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| Fish from Nikumaroro Lagoon. |
It has been seven years since I last visited the Phoenix Islands and nine years, in 2000, since I first splashed into the beautiful Eden-like coral reefs surrounding these islands.
The reason the trips are so far apart is that the islands are about mid-way between Hawaii and Fiji, the two closest major airports/points of access, making the Phoenix Islands an 800-1000 mile commute by boat whenever you want to go there to work. They are the most inaccessible oceanic coral archipelago in the world, but also one of the most special places in the ocean.
But that isolation has been their saving grace. For millennia they have remained mostly uninhabited and free of local human impacts – like intense coastal fishing, sediment run-off from building structures near the ocean and pollution. Archeological evidence points to a few small ancient Polynesian/Micronesian settlements about 800 years ago – in the days when those amazing Pacific Island navigators mapped and explored the largest ocean on Earth in sailing canoes, navigating by stars, wave patterns and birds – hundreds of years before Capt Cook did it with his relatively modern instruments of the 18th century.
Today there are only about 40 people that live there on the island of Kanton; the other seven of the Phoenix Islands are uninhabited. This isolation gives the modern world a place on Earth where we can observe and study the tropical ocean in the absence of the intense human activity that permeates most every other place on Earth.
Global warming is one threat to the oceans that PIPA cannot control locally.
In 2006, the government of Kiribati declared the Phoenix Islands a Protected Area (PIPA) and then in 2008 expanded it to be the largest in the world at 410,000 square kilometers. The creation of PIPA was the result of leadership of the Government of Kiribati and a unique partnership between Kiribati, Conservation International and the New England Aquarium.
We are about to embark on the first research expedition back to the region since it was declared the largest Marine Protected Area and we will check on the status of fish, coral, birds and all ocean life in PIPA. We are especially interested to see how global warming is impacting the coral reefs.
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| Nikumaroro Lagoon. |
Global warming is one threat to the oceans that PIPA cannot control locally.
The warming oceans can kill reefs from what is called "coral bleaching," a condition where the symbiotic algae, which gives coral its color and lives in the coral tissue dies and eventually kills the coral itself giving it a white-bleached look. Although coral often looks like a rock, it is actually a colonial animal that relies both on carnivorous eating and absorbing sugars from symbiotic algae.
The expedition team will rendezvous in Fiji in a few days now from where we will depart on the 110 foot steel motor sailor NAI’A.
LEARN MORE: Explore the ship from which the scientists will be diving.
We are all packing camera, bottles, dive safety gear, regulators, wet suits, an ROV and the thousands of other items required for a major expedition to a remote part of the planet.
The expedition is being sponsored by Conservation International, The New England Aquarium, and the government of Kiribati. It will result in a research report, a National Geographic article and a film.
– Gregory Stone, PIPA Expedition Leader, September 2, 2009.
<< Back to overview | Expedition Dispatch 2 >>
Other members of the team include Dr. Randy Rotjan, New England Aquarium, Brian Skerry, National Geographic and Explorer in Residence at the New England Aquarium, Alan Dynner, chairman of the Aquarium’s overseers; Tukabu Teroroko, PIPA’s director; Dr. David Obura, of IUCN and Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian Ocean project; Dr. Les Kaufman of Conservation International and Boston University; Dr. Larry Madin of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and an Aquarium overseer; Kate Madin of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute; Dr. James Maragos of US Fish and Wildlife Department; Dr. Stuart Sandin of Scripps Oceanographic Institute and the University of California, San Diego; Craig Cook of Undersea Medical Associates; James Stringer; Jeff Wildermuth from National Geographic and the Aquarium; Tuake Teema of the Kiribati Fisheries Ministry; and Rob Barrel of NAI’A. Meet the team >>