Motu One (Marquesas Islands)
Motu One (Marquesan for "Sand Island"; ) is the name of a small sandbank with no vegetation, located on the western edge of a coral reef. The reef is approximately in diameter, and the islet or islets have a surface area of less than one hectare, rising only a few feet above sea level and changing shape regularly as the action of the currents deposits and removes sand. Motu One is the northernmost of the Marquesas Islands, located about northeast of Eïao and northeast of Hatutu. It is a calcareous coral reef on a volcanic plug - the  only island in the group not made of exposed volcanic material. Motu One is administratively part of the commune (municipality) of Nuku-Hiva, itself in the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas. Although Motu One was reportedly visited by Marquesans, primarily on egg-collecting missions, there is no archaeological evidence that it was ever inhabited. The first Westerners to sight the islet were those on the 1813–1814 voyage of the American commander Commodore David Porter, who named it "Lincoln Island". Subsequent explorers called it "Sand Island". Ecology. Green sea turtles nest on Motu One. There is a large stand of "Porolithon  (Hydrolithon") that is unique in French Polynesia. There are a wide variety of pelagic birds nesting on the islets including a subspecies of the southern Marquesan reed warbler, the Mohotani Marquesan warbler ("Acrocephalus mendanae consobrina") (Murphy & Mathews, 1928). Since 1992, the whole reef and island ecosystem have been protected as the Motu One Reserve.