June 15, 2006 — In 2004, the President named the protection of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a national ocean policy priority in the U.S. Ocean Action Plan. Now the nation is seeing the culmination of what Teddy Roosevelt started nearly a century ago by designating this area a national monument and giving it one of the highest levels of protection. Only those with permits for very specific activities will now have access to the region — permits can be obtained for: research, education, conservation and management, native Hawaiian practices, recreation activities and non-extractive special ocean uses. (Click NOAA image for larger view of Mokumanamana, the second island in the NWHI chain. It is roughly 460 miles from Honolulu. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)

“The designation concludes a multi-year process started in 2001 that has involved the active participation of the public under the National Marine Sanctuary Act. Under this designation, NOAA gains its first major role in a national monument," said Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "The NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program will manage marine areas, taking advantage of their current tools and broad new authority under the President’s Proclamation.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services will manage the two existing refuges and the State of Hawaii will manage state controlled waters.

This is not the first time a national monument has been designated in marine waters, but it constitutes the largest and only offshore monument in a marine area to date. NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Programs shares the State of Hawaii’s and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s commitment to ensuring strong, long-term protection for NWHI coral reef ecosystems and will work with these partners to ensure the highest level of protection within this monument. (Click NOAA image for larger view of red pencil urchin found among the more than 7,000 species in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, which is now one of the nation’s monuments. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)

Ecosystems of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
The NWHI are surrounded by some of the healthiest and most extensive coral reef habitat in the world. Unique geology, biology and cultural history make this remote area a natural treasure for Hawai’i and the world. Like stepping stones across the Pacific, the land areas provide vital habitat for migratory seabirds and sea turtles to nest, migratory shore birds to rest and the Hawaiian monk seal (one of the rarest marine mammals) to pup. The surrounding waters are home to rich marine life, some found nowhere else, with new species increasingly being discovered. Together, land and water form the seamless ecosystems of the NWHI.

Overview of the Region
Dozens of tiny islands, atolls and shoals, spanning more than 1,200 nautical miles of the world's largest ocean, are slowly, quietly slipping into the sea, destined to become seamounts. Hundreds of miles north of Kaua'i, places like Nihoa, Laysan, Pearl and Hermes and Kure comprise the little known, rarely visited NWHI. (Click NOAA image for larger view of a white spotted hermit crab in a conch shell. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)

If they were laid atop the continental United States, the NWHI would cover a distance equal to that between New York City and Omaha, or Boston and the Florida Everglades.

These ancient volcanic remnants with their fringes of truly wild coral reefs remind us of our past — when coral reefs and sea life across the planet thrived.

The living coral reef colonies of the NWHI are a spectacular underwater landscape covering thousands of square nautical miles — nearly 70 percent of all U.S. coral reefs.

Over millennia, invertebrate animals and algae have constructed massive structures in the shallow seas. Coral animals, bonded to basalt from ancient volcanoes, secreted skeletons of calcium carbonate that formed the substance of future reef growth.

The NWHI coral reefs are the foundation of an ecosystem that hosts more than 7,000 marine species, including marine mammals, fishes, sea turtles, birds and invertebrates. Many are rare, threatened or endangered. Approximately one quarter are endemic, found nowhere else on Earth.

Besides supporting these species, the coral reefs and bits of land of the NWHI provide an amazing geological record of the volcanic powers that created the area and the erosion and subsidence that sculpted it.

Beyond biological significance, the area boasts a rich cultural history. During their Trans-Pacific voyages, ancient Polynesians sailed these waters and used these islands for centuries as places of residence and worship. When Western explorers found these islands they raced to claim them for their own nations after original Polynesian settlement. Entrepreneurs tried to make a living from natural resources found there, and the world's first global communications network linked through these islands. In World War II, the U.S. military fought a definitive battle near Midway and used the region for national security.

Formation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
The NWHI constitute the northern three quarters of one of the world's longest and most isolated island chains. Millions of years ago, a series of undersea volcanoes emerged to form the Hawaiian Archipelago.

Most of the NWHI are less than a square mile in landmass. Northwest of Ni'ihau, (the westernmost of the main Hawaiian Islands) the rocky islands, atolls and reefs become progressively older and smaller.

For at least 80 million years new islands have formed as the Pacific plate drifts over a stationary plume of magma rising from a hot spot within the Earth's mantle. Millions of years of eruptions have pushed the fluid rock up through the ocean floor creating high volcanic islands, The Pacific plate creeps northwestward at about 3.4 inches per year, slowly separating the volcanic islands from their source, as a new volcano builds over the hot spot. (Click NOAA image for larger view masked boobies in the NWHI. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)

Gradually the islands subside and erode. In the NWHI, only basalt remnants from ancient volcanoes (Nihoa and Necker Islands, Gardner and La Perouse Pinnacles) remain above the ocean's surface. As Hawaiian islands sink, reef building corals ring them. A lagoon is formed between the sinking island and the ring of coral. When the island slips below the surface all that remains is a lagoon bordered by a coral ring. Over time, the reef erodes and coral rubble and sands form low islets near the reef edge that in turn are sculpted by the wind and waves. These coral rings and islets are known as atolls.

At Kure Atoll, the last emergent island in the archipelago, coral growth barely keeps pace with the rate of subsidence and erosion. Scientists named this the Darwin Point. In the cold waters north of Kure, where coral growth rates are slower than the rate at which submerged lands sink, corals begin to die. From here on are the seamounts, drowned remnants of the Hawaiian chain which ultimately form the Emperor Seamounts, extending all the way to Japan and Russia.

The Marine Environment
Coral reefs worldwide have been used extensively by humans for sustenance, income, new development and recreation. This relationship, spanning thousands of years has modified, and in some cases destroyed, the complex communities and ecosystems that form coral reefs. Due to its extreme isolation from human populations and early protection by the U.S. Government, the NWHI marine environment has seen comparatively little impact from human sources. Most of its marine communities and their intricate relationships remain intact and healthy. (Click NOAA image for larger view of white tip reef shark under a ledge in the reserve. Sharks and other large fish are common on most reefs throughout the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, one of the few marine ecosystems remaining on the planet still dominated by apex predators. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)

Scientific research in the NWHI is finding that the coral reef ecosystem is predator dominated, with large carnivores such as sharks, jacks and groupers composing over half of the overall biomass of fishes. This is a very different view than what has been found in the main Hawaiian Islands and most other major coral reef ecosystems worldwide. These findings may provide insight into how humans have affected coral reef communities.

The NWHI coral reefs are some of the northernmost reefs in the world. Surface water temperatures at some NWHI reef areas drop to 18°C in late winter. At 16-18°C reef building coral growth is inhibited, and sustained periods at these temperatures can cause mortality in reef building coral species.

Ocean current patterns, and distance from other coral reef areas play a significant role in determining the diversity of corals found in the NWHI. To date, 55 species of stony corals, 12 species of soft corals and one anemone species have been reported from the NWHI. These corals are in addition to the approximately 7,000 marine species known from the area. Since the NWHI are far from other coral reef areas it is very difficult for new species to become established. Surface currents in the Hawaiian Archipelago are driven by the trade winds that predominantly move from east to west. This direction of flow places the main Hawaiian Islands and the more southerly Johnston Atoll as the only adjacent locations for influx of new coral species. The world's center of coral reef diversity in Southeast Asia is thousands of miles to the southwest and other Pacific reef areas are far to the south. What the NWHI coral reefs lack in diversity they make up for in sheer size — the NWHI coral reefs comprise roughly 70 percent of all coral reefs found in U.S. waters and the area has many massive coral colonies, some measuring almost twenty feet tall, that are national treasures. (Click NOAA image for larger view of acropora coral is found in abundance in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)

Another effect of the isolation of NWHI coral reefs is the high rate of endemism. About one quarter of all marine species found in the Hawaiian Archipelago are found nowhere else on Earth. Few up-curent coral reef species were able to survive the long journey to the Hawaiian Islands and of those that did, only a few established themselves and reproduced. Because of the distance from the original population, interbreeding became rare, if not impossible and new species evolved over time, in response to the new environment, that were quite different from the original parent species. These new species exist only in the Hawaiian Archipelago and cannot be replaced from anywhere else if they become extinct.

Along with coral reef areas there are many deep sea banks and seamounts in the NWHI that provide important habitat for bottomfish and other unique sea creatures, some new to science. A few of these deep sea areas also provide foraging grounds for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

Cultural Legacy
Long before Western ships sighted the NWHI, Native Hawaiians and other Polynesians journeyed in large double-hulled canoes to these resource rich islands and atolls as they explored the vast Pacific Ocean. Physical remnants of ancestral places at Nihoa and Necker islands indicate use of these islands and the surrounding oceans by the ancients. The archaeological finds and oral tradition confirm a relationship of the islands to early Polynesian cultures. Evidence indicates that the NWHI served as homes and places of worship for Polynesians for centuries. (Click NOAA image for larger view of great frigate bird. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)

Song and chant that have been passed down refer to islands beyond the main Hawaiian islands and recall the travels of seafaring ancestors on their way to and from the Hawaiian Archipelago. On genealogical, cultural, spiritual and geological levels, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are intimately connected to Native Hawaiians and the main populated islands. The natural elements (land, wind, rain) and creatures of the northwestern islands are considered primordial ancestors and therefore the older relatives of living Native Hawaiians. Both share an interdependent, family-based relationship which requires care for the older siblings who in turn provide for the well being of the younger. These traditions remind us of the time honored responsibility to care for this unique, fragile place and its many resources through strong conservation and protection principles. The need to care for the archipelago continues as NOAA look toward the future.

For nearly 100 years, the islands and near shore waters of the NWHI have been protected by various government agencies. New protections and long-term conservation will help maintain the wild, natural character, and the splendor of irreplaceable coral reefs and island ecosystems.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Ocean Service

NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program

2005 State of the Sanctuaries Report

THE NOAA NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY PROGRAM (NOAA Magazine article)

WHAT IS THE STATE OF THE NATION’S MARINE SANCTUARIES?

PRESIDENT SETS ASIDE LARGEST MARINE CONSERVATION AREA ON EARTH
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument Encompasses Nearly 140,000 Square Miles

Media Contact:
Ben Sherman, NOAA Ocean Service, (301) 713-3066 ext. 178
(Photos courtesy of Andy Collins, NOAA Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve.)