About UsTwenty-two individual national wildlife refuges are scattered across the central and western Pacific Ocean, with 10 refuges located in the Hawaiian archipelago and 12 found from the Central Pacific to Guam and American Samoa. The Hawaiian and Pacific Islands NWR Complex office, which provides administrative guidance and oversight for these 22 refuges, is located in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Within this administrative structure is a subset of 10 refuges known as the Pacific Reefs NWR Complex. These refuges are farther from human population centers than any other U.S. area and represent one of the last frontiers and havens for fish and wildlife in the world. These remote refuges are the most widespread collection of coral reef and seabird/shorebird protected areas on the planet under a single country’s jurisdiction. They include Baker Island, Jarvis Island, Howland Island, Kingman Reef, Johnston Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, Rose Atoll, Mariana Arc of Fire, Mariana Trench, and Wake Atoll. Palmyra Atoll is managed cooperatively by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy, which owns Cooper Island within the refuge. For more information about TNC work on Palmyra, click here. |
Last updated:
March 22, 2011
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