Rennell Island
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Rennell Island is the largest island of Rennell and Bellona Province. It is almost totally surrounded by 120-150m cliffs and comprises mostly of raised coral limestone, with the eastern end dominated by a brackish lake, Lake Te Nggano (also Lake Tegano), while the western end is relatively flat from the northern to southern coasts with rolling hills, (forested where not pasturalised), indicating its volcanic origins.
Lake Te Nggano was used as a PBY Catalina flying boat base by American forces during the Pacific campaign of WW2. The forces scuttled eight of the warhorses at the end of hostilities rather than take them home. Members of the local community attempted to retrieve one of the radial engines to use as a generator using only man-power. First it was literally cut from the wing by diving with snorkels and using only hand-tools. It was then dragged across the coralline rock lake floor by hand-winch. Unfortunately, they were overcome in their task by the engines tremendous weight, and no doubt, grappling protuberances. They did manage to get it close to the shoreline before giving up, close enough that one of the propeller blades is exposed to the air. Very quickly however, the engine became unusable through corrosion, so further attempts to bring it ashore were abandoned. Lake Te Nggano is now World Heritage Listed.
The people of Rennell are geographically divided between the lower lake end and the higher end by two Christian religions. Around the Eastern end, Te Nggano, the people follow the South Seas Evangelical Commission, with the Seventh-day Adventist Church occupying the Western end. Due to the tropical climate and thinly soiled coralline substrate, sheep and cattle do not thrive here. Villagers wishing to harvest seafood have the arduous task of climbing the surrounding 120-150m cliffs for the return journey to the coast. Once at the coast, they are bound to harvest only finned and scaled seafood, not shellfish, lobsters or other marine creatures. The serious deficiency in diet prompted the Solomons government to seed Lake Nggano with talapia fish. These seem to have thrived in the brackish conditions and are now a staple part of the diet. While coconut crabs are crustaceans, and use the sea to spawn, they are biblically not seafood and so are able to be harvested according to local tradition.
