Ulithi

Geography and History of the Ulithi Atoll & Micronesian Outer Islands - Ulithi Marine Management

Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is an autonomic government in the Western Pacific (with autonomic administration by single insular communities) and is part of the US Compact of Free Association. It has about 607 islets with a total area of 702 km2 (271 Mi2) and a total of 103,395 inhabitants (2012 census).

FSM encompasses more than 2,600,000 sq km (over 1,000,000 sq miles) of oceans in the West Pacific (Caroline Islands). Its autonomy of government and tradition of ownership of land and sea make it a good area for local farming and livelihood. The Yap State is made up of 138 inhabited archipelagoes, 22 of which extend about 800 km (500 miles) east of the West Pacific tropics.

Despite the fact that the state' s archipelago covers over 100,000 sq. m., it is only 45 sq. m. of which a large part is hardly above the surface (the major isle of Yap is a "high" island). In the 2000 survey, the total number of persons living there was 11,200. Though Yap State is a set of archipelagos, the "outer islanders" - humans from other than the biggest major Yap Isle - often have a powerful feeling of their own culture and in many cases they differ significantly from the major archipelagoes' societies, as well as their languages and government.

The Ulithi Atoll is one of the Yap State's external archipelago and is located about 100 leagues eastwards of the Yap Isle. It is 36x24 km (22x15 miles) and covers 548 km 2 (212 Mi2) and is one of the biggest lagoons in the world. There are 40 archipelagos (4 populated islands), which together make up only 4.5 sq km (1.7 Mi2) of total area, usually less than one metre above seagr. al.

Ulithi has a general inhabitant of about 1000 inhabitants according to the season (there is one of the two grammar colleges on the external island to which the youngsters come from the neighbouring isles during the year. Its 4 populated isles are Falalop (which is just outside the major atoll), the biggest on Ulithi, which has a populace of 500-700 inhabitants, Mog Mog, the governmental and intellectual centre of the western isles, with a populace of about 150, Asor, with a populace of about 70 and Federai in the south-east, with a populace of about 150.

Ulithi's occupancy by the US naval fleets during the Second World War drastically altered the way of living of the island's inhabitants. Complete isles were flattened to the earth to make room for allied troops. Import trade, cultural and linguistic changes have transformed the way these isolated isles have traditionally travelled. Ulyithi Atoll, home of the third fleet at the end of 1944.

In the front is one of several depositions that surround the dock. Situated at the bottom of the atoll, these ferrous bohemians, as they corrode, penetrate the sea water and alter the chemical properties of the nutrient-poor tropic water.