To chile, easter island, and rarotonga - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 179

The giant carved heads, or moai, of Easter Island. (Photo by author)
on earth, with a total population of two thousand and very few visi-
tors a year, was the last place one should build a public aquarium.
Leaving Santiago on Lan-Chile Airlines, I arrived on tiny Easter Is-
land. The island has three names, depending on your nationality. The
Polynesian inhabitants know it as Rapa Nui; the Chileans, whose flag
flies over it, call it Isla de Pascua; and the English refer to it as Easter
Island. Famous for the massive carved stone figures, or moai, it has a
fascinating history.
The remote island was colonized at least once and possibly twice in
the past by Polynesian seafarers who may have strayed far o¤ course
and by chance made a fortunate landfall before they died of thirst and
starvation in the vast South Pacific Ocean. The closest land is Pitcairn
Island, 1,600 miles away. Although there was not a single tree on Easter
Island when discovered by the Dutch captain Roggeveen in 1722, arche-
ological evidence indicates that the island was once covered with dense
forests.