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Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI)

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Coral Reefs Ecosystem Essays

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) - This essay on the coral reef ecosystems of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) is the first in a series on United States coral reef possessions offered by CoRIS.

The NWHI comprise a group of distant and remote islands, atolls, and shoals that span more than 1,200 miles of the North Pacific Ocean in a northwesterly direction from the Main Hawaiian Islands. Unlike coral reef ecosystems elsewhere in the world that are threatened by human mismanagement, the coral reefs of the NWHI are generally healthy and pristine.

In addition to descriptions of the ecosystems of the NWHI, the essay provides links to metadata and data for each particular island, atoll, shoal, and submerged bank. The ecological information presented in the essay is from the multi-agency Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (NOWRAMP) expeditions, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA’s National Ocean Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, and the NOAA report on the State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States: 2005.

Navassa Island - Navassa is a small, remote, and uninhabited oceanic island located in the Windward Passage approximately 55 km west of the southwestern tip of Haiti. It is under United States jurisdiction administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge includes a 12 mile radius of marine habitat around the island. Because of its remote location and uninhabited status, the surrounding marine ecosystem is basically unspoiled. Although there are no permanent residents on Navassa, transient Haitian subsistence fishers regularly visit the island, with detrimental effect on the fishes and edible invertebrates. Because of the island�s remoteness, existing protective regulations are not enforced.

In addition to descriptions of the coral habitats and communities of Navassa, the essay provides descriptions of the terrestrial communities and links to marine ecosystem metadata and data held by CoRIS.

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