Deserted Islands?

Factual Questions
1

I just watched Cast Away on video last night, hence the following question. By and large, I thought the movie did a reasonable job of being accurate with regards to the details, both physical and psychological, of surviving on a desert island, but what about the bigger picture? Is it really plausible that, in this age of global trade and tourism, GPS, satellite surveillance, etc. that there exists a truly deserted island such that (a) no one owns and presumably checks on it occasionally, and (b) no freighter, aircraft, pleasure yacht, Nature Conservancy team or National Geographic expedition comes near enough within a four year span to make rescue a possibility?

–Gholead

2

I think it’s pretty safe to say that there are no uncharted islands which provide enough food and fresh water to sustain a person for any length of time.

There are a few places that are not regularly visited. The French Southern and Antarctic Lands, including Kerguelen (a.k.a. Desolation) Island have fewer than 100 inhabitants, all researchers. Kerguelen is actually several hundred small rocky islands, separated by deep inlets and fjords, and shrouded in fog. Conceivably, someone could be stranded on an islet only a few miles from the research station and not be noticed.

But those are cold, nasty islands. If you want an isolated desert island, Howland Island might be a candidate, but it is visited annually by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Inaccessible Island, in the South Atlantic, is just that. It is surrounded on all sides by a several-hundred foot high cliff. One might bail out from a plane and wind up high and dry on Inaccessible. However, it is within sight of Tristan da Cunha, so smoke signals might be sighted.

One might argue that the two biologists on the French Frigate Shoals are only a budget cut or two away from being stranded, but we already know they’re there.

There are thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of islets surrounding larger islands which are uninhabited and which for one reason or another might be dangerous to leave because of currents, fog, wind, and other environmental factors. Some probably go for long periods of time without being visited, but the castaway could likely see neighboring islands. Many could probably support one or two humans for an unlimited length of time.

However, people inhabiting those places seem to not want to be discovered. I visited one islet off of St. Thomas (Big Brass?) which had a small community of recluses who politely asked with a posted sign that boat-going beachcombers not bother them inland.

Perhaps more important, when I visited that place I did not see anyone there and aside from a few beach chairs, little evidence that anyone had been there. The biggest problem of the castaway might not be having the island visited, but spotting the visitor and getting that visitor’s attention before they leave again.

3

There are hundreds of uninhabited islands in Micronesia (I lived in Micronesia for a number of years). Over 50 percent of these are in an atoll with islands with islanders on them, however.

This still leaves a good number of islands that are totally isolated, and if you know what you are doing, habitable. Technically all of these islands are “owned” by another island, but those islanders rarely, if ever, visit. I know of a good number of islands that have not been visited in well over a decade or maybe two and these are just the ones I know about.

These islands are all well off the shipping lanes and possess nothing of commercial value (copra is not longer that big of a deal). Not much of scientific interest either since the islands are pretty much the same as their inhabited cousins.

In addition, most do not have an enterable lagoon so even if someone wanted to get to these uninhabitable islands it would be a royal pain to get ashore so yachts and pleasure boats pretty much avoid them because there is no anchorage and they don’t want to lose the bottom of their boat trying to get inside the lagoon.

I did not see the film so I can’t testify to the other parts, but as to (as you put it), “the big picture”, it is quite possible to find such an island.

TV

4

All of them charted? I don’t think so. I guess it depends on your definition of a “habitable island”. There are thousands of islands scattered in the South Pacific, Indonesia, Micronesia etc. and if you are happy living on fish, seaweed and coconuts you could do just fine. There’s no fresh water… but you could collect it during one of the almost daily downpours.

Most, of course, are very small but with fresh water, a food source and some way to make shelter you could survive there for quite some time I would imagine. Exposure is a big problem since shade is not a given… but again, if you were smart you could work around even these problems.

Of course if a typhoon or hurricane came through you would be sunk… and yes, you might go months or years without ever seeing a ship or a plane…