EBON ATOLL FACT FILE
Number of Islets: 22. Population RMI Census 2021: 469 (males 260, females 209). Land Area: 2.22 square miles. Lagoon Area: 40.09 square miles. Yacht permit fee: $25. Mayor: Almenson Naisher. Nitijela Member: Marie Milne.
This most southern atoll in the Marshalls was the island that had the first permanent settlement of missionaries from the Boston Congregational Church in 1857. Its southern location ensures that the Ebon islands are always lush and green. In 1994, Ebon was the last of the inhabited atolls to get a runway, finally removing its fame as one of the most isolated places on the planet.
Its more recent claim to fame, however, is that on January 30, 2014, castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga landed on Ebon’s shores after drifting 6,700-miles over 13 months in a small boat. A Salvadorian national, Jose had been working as a fisherman in Mexico. His fishing partner died relatively early in the voyage. To read more about the extraordinary story, click on this link to the London Daily Mail. (Note: The author of this web site covered the story exclusively for the Mail.)
Health Performance Improvement Initiative
In February, 2026, the RMI sailing-cargo vessel Juren Ae took a team from the Ministry of Health and Human Services to 17 atolls and one island, including Ebon Atoll. The team was working on a health improvement initiative, which included a survey of how health and communication was improving. They also installed new equipment and provided the health assistant with medical supplies.
The photos are by Ellinoora Markkanen for GIZ.
Ebon Flag Description
The stars are not randomly distributed. The 5 stars on the left are the Southern Cross. In traditional Marshallese navigation, that constellation is known as “Triggerfish of Ebon” and is the marker that navigators follow when sailing to Ebon from the northern atolls. The two stars on the right are strange because they do not fit in that spot in reality. They could represent alpha and beta Centauri, which in English are known as The Pointers and are not far from the Southern Cross (though not in the spot shown on the flag). The reason the smallest star has only 5 prongs is that it also stands for the ship called “Morning Star”, which brought the first Christian missionaries to the island in 1857. The two stripes represent the two main regions of the atoll (windward and leeward). The red color represents the colors of the dawn and sunset, which are associated with a legendary female figure from this atoll. — Source: Flags of the World.
On February 26, 2015, Iroojlaplap Michael Kabua presented his award-winning flag design for Ebon to Ebon Mayor Ione deBrum and Ebon Senator John Silk. The design incorporates the Southern Cross constellation and is inspired by Marshallese folklore.
Above: Video by Benedict Yamamura, who has created numerous videos on his travels around the Marshall Islands, in part through his job at the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, where he is Chief of Coastal Fisheries.
Below: The video “The Arrival of the White Missionaries to Marshall Islands 1857” talks about the arrival of missionaries on Ebon Island and then follows their journeys on to the other islands of the Marshall Islands in the mid-1800s.
