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Revision as of 01:51, 28 February 2006 by 207.105.136.84 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Karitane Shoal is a shoal located in the Pacific Ocean south of the Cook Islands. Despite the fact that it is submerged under nine metres of water, it is claimed as "territory" by the Dominion of Melchizedek, a micronation known for licesning banks that engaged in large scale banking fraud.
Karitane, which has become known as "Fantasy Island" is considered by the Kingdom of Polynesia to be a part of the Polynesian South Pacific group of unnamed and/or uncharted islands south of the territories of the Cook Islands and south of French Polynesia. Its 'king', "Mitchara" seems to be itinerant without any permanent residence who claims to travel in his ship from island to island and throughout Southeast Asia. DOM met KOP's "prime minister" through an entity aspiring to ecclesiastical statehood calling itself the Kingdom of Acacia.. Karitane is believed to be located in the region of approximately 24.10 degrees south latitude and 158.37 degrees West longitude.
According to one eye witness, Karitane is a small island or Shoal of low elevation mostly populated by mangroves. Another eye witness, a former native of Rapa, said that Karitane is south of Rapa below the territories of the French Polynesia. A few world maps reveal small double circled dots (a seamount?) at the above coordinates, however, map makers have not yet been requested to print the name of Karitane or Melchizedek next to said dots. It has been reported that the French Navy went looking for Karitane, but if they did, and found it, they may have nuked it, in retaliation for Melchizedek's spiritual war that caused the French to stop their nuclear testing in the South Pacific two tests ahead of schedule, because the claim by the press is that it was 9 meters under water when the French checked it out. However, since DOM has never given the exact coordinates of Karitane, where did they look? Nine meters below sea level sounds better than the 1,000 feet below sea level; and that is what the WSJ has reported the U.S. State Department as having stated, that it "seems" that the coordinates below are focused on a seamount less than 1,000 feet below sea level. Should it turn out to be true that Karitane is slightly below the surface, DOM could employ the Caribbean strategy of Prince Lazareth of New Utopia to build a sea city and connect it to the reef below the surface..
In fact, here is a quote from Taio Shipping, Ltd in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, a more credible source than rumors spread throughout the media via a reader of the South China Morning Post about what the French did or didn't do: "Tradition of Rarotonga and Mangaia asserted that Tuanaki, lying about two days sailing by canoe SSW of Rarotonga, consisted of three low islands within one reef. Tuanaki (not to be confused with Taongi, a well documented island in the North Pacific) was reputed to be thickly populated and had often been visited by canoes from Rarotonga, but the island has since disappeared. Maretu accompanied the Reverend William Gill searched for a week for Tuanaki in June 1843. Other references to Tuanaki, some of them based on Maretu's, include Smith 1911. Pacific Islands Monthly, August 1964 :77 and Coppell 1973 :45-6. There is allegedly a shoal (Karitane?) at about the locality indicated by the tradition, and it is possible that this was an atoll that was submerged by tectonic activity. Captain Nolan of the Peri reported sighting an island very low at lat. 24~25', longitude 159~40'(Karitane coorindates?), but he did not go near it."
The officially defined territory of the Cook Islands is "Two north and south groups of 13 inhabited islands and 2 uninhabited islands. Extending over 2 million square kilometers of ocean latitudes 8 degrees to 23 degrees south, longitudes 156 degrees to 167 degrees west."
It is important to note that reported sightings of Karitane are below the 23 degrees south border makings of the Cook Islands and that no other nation than Melchizedek claims Karitane.
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