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Indispensable Reefs
The Indispensable Reefs are a chain of three large coral atolls in the Coral Sea. They are located about 50 km south of Rennell Island, separated from it by Rennel Trough. The chain stretches over a length of 114 km and its average width is 18 km.
Administratively the Indispensable Reef belongs to the Rennell and Bellona Province of the Solomon Islands. The three atolls are steep-to and each encloses a large deep lagoon. They are separated by deep passages two to three km wide. of the Indispensable Reef are aligned in a NW-SE directionhttp://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/pollux/pollux.nss.nima.mil/NAV_PUBS/SD/pub126/126sec07.pdf:- North Reef is 18 km long, and up to 7 km wide. The rim of the atoll has two narrow openings in the north and northwest. The reef has a total area of 100 kmē, including lagoon and reef flat. There are no islets.
- Middle Reef is 51 km long. Little Nottingham Islet is a small islet located near the center of the reef. Besides its main lagoon, Middle Reef has a separate smaller northern lagoon. The total area is about 300 kmē.
- South Reef is 21 km long and up to 8 km wide. It encloses a lagoon 18 to 35 meters deep. The total area exceeds 100 kmē.
History
The ship Neptune struck Indispensable Reef on August 3 1868 and was lost. The crew was rescued by the SS Boomerang. During the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 7, 1942 a two Japanese carrier attack planes B5N2 (EI-306 and probably EI-302) flying reconnaissance mission from the carrier Shokaku ditched on Indispensable Reef due to lack of fuel.LUNDSTROM, John B. The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press, 2005. ISBN 159114471X. page 205 In the 1980s the Solomon Islands Government apprehended a vessel from Taiwan that had been poaching the giant clam stocks of Indispensable Reef. Corals and endangered fish species are also being plundered for the aquarium trade.This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Indispensable_Reefs". The list of authors you can find on this page.