TERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS AND ECOLOGY 



199 



Needless to say, as the human population increases, the 

 availability of natural, subsistence foods will decrease, and 

 there will be an increased dependence on a cash economy 

 and imported foods. At this point, the atoll ecosystem, 

 with man as an integral part, has exceeded its carrying 

 capacity, and further degradation of the ecosystem will 

 occur unless the deficit is balanced with imported 

 materials. 



In this regard, the observations of Domnick and Seelye 

 (1967) on Majuro Atoll in 1967 are extremely interesting. 

 Their tentative conclusion, based on an admittedly small 

 sample of nine families over a period of 30 days, is that 

 even the highest income families adhere to a subsistence 

 diet in preference to commercial foods. They believe this is 

 largely due to the cost of canned foods. When commercial 

 foods are inexpensive, they are used extensively. For 

 example, rice "is almost essential at every Marshallese 

 meal." Tea is preferred to coffee because it is less expen- 

 sive. Large amounts of sugar are consumed. Copra is the 

 single most important source of cash. 



Clearly, the present human population of over a 

 thousand persons clustered on the three large southeastern 

 islands of Enewetak, Medren, and Japtan far exceeds any 

 historical population of the atoll and no doubt far exceeds 

 the natural carrying capacity of the atoll. In fact, the pres- 

 ent population is almost entirely dependent on subsidies of 

 food and material goods. In my judgment, it is doubtful 

 that the present population could ever be self-sustaining, 

 even with cash from copra, an expanded fishing program, 

 handicrafts, and perhaps even tourism. 



Disturbance by Man 



The terrestrial environment has undergone a series of 

 increasingly severe man-made disturbances. These are sum- 

 marized in Table 1. Probably significant environmental 

 change began with the planting of coconut plantations for 

 copra production under the supervision of the German 

 colonial government, 1885 to 1914. Although there was 

 no German administrator resident on the atoll, copra 

 freighters entered by the deep east channel and anchored 

 in the lee of Japtan Island. Soil from north Germany, car- 

 ried as ballast, was offloaded onto Japtan as copra was 

 loaded. The extent of this operation is unknown, but Jap- 

 tan Island is 1 to 2 m higher than the other islands and 

 supports lush vegetation. Presumably soil organisms were 

 introduced, but they have not been studied. Foreign visi- 

 tors were discouraged during this time. 



Following the defeat of Germany in World War 1, 

 Japan took control of the Marshall Islands under a man- 

 date from the League of Nations, 1914 to 1944. Copra 

 production continued, and Japanese traders resided on the 

 atoll. In 1939 the Japanese began to construct military for- 

 tifications on Enewetak including an airstrip on Enjebi 

 Island. Several thousand Japanese military personnel lived 

 on the atoll. According to Hines (1962), the Japanese gar- 

 rison on Enewetak numbered 2686 armed troops and 

 about 1000 other personnel in January 1944. 



Environmental perturbation must have increased dra- 

 matically during the war years culminating in the bombard- 

 ment and capture of Enewetak by American forces in 

 February 1944. Aerial bombardment coupled with naval 

 gunfire, land-based artillery, and the effects of small arms 



TABLE 1 



Chronology of Man-Made Disturbances of the Terrestrial Environment of Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands 



1. About 2000 years ago human beings settled in Micronesia (Craib, 1983), presumably including Enewetak Atoll. 



2. Discovery Era, 1526 to 1885 (Buck, 1953; Emery et al., 1954; Hines, 1962; Kiste, 1974; Sharp, 1960). 



a. The first European to visit the Marshal! Islands was the Spanish explorer Alvaro dc Saavedra in 1529. He landed at an island, 

 the description of which fits Enewetak, on Oct 1, 1529, Other Spanish galleons sailed through the islands during the 16th cen- 

 tury. There are few details and no way to know whether or not Enewetak was visited 



b. Sir Francis Drake aboard the Golden Hind may have visited the Marshall Islands in 1579. Then, for the next 200 years, 

 apparently no Europeans visited the Marshall Islands. 



c. In the 18th century, a number of famous European explorers arrived In 1767 Samuel Wallis in HMS Dolphin rediscovered the 

 northern Marshall Islands from old Spanish charts. In 1788 he was followed by Captain John Marshall for whom the islands 

 were named Apparently Marshall visited only the southern islands Whether Enewetak was visited is unknown. 



d. Enewetak Atoll was rediscovered on December 13, 1794, by Captain Thomas Butler commanding the British sloop Walpole. He 

 named the uncharted islands Browne's Range, and he apparently also referred to Enewetak as Walpole's Island In his journal. 

 He did not land. Captain John Fearn aboard the Hunter is said to have surveyed and charted the atoll in 1798. Enewetak was 

 often referred to as Browne or Brown Atoll even during World War II. 



e. From a scientific standpoint, the most important expedition was commanded by Otto von Kotzebue aboard the Rurick in 1816 

 to 1817. He called them the Ratak Islands and believed he had discovered them (Kotzebue, 1830). Adelbert von Cha- 

 misso, an extremely competent naturalist, was a member of the expedition. He made the first observations of the geology and 



(This table continued on next page.) 



