The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is located in the Republic of

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

, an ocean nation in the central Pacific approximately midway between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. PIPA constitutes 11.34% of Kiribati's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and with a size of , it is one of the largest

marine protected area Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a con ...

s (MPA) and one of the largest protected areas of any type (land or sea) on Earth. The PIPA was also designated as the world's largest and deepest UNESCO

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 2010. The PIPA conserves one of the world's largest intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, includes 14 known underwater

seamounts A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...

(presumed to be extinct volcanoes) and other deep-sea habitats. The area contains approximately 800 known species of fauna, including about 200 coral species, 500 fish species, 18 marine mammals and 44 bird species. In total it is equivalent to the size of the state of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in the US, though the total land area is only . To the north of the PIPA is the U.S. administered

Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument is a group of unorganized, mostly unincorporated United States Pacific Island territories managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the I ...

that is currently the world's largest designated MPA.

History and administration

The Republic of Kiribati, in partnership with the non-governmental conservation organizations

Conservation International Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. CI's work focuses on science, policy and partnership with businesses, governments and communities. The org ...

and the

New England Aquarium The New England Aquarium is a public aquarium located in Boston, Massachusetts. The species exhibited include harbor and northern fur seals, California sea lions, African and southern rockhopper penguins, giant Pacific octopuses, weedy seadra ...

, has formed the Phoenix Island Protected Area Conservation Trust (PIPA Trust). In 2018, the New England Aquarium resigned as a partner and th
Aquarium of the Pacific joined the PIPA Trust Board.
Management and protection requirements necessary to maintain the values of this MPA are reflected both in the current interim management measures and the recently approved management plan. These include, but are not limited to, the following: * Zonation * Permits The administrators of the reserve had been criticized for the amount of fishing they allowed prior to full closure on January 1, 2015. As of Jan 1, 2015, all commercial extractive activities (including

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: ...

fishing) are prohibited throughout the MPA. Only a small sustainable-use zone around

Canton Island Canton Island (also known as Kanton or Abariringa), previously known as Mary Island, Mary Balcout's Island or Swallow Island, is the largest, northernmost, and , the sole inhabited island of the Phoenix Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati. It i ...

allows for limited activities to support the resident population. In the PIPA Management Plan 2015–2020, which was implemented following a Kiribati government decision in January 2014, there is a total ban on commercial fishing within the PIPA boundaries. The

Territorial Sea The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and pote ...

(to 12 nm) and all lagoons of the 8 PIPA islands, (Kanton, Manra, Rawaki, Birnie, Mckean, Enderbury, Nikumaroro and Orona) to ensure there is no impact to marine and terrestrial species including habitats. In November 2021, it was announced that Kiribati government will terminate the protected area to boost tuna fishing.

Natural heritage

There are three

atolls An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gro ...

with associated lagoons and perimeter coral

reefs A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes—deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

in the PIPA (

Orona Orona atoll, also known as Hull Island, is one of the Phoenix Islands in the Republic of Kiribati. It measures approximately by , and like Kanton, is a narrow ribbon of land surrounding a sizable lagoon with depths of . Numerous passages connec ...

(Hull),

Nikumaroro Nikumaroro, previously known as Kemins Island or Gardner Island, is a part of the Phoenix Islands, Kiribati, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is a remote, elongated, triangular coral atoll with profuse vegetation and a large central marine lagoo ...

(Gardner), and Kanton (Aba-Riringa)), and five low islands surrounded by fringing reefs ( Manra (Sydney), Rawaki (Phoenix), McKean, Birnie and Enderbury), and also two submerged reefs ( Winslow and Carondelet). The area contains seven main habitats: island, lagoon, coral reef, deep reef, sea mount, deep

benthos Benthos (), also known as benthon, is the community of organisms that live on, in, or near the bottom of a sea, river, lake, or stream, also known as the benthic zone. The 2000 surveys (Obura, et al.) in the

Phoenix Islands The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Republic of Kiri ...

(

(Hull),

(Gardner), and Kanton (Aba-Riringa)), five low reef islands surrounded by coral reefs ( Manra (Sydney), Rawaki (Phoenix), McKean and Enderbury) identify that, at the time of these surveys, the reefs were in an excellent state of health, and free from the bleaching that has plagued reefs in other parts of the Pacific with no evidence of any coral diseases. The coral reefs of the Phoenix Islands were notable for their moderate Live Coral Cover (LCC) of 20-40% and evidence of high physical breakage of coral by wave energy on the southern, eastern and northern reefs of the islands, which create coral rubble in the lagoons and base of the reefs. The dominant bottom cover of the lagoons was hard coral (36.0%), followed by

coralline algae Coralline algae are red algae in the order Corallinales. They are characterized by a thallus that is hard because of calcareous deposits contained within the cell walls. The colors of these algae are most typically pink, or some other shade of re ...

(red algae) (18.0%), coral rubble (16.7%), turf and fleshy algae (11.6%) and ''

Halimeda ''Halimeda'' is a genus of green macroalgae. The algal body (thallus) is composed of calcified green segments. Calcium carbonate is deposited in its tissues, making it inedible to most herbivores. However one species, ''Halimeda tuna'', was descr ...

'' (green

macroalgae Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

) (10.4%). The dominance of coral and coralline algae indicates healthy reef ecosystems dominated by calcifying organisms and active reef framework growth. The effect of exposure to storms is indicated by the dominance trends with storm resistant encrusting/submassive forms in windward sites, its somewhat lower abundance at leeward sites and a corresponding increase in more delicate plate forms, and the dominance of the more fragile table and staghorn corals in protected lagoon sites. Coral species diversity is higher on the larger islands of Nikumaroro, Kanton and Orona, which indicates the importance of the larger area of reef on these islands for support of biodiversity. Carpeting soft corals (''

Sinularia ''Sinularia'' is a genus of soft coral in the family Alcyoniidae. They are commonly known as leather corals and currently have 166 described species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an o ...

'' and ''

Lobophytum ''Lobophytum'' is a genus of soft corals commonly known as devil's hand corals or devil's hand leather corals. Habitat and range ''Lobophytum'' species can be found in shallow water throughout a wide area of the tropical Indo-Pacific The ...

'') were found at the bottom of the lagoons of Kanton and Orona, which are the only true lagoons in the Phoenix Islands.

Crown-of-thorns starfish The crown-of-thorns starfish (frequently abbreviated to COTS), ''Acanthaster planci'', is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spines ...

(''Acanthaster planci''), cushion star and other coral predators, such as the corallivorous snail '' Drupella spp.'', are found on the reefs of the Phoenix Islands, although there has not been any indication of destructive outbreaks of those predators on the reefs. Species of giant clam ('' Tridacna'') occur in low numbers: ''

Tridacna squamosa ''Tridacna squamosa'', known commonly as the fluted giant clam and scaly clam, is a species of bivalve in the family Cardiidae. MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Tridacna squamosa Lamarck, 1819. Accessed through: World Register of Marine S ...

''; ''

Tridacna maxima The maxima clam (''Tridacna maxima''), also known as the small giant clam, is a species of bivalve mollusc found throughout the Indo-Pacific region.MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Tridacna maxima (Röding, 1798). Accessed through: World R ...

''; but not ''

Tridacna gigas The giant clams are the members of the clam genus '' Tridacna'' that are the largest living bivalve mollusks. There are actually several species of "giant clams" in the genus '' Tridacna'', which are often misidentified for ''Tridacna gigas'' ...

''. Two submerged reefs, Winslow and Carondelet, and at least 14 known

seamount A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise a ...

s together with open ocean and deep-sea habitat are an integral part of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). The

(NEAq),

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...

(BU),

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, i ...

Sea Education Association
(SEA), and

Schmidt Ocean Institute Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit operating foundation established in March 2009 by Eric Schmidt and Wendy Schmidt. The Institute's goal is to advance innovative oceanographic research and discovery through technological adv ...

have carried out scientific research expeditions of these seamount habitats, which have been identified being rich in

deep-water coral The habitat of deep-water corals, also known as cold-water corals, extends to deeper, darker parts of the oceans than tropical corals, ranging from near the surface to the abyss, beyond where water temperatures may be as cold as . Deep-water co ...

and biodiversity supporting a variety of oceanic pelagic species. PIPA has been identified as an important feeding and spawning site for the tuna species. The dominant taxonomic group in the deep sea across all depths were the

octocorals Octocorallia (also known as Alcyonaria) is a class of Anthozoa comprising around 3,000 species of water-based organisms formed of colonial polyps with 8-fold symmetry. It includes the blue coral, soft corals, sea pens, and gorgonians (sea fans ...

, followed by antipatharians,

scleractinia Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a ...

ns, and then

zoantharia Zoanthids (order Zoantharia also called Zoanthidea or Zoanthiniaria) are an order of cnidarians commonly found in coral reefs, the deep sea and many other marine environments around the world. These animals come in a variety of different colonizi ...

ns.

Impact of iron leaching from shipwrecks and anchor gear

The PIPA is in a naturally iron poor region. The introduction of iron to this environment from shipwrecks and anchor gear, is linked to proliferation of turf algae and benthic bacterial communities, and degraded ‘black reefs’. Monitoring from 2000 to 2015 recorded the black reef originating at the 1929 wreck of the SS ''Norwich City'' on Nikumaroro progressing northward to sites away. The 2015 expedition to the PIPA recorded the presence of black reefs on five atolls (Enderbury, Kanton, Nikumaroro, McKean, Rawaki) and on Carondelet seamount associated with shipwreck debris. No recovery has been documented at black reefs observed between 2005 and 2015.

Island restoration and biosecurity program

Five of the eight islands in PIPA are currently designated as

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Inte ...

s by

Birdlife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

. Today there are 19 species of seabirds living on the islands. Many other seabirds migrate through PIPA, including shearwaters and mottled petrels from Australia and New Zealand. Prominent species include the endemic, endangered Phoenix petrel.The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
/ref> Some of the negative impacts of the introduction of non-native, invasive plants and animals include the elimination of native seabirds and plants, particularly through the destruction of the eggs and young, and introduced plants taking over other plant life, modifying the natural island ecosystem. Plants and animals that have been introduced over time include Pacific and Asian rats,

rabbits Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...

, cats, ants, pigs, dogs and

lantana ''Lantana'' () is a genus of about 150 species of perennial flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but exist as an introduced species in numerous areas, especially in ...

.Pierce, R.J., T. Etei, V. Kerr, E. Saul, A. Teatata, M. Thorsen, and G. Wragg. 2006
Phoenix Islands conservation survey and assessment of restoration feasibility: Kiribati. Report prepared for: Pacific Invasives Initiative, CEPF and Conservation International, Samoa
.Pierce, R.J., and D. Brown
Phoenix Islands Restoration Project
16–23 April 2008. Accessed 28 August 2013. Until PIPA was declared, the last comprehensive fauna surveys of the Phoenix Islands occurred in the 1960s. In 2006 a new survey was conducted to determine the extent of non-native pest species invasions on each island and the feasibility of a restoration program. From this work it was determined that pests - especially the feral rabbits on

Rawaki Island Rawaki is one of the Phoenix Islands in the Republic of Kiribati, also known by its previous name of Phoenix Island. It is a small, uninhabited atoll, approximately in size and in area, with a shallow, brackish lagoon that is not connected to t ...

and Asian rats on McKean Island - should be removed from the Phoenix Islands. Sometime around the year 2002, Asian rats colonized McKean, apparently when a fishing trawler was wrecked on the island. The 2006 survey found that rat predation had virtually destroyed the once abundant populations of storm-petrels, blue noddles and other petrels and shearwaters. Rabbits on Rawaki were competing for and generally damaging necessary resources for the birds, as well as trampling nests. As a first step towards biodiversity recovery on the islands of the PIPA, in mid 2008 rats and rabbits were targeted on McKean and Rawaki. In November–December 2009 a check of these islands by a science team indicated that the eradication programs were successful. The responses from the plant life and bird life were spectacular with the team finding that seabirds were nesting successfully on McKean for the first time in nearly 10 years. Meanwhile, on Rawaki the vegetation recovery has enabled birds like blue noddies to find suitable nest sites throughout the island. Even frigatebirds were nesting on the now recovering plants. These restoration efforts will enable populations of Phoenix petrel, white-throated

storm petrel Storm-petrel may refer to one of two bird families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: * Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the Northern Hemisphere, although some speci ...

, and other important seabird populations to recover in the PIPA. A second eradication expedition was successfully executed in July 2011, with two additional islands of the PIPA, Enderbury and Birnie, targeted for pest removal. Both islands had populations of the non-native Pacific rat.

Gallery

File:Rotjan - Kanton Day 1 (187).JPG, ''Hydnophora rigida'' corals in PIPA File:Phoenix Islands Protected Area-114879.jpg, Fish in Phoenix Islands Protected Area File:Phoenix Islands Protected Area-114862.jpg, View of gulls File:Phoenix Islands Protected Area-114868.jpg, Birds in Phoenix Islands Protected Area File:Phoenix Islands Protected Area-114872.jpg, Juvenile Brown Booby in Phoenix Islands Protected Area File:Phoenix Islands Protected Area-114875.jpg, Birds in Phoenix Islands Protected Area File:Phoenix Islands Protected Area-114877.jpg, View of Phoenix Islands File:Rotjan Kanton Day 3 (37).jpg, Kanton Island, in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (Kiribati) File:Rotjan - Enderbury Day 1 (225).jpg, Enderbury Island, in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (Kiribati) File:Rotjan - McKean Dives 1 and 2 (109).jpg, McKean Island, PIPA File:Rotjan - McKean Dives 1 and 2 (109) (1).jpg, Chevron barracuda File:A healthy coral reef has predators, including this Vampire snapper, in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area.jpg, Wildlife in Phoenix Islands Protected Area

UNESCO World Heritage Site

On January 30, 2009, the Republic of Kiribati submitted an application for the Phoenix Islands Protected Area for consideration on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List. This was the first nomination submitted by Kiribati since they ratified the Convention in 2000. On August 1, 2010, at the 34th session of the

World Heritage Committee The World Heritage Committee selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance ...

in Brasília, Brazil, the decision was made to inscribe PIPA onto the World Heritage List. It became the largest and deepest

World Heritage site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in the world.

References

External links

Phoenix Islands Protected Area websitePhoenix Islands - Smithsonian Ocean Portal

Kiribati Tourism PIPA page

New England Aquarium PIPA page

Conservation International PIPA page

PIPA World Heritage nomination info

National Geographic magazine article January 2004

– the story of PIPA's founding. * http://www.phoenixislands.org/pdf/AMB-PIPA-2014.pdf {{Coord, 3, 38, 59, S, 172, 51, 27, W, source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Environment of Kiribati Geography of Kiribati Marine reserves Important Bird Areas of Kiribati Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) World Heritage Sites in Kiribati Island restoration Protected areas established in 2008 2008 establishments in Kiribati