Navassa Island: A Photographic Tour
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The team conducted an inventory of natural resources of the island for the Department of Interior, Office of Insular Affairs. Preliminary results of the inventories have increased the number of terrestrial species known to the island from 150 to more than 650. On the last day of the first trip, the group found a single living specimen of the palm tree Pseudopheonix sargentti saonae var. navassana. Further exploration during the second trip proved the specimen to be the last living example of this endemic palm, which had been common on the island as late as 1928. National Wildlife Refuge Status
The information collected during these expeditions was instrumental in the decision in 1999 to make Navassa a National Wildlife Refuge, under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The refuge was established to preserve and protect the coral reef ecosystems and the marine environment, to restore and enhance native wildlife and plants, and to provide opportunities for
wildlife research. This refuge is closed to the public.
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Coastal and Marine Geology Program > Center for Coastal Geology > Navassa Island U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/navassa/index.html Maintaned by Trent Faust - Webmaster Updated December 12, 2002 @ 10:41 AM (THF) |