US Coral Reefs in the Line and Phoenix Islands, Central Pacific Ocean: History, Geology, Oceanography, and Biology

Abstract

Pacific remote island areas (PRIA) are sovereign United States unincorporated and unorganized territories not falling within the jurisdiction of any other US territory or State (GAO 1997; US DOI 2003). There are eight PRIA and all are under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Interior (DOI). All are low reef islets or atolls in the central Pacific Ocean. Table 15.1 and Fig. 15.1 present the size, location, and regional geography of the five PRIA that are the primary focus in this chapter: Baker and Howland Islands in the Phoenix Islands ; and Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll in the Line Islands. All five are located between Hawai’i and Samoa and are National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The remaining three PRIA: Johnston Atoll NWR, Midway Atoll NWR, and Wake Atoll, are the subject of other chapters in this volume (Chapter 13, Rooney et al.; Chapter 17, Lobel and Lobel). Johnston Atoll is mentioned in this chapter because it is geologically part of the Line Islands archipelago. Wake Atoll, administered by the US. Air Force, is north of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Midway Atoll is located at the northwest end of the Hawaiian Islands and is a PRIA because it was excluded from state jurisdiction in the Hawaii Statehood Act of 1959. This chapter covers the cultural, geological, and biophysical characteristics and history of the five PRIA. The following chapter (Chapter 16, Maragos et al.) covers the status, threats and significance of the five PRIA.