The Minerva Reefs are a group of reefs located at in the Pacific Ocean. The reefs were named after the whaling ship Minerva, wrecked on South Minerva after setting out from Sydney in 1829. The reefs gained notariety in 1972 in the Republic of Minerva incident. Prior to the Minerva Republic, the Minerva Reefs were also notorious due to an October 1962 shipwreck in which a group of Tongan islanders were stranded on the reef for three months.
On 24 February 1972 Tonga made a claim over the Minerva Reefs.
