Marutea Sud

Marutea Atoll (Marutea Sud), also known as Marutea-i-runga, and Nuku-nui,  is an atoll of the Tuamotu group in French Polynesia, part of the Gambier (commune). It is located in the far southeast of the archipelago, about 72 km northeast from Maria Atoll.

Marutea Atoll is irregular in shape and bound by a reef broken by passes into the  lagoon. It is  long with a maximum width of  and a land area of approximately . Its islands are low and flat and the main village, Auorotini, is located at the northern end of the atoll. Marutea has recently experienced a boom in population, with the opening of a new pearl farm. it is populated by ex Gambier Islanders looking for pearls and maintaining the pearl farms on the atoll.

Marutea Sud should not be confused with Marutea Nord located in the western area of the Tuamotu Archipelago at 17˚ 07' S, 143˚ 11' W.

History
The first recorded European to sight this atoll was Spanish explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 4 February 1606. He called it San Telmo. Other Spanish names were San Blas, given by de Quiros' captain Diego de Prado y Tovar, and Corral de Agua is found in some contemporary charts (in Spanish, water corral). Marutea was later explored by Edward Edwards, while he was searching for the mutineers of  in 1791. Edwards renamed it "Lord Hood".

According to Russian Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern Marutea was once inhabited by the ancient Polynesians. British mariner Frederick William Beechey found a stone-walled hut upon it in 1825.

In 1984 Marutea Atoll was bought by Robert Wan, the main Tahitian black pearl trader, in order to engage in cultured black pearl farming.

A private airfield was built in 1993.

Administration
Administratively Marutea Sud belongs to the commune of the Gambier (commune).

References

Polynesian archaeological remains
Atoll names

Robert Wan
 Jean-Claude_Brouillet, L'ile de perles noires, Editions Robert Laffont S.A., Paris 1984

External links
Atoll list (in French)

Category:Atolls of the Tuamotus