nesting birds. There is no infrastructure whatsoever.

Nearby

Henderson Island is west, and Pitcairn is far west.

Key facts