These organizations are managing the atoll as a wildlife refuge. The Hawaii Statehood Act of 1959 did not include Palmyra Atoll, which is now partly privately owned by the Nature Conservancy with the rest owned by the Federal government and managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Palmyra Atoll: The Kingdom of Hawaii claimed the atoll in 1862, and the US included it among the Hawaiian Islands when it annexed the archipelago in 1898. Today the islands are a NWR and are the site of the world's largest Laysan albatross colony. The islands continued to serve as a naval station until closed in 1993. The US naval victory over a Japanese fleet off Midway in 1942 was one of the turning points of World War II. Between 19, Midway was used as a refueling stop for transpacific flights. The laying of the transpacific cable, which passed through the islands, brought the first residents in 1903. Midway Islands: The US took formal possession of the islands in 1867. In 2001, the waters surrounding the reef out to 12 nm were designated a NWR. There are no terrestrial plants on the reef, which is frequently awash, but it does support abundant and diverse marine fauna and flora. Its sheltered lagoon served as a way station for flying boats on Hawaii-to-American Samoa flights during the late 1930s. Kingman Reef: The US annexed the reef in 1922. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Air Force are currently discussing future management options in the interim, Johnston Atoll and the three-mile Naval Defensive Sea around it remain under the jurisdiction and administrative control of the US Air Force. Munitions destruction, cleanup, and closure of the facility were completed by May 2005.
Until late in 2000 the atoll was maintained as a storage and disposal site for chemical weapons. The site was used for high-altitude nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s. Subsequently, the US Air Force assumed control in 1948. Johnston and Sand Islands were designated wildlife refuges in 1926. Johnston Atoll: Both the US and the Kingdom of Hawaii annexed Johnston Atoll in 1858, but it was the US that mined the guano deposits until the late 1880s. The island was established as a NWR in 1974. It was abandoned in 1942 during World War II. The US occupied and reclaimed the island in 1935. The UK annexed the island in 1889 but never carried out plans for further exploitation.
Jarvis Island: First discovered by the British in 1821, the uninhabited island was annexed by the US in 1858 but abandoned in 1879 after tons of guano had been removed. The famed American aviatrix Amelia EARHART disappeared while seeking out Howland Island as a refueling stop during her 1937 round-the-world flight Earhart Light, a day beacon near the middle of the west coast, was named in her memory. In 1935, a short-lived attempt at colonization began on this island, similar to the effort on nearby Baker Island, but was disrupted by World War II and thereafter abandoned. Both US and British companies mined for guano deposits until about 1890. Howland Island: Discovered by the US early in the 19th century, the uninhabited atoll was officially claimed by the US in 1857.
In 1935, a short-lived attempt at colonization began on this island but was disrupted by World War II and thereafter abandoned. Its guano deposits were mined by US and British companies during the second half of the 19th century. They sustain many endemic species including corals, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, seabirds, water birds, land birds, insects, and vegetation not found elsewhere.īaker Island: The US took possession of the island in 1857. These remote refuges are the most widespread collection of marine- and terrestrial-life protected areas on the planet under a single country's jurisdiction. Midway Atoll NWR has been included in a Refuge Complex with the Hawaiian Islands NWR and also designated as part of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. All of the following US Pacific island territories except Midway Atoll constitute the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex and as such are managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US Department of the Interior.
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