Papahānaumokuākea Marine NM US Fish and Wildlife Photo Site on "flickr."
...In all, there are 23 species (click here) found in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument that are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and there are undoubtedly many more that might be eligible for listing, especially in the case of terrestrial arthropods (Evenhuis and Eldridge 2004). Additionally, Papahānaumokuākea is home to 22 IUCN Red-Listed species.
Furthermore,Papahānaumokuākea contains countless endemics, often species that have ranges limited to a single island. Four endangered endemic land birds are found in the Monument, and nowhere else in the world....Besides species of fish, marine mammals, turtles there are significant numbers of shorebirds and the food chain affiliated with all these larger species. The reason I note this island chain is the fact, like the Polar Bear, these species are dependent on their habitat. If these tiny islands were to succumb to sea level rise the terrestrial species would vanish and the fish species would be forced into chaos as their land based protections would disappear. It is also a World Heritage Site.
Papahānaumokuākea (click here) is a vast and isolated linear cluster of small, low lying islands and atolls, with their surrounding ocean, roughly 250 km to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Archipelago and extending over some 1931 km. The area has deep cosmological and traditional significance for living Native Hawaiian culture, as an ancestral environment, as an embodiment of the Hawaiian concept of kinship between people and the natural world, and as the place where it is believed that life originates and to where the spirits return after death. On two of the islands, Nihoa and Makumanamana, there are archaeological remains relating to pre-European settlement and use. Much of the monument is made up of pelagic and deepwater habitats, with notable features such as seamounts and submerged banks, extensive coral reefs and lagoons. It is one of the largest marine protected areas (MPAs) in the world.
