Vostok Island is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the Line Islands belonging to Kiribati. Other names for the island include Anne Island, Bostock Island, Leavitts Island, Reaper Island, Wostock Island or Wostok Island. The island was first sighted in 1820 by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named the island for his ship Vostok. Geography, flora and fauna Vostok covers a land area of . Its nearest neighbors are Flint Island, south-southeast; Caroline Atoll, to the east; and Penrhyn, to the west. It is in length, and is triangular-shaped. Beaches on the island range between wide, composed of coral sand and rubble. There is no lagoon or fresh water on the island, and no known freshwater lens. Vostok's major portion is covered with a pure stand of Pisonia trees rooted in moist peat soil one meter thick. These trees, with heights of up to , grow so densely that no other plants can grow beneath them. The herbs Boerhavia repens and Sesuvium portulacastrum round out the known vegetation. Coconut seedlings were planted on Vostok in 1922 and failed, although on the nearby islands of Caroline and Flint there are existing coconut palms. Noteworthy fauna includes several species of seabirds, including the red-footed booby (Sula sula), great frigatebird (Fregata minor), lesser frigatebird (F. ariel), black noddy (Anous minutus), white tern (Gygis alba), masked booby (Sula dactylatra), brown booby (S. leucogaster) and brown noddy (Anous stolidus). The Polynesian rat and the azure-tailed skink (Emoia cyanura), together with coconut crabs and green turtles, completes the known land fauna. History The island was first sighted in 1820 by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named the island for his ship Vostok (the name means "East" in Russian). Vostok was claimed by the United States under the Guano Act of 1856, but was never mined for phosphate. It is unknown whether the island has ever been inhabited, although the presence of rats suggests that ancient Polynesians might have at least visited. No evidence of permanent settlement has ever been found. Vostok formed part of the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, until becoming a part of newly independent Kiribati in 1979. American claims on the island were vacated in the Treaty of Tarawa in the same year. Vostok Island is designated as the Vostok Island Wildlife Sanctuary. In 2014 the Kiribati government announced the establishment