Niʻihau is the westernmost main and seventh-largest inhabited island in Hawaii.
It is 28.2 km southwest of Kauaʻi across the Kaulakahi Channel.
Its area is 180 km2. Several intermittent lakes provide wetland habitats for the Hawaiian coot, the Hawaiian stilt, and the Hawaiian duck.
The island is designated as critical habitat for Brighamia insignis, an endemic and endangered species of Hawaiian lobelioid.
The United States Census Bureau defines Niʻihau and the neighbouring island and State Seabird Sanctuary of Lehua as Census Tract 410 of Kauai County, Hawaii. Its 2010 census population was 170.
Elizabeth Sinclair purchased Niʻihau in 1864 for $10,000 from the Kingdom of Hawaii.
The island's private ownership passed on to her descendants, the Robinsons. During World War II, the island was the site of the Niʻihau Incident, in which, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese navy fighter pilot crashed on the island and received help from residents of Japanese descent.
The island, known as the Forbidden Isle, is off-limits to all outsiders except the Robinson family and their relatives, U.S. Navy personnel, government officials, and invited guests. From 1987 onwards, a limited number of supervised activity tours and hunting safaris have opened to tourists. The island is currently managed by brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson. The people of Niʻihau are noted for their gemlike lei pūpū (shell lei) craftsmanship. They speak Hawaiian as a primary language.
More information: The Vintage News
Niʻihau is located about 29 km west of Kauaʻi, and the tiny, uninhabited island of Lehua lies 1.1 km north of Niʻihau.
Niʻihau's dimensions are 10 km × 30 km. The maximum elevation (Paniau) is 390 m. The island is about 6 million years old, making it geologically older than the 5.8-million-year-old neighbouring island of Kauaʻi to the northeast.
Niʻihau is the remnant of the southwestern slope of what was once a much larger volcano. The entire summit and other slopes collapsed into the ocean in a giant prehistoric landslide.
Elizabeth McHutchison Sinclair (1800–1892) purchased Niʻihau and parts of Kauaʻi from Kamehameha V in 1864 for $10,000 in gold. Sinclair chose Niʻihau over other options, including Waikīkī and Pearl Harbor.
By around 1875, Niʻihau's population consisted of about 350 Native Hawaiians, with 20,000 sheep. This era marked the end of the art of Hawaiian mat-weaving made famous by the people of Niʻihau.
Makaloa (Cyperus laevigatus), a native sedge, used to grow on the edges of Niʻihau's three intermittent lakes. The stems were harvested and used to weave moena makaloa (mats), considered the finest sleeping mats in Polynesia. The mats were valued by aliʻi and foreign visitors alike, but by the end of the 19th century, Hawaiians had stopped weaving makaloa due to changes in population, culture, economics, and the environment.
In 1915, Sinclair's grandson Aubrey Robinson closed the island to most visitors. Even relatives of the inhabitants could visit only by special permission. Upon Aubrey's death in 1939 the island passed to his son Aylmer, and in 1968 to Aylmer's youngest brother Lester. Upon Lester's wife Helen's death, the island passed to his sons Bruce Robinson and Keith Robinson, the current co-owners.
More information: Travel Awaits
A Humble Person Walks Carefully So As Not To Hurt Others.
Hawaiian Proverb
After meeting The Robinsons, altogether have flown to Lehua Island a wonderful paradise north of Niʻihau and a Hawaii State Wildlife Sanctuary. Both families have watched some of the most beautiful endemic Hawaiian species and have learnt which projects are protecting the island nowadays.
Lehua Island is a small, crescent-shaped island in the Hawaiian islands, 1.1 km north of Niʻihau, due west of Kauai. The uninhabited, 1.13 km2 barren island is a tuff cone which is part of the extinct Niʻihau volcano.
Lehua was one of the first five islands sighted by Captain James Cook in 1778 which he spelled as Oreehoua.
Lehua Island is a Hawaii State Wildlife Sanctuary. As a restricted sanctuary, all activities are prohibited on the island without a permit. Public access to the island is restricted to areas below the high tide watermark.
Lehua provides habitat for at least 16 species of seabirds, as well as non-native Pacific rats. A population of European rabbits had lived on the island for many years, but were removed in 2005.
More information: Tourist Destination
When weather and wave conditions permit crossings from Kauai, Lehua is a noted destination for snorkelling and scuba diving. It is also well known for an unusual geological formation dubbed the keyhole. Located in one of the crescent's narrow arms, this is a tall, thin notch cut from one side, all the way through to the other side of the arm.
The United States Coast Guard maintains Lehua Rock Light (a lighthouse) on Kaunuakalā, at 215 m the highest point of the island.
Lehua is one of the largest and most diverse seabird colonies in the main Hawaiian Islands with 17 seabird species and 25 native plants (14 Hawai'i endemics, occurring nowhere else in the world) inhabiting the steep, rocky, windswept slopes of the tiny island.
Lehua is an important part of native Hawaiian culture -the Ni'ihau community gathers 'opihi (limpets) in adjacent marine waters and on the island are several important native Hawaiian cultural sites.
Invasive rats were foraging on native plants and seeds, which imperilled the entire ecosystem. These impacts contributed to erosion, which can in turn impair near-shore marine and coral ecosystems and fisheries. Native birds like the threatened Newell's Shearwater were likely being restricted from breeding on Lehua Island due to predation by rats. Smaller, open-nesting seabirds such as terns and noddies were conspicuously absent from Lehua save small numbers found in sea caves, also a suspected artefact of rat predation. Invasive rats ravage other threatened birds.
Therefore, in August 2017, the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) with project implementation partner Island Conservation implemented an aerial application of bait with supplemental hand application to eradicate non-native invasive rats. Signs of seabird revival were found post-eradication. The official Final Monitoring Report Issued on Lehua Restoration Project found no rodenticide in environmental samples and minimal impact to species other than rats.
More information: Hawaii Magazine
Where the hands move, there let the eyes follow.
Hawaiian Proverb
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