Papahānaumokuākea

Papahānaumokuākea protects the waters and tiny islands of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a chain of atolls, reefs and volcanic remnants stretching some 1,350 miles (2,170 km) northwest of Kauaʻi. Set aside as a marine national monument in 2006 and expanded in 2016 to about 582,600 square miles (1.5 million km²), it was for a time the largest marine protected area on Earth. More than 7,000 marine species live here, about a quarter of them found nowhere else.

Its name honors Papahānaumoku, an earth mother in Hawaiian tradition, and the islands are sacred to Native Hawaiians as the place where life begins and where spirits return after death. Nīhoa and Mokumanamana hold stone shrines and terraces left by early Hawaiians. The monument shelters endangered Hawaiian monk seals, green sea turtles and millions of seabirds, and Midway Atoll lies within its bounds. It became the first mixed natural and cultural UNESCO World Heritage Site in the U.S. in 2010, and its waters became a national marine sanctuary in 2025.

• Midway Atoll
  Albatross refuge and site of a turning-point battle of WWII contains
• Hawaii
  A volcanic island chain in the central Pacific part of