From the Marquesas islands, Loquax will head for Tahiti in the Society Islands. The 760 mile voyage will take the Edingtons through the Tuamotu Archipelago.
The Tuamotu Archpelago is a string of islands which covers over 1,000 miles. There are 75 reef islands and atolls which make up the group. In between the islands are dangerous sunken coral reefs which have earnt the area the name "dangerous archipelago". The islands are part of French Polynesia and are inhabited by Polynesians.
The Tuamotu Archipelago is inhabited with all kinds of marine life that can be found near to the coral reefs. It is from this area that the effects of pollution will be monitored because it is a serious threat to the Archipelago.
Peter Edington has agreed to conduct garbage analysis for the Marine Conversation Society and to collect water volatility data and air quality data for the Manchester Metropolitan University Atmospheric Research Institute. The World Book Encyclopedia article from Living Library tells us that:
"France began using Mururoa atoll, in the Tuamotu group, as a nuclear bomb test area in 1965."
Marquesas Islands
Tuamotu Archipelago
Society Islands
Cook Islands
Tonga
Fiji
Vanuatu
New Caledonia
Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian anthropologist landed at a Tuamotu Island in 1947. He was sailing in a balsa wood craft called the Kon-Tiki. His voyage was designed to prove that natives from South America could have made the same trip in the ancient past.
