coral atoll in the Central and Southern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, southwestern Pacific Ocean. It lies 2,000 miles (3,200 km) south of Hawaii. A barren formation rising only to 26 feet (8 metres), it has a land area of 8 square miles (21 square km) and a lagoon 5.5 miles by 2 miles (9 km by 3 km). It was sighted in 1823 by Valentine Starbuck, the British master of a whaling ship. Although claimed by the United States under the Guano Act of 1856, it was annexed by Britain in 1866. Guano deposits on the island were worked from 1870 to 1920. The island is barren and treeless; attempts to plant coconut palms (coconut palm) were unsuccessful. With the other Central and Southern Line Islands, Starbuck became a part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in 1972 and a part of independent Kiribati in 1979. It is home to breeding populations of several species of seabirds (including a colony of several million sooty terns) and was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1975. The island is uninhabited.