Colour Blind Island

A tenth of the population of Pingelap, a South Pacific island, is totally colour-blind.

16:36 29 September 2015

10% of the population of Pingelap, a tiny South Pacific island, can only see in black and white.

 

One of the residents, Herrol, does not only have the ability to tell colours separately from each other but he also struggles in full sunlight because all he sees is a painful burnt-out image.

 

"I find it difficult to go outside in the sun," he says, "because when it's sunny I cannot see to do my work."

 

Based on the island’s history, the population of Pingelap was wiped out by a tsunami in 1780. Only about 20 people survived and one of them was the king who had a genetic fault that causes colour-blindness. It is believed that he pass on this fault to his many descendants. As the residents’ religion discourages marriage to outsiders, the gene pool was kept relatively small and allowed the mutation to persist.