Howland Island: Another remote island with more abusive wayspots than people

AisforAndis-INGAisforAndis-ING Posts: 1,072 Ambassador

Located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Howland Island is one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, and the entirety of the island and the reef that surrounds it is a nature preserve. This very remote location is completely uninhabited, only being occasionally visited by the United States Fish and Wildlife service. As such, Howland Island has a human population of zero. But none of that has stopped Wayfarer abusers from establishing a virtual presence on the island.

Getting déjà vu? If this sounds familiar to you, it's because this exact same thing happened earlier this year on a similar island nearby called Baker Island, and it would seem that someone is back to their old shenanigans.


Within the past few days, at least three faked submissions have come to light on Howland Island, all using 3rd party photos where the photos appear to be pictures of a screen. One of these three uses pictures of something that does actually exist on Howland Island, while the other two are located in Madrid and Ireland. An additional two portals already exist on Howland Island which seem to also have 3rd party photos although they seem to have been direct uploads/crops of photos from Wikimedia Commons. The difference in image sources makes me think it is possible the existing portals/photos may have been seeded (one of them is even incorrectly named after the wrong island?), however it is my understanding that it is against the TOS of images from Wikimedia Commons to edit the photos (cropping them) and not source the photos, making these problematic even if they were legitimately seeded.


Howland Island

https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=0.806982,-176.618616&z=17&pll=0.806982,-176.618616

Image source (Wikimedia Commons):

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Howland_sign.jpg 


Lighthouse - Jarvis Island

https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=0.807269,-176.617703&z=17&pll=0.807269,-176.617703

Image source (Wikimedia Commons): 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Earhart_Light.jpg 


Leader Sculpture

Image source (Wikimedia commons):

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monumento_a_Felipe_IV_(Madrid)_10.jpg 


Howland’s Ruins

Image source (Wikimedia Commons):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Howland_Itascatown.jpg 


Megalithic Stone:

Image source (Shutterstock):

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/poulnabrone-dolmen-5000-year-old-portal-3467764 


As a fun historical fact of the day, back in 1937 when Amelia Earhart attempted her historic flight around the globe, she and her plane disappeared while searching for Howland Island, where she was supposed to stop and refuel while flying across the Pacific Ocean. The portal "Lighthouse - Jarvis Island" that is discussed above is actually a day beacon, and it is named the Earhart light, after Amelia Earhart. The incorrect name inspired me to to take a look at Jarvis Island, where I was able to find one more portal that appears to have a 3rd party photo:


Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge

https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=-0.378611,-160.01308&z=17&pll=-0.378611,-160.01308

Image source (Blogspot):

http://asramp10.blogspot.com/2010/04/looking-above-water-jarvis-island.html


I would guess that there are probably more abusive Wayspots being submitted on these type of deserted islands that my friends and I didn't manage to find while reviewing, so I would encourage Niantic to take a closer look at anything submitted on the islands and for anyone who has reviewed such a Wayspot to share any information you can in the comments. Thanks.

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