Pipes and other wreck debris at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

Pipes and other wreck debris at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is carpeted by the invasive corallimorph that is gaining nutrients from the wreck's iron. The diver in the background serves as a size scale. Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is home to some of the most pristine coral reefs in the world, but portions of the reef were being smothered by an invasive organism as it gained nutrients from the iron leaching off shipwrecks. Removing the wrecks gives the reef its best chance to resist impacts of global climate and oceanographic changes into the future.