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

Kiribati Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. The st ...

, an ocean nation in the central Pacific approximately midway between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. PIPA constitutes 11.34% of Kiribati's

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

(EEZ), and with a size of , it is one of the largest

marine protected area A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's 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 ...

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 World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

in 2010. The PIPA conserves one of the world's largest intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, includes 14 known underwater seamounts (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 U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in the US, though the total land area is only . To the north of the PIPA is the U.S. administered Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument 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, Virginia, in Arlington County, Virginia. CI's work focuses on science, policy and partnership with businesses, governments and co ...

and the

New England Aquarium The New England Aquarium is a nonprofit organization located in Boston, Massachusetts. The species exhibited include Harbor seal, harbor and northern fur seals, California sea lions, African penguin, African and southern rockhopper penguins, gia ...

, has formed the Phoenix Island Protected Area Conservation Trust (PIPA Trust). In 2018, the New England Aquarium resigned as a partner and the

Aquarium of the Pacific The Aquarium of the Pacific (formerly the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific) is a public aquarium on a site on Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, California, United States. It is situated across the water from the Long Beach Convention Center, Sho ...

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 (: tunas or 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 bul ...

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 including the

territorial sea Territorial waters are informally an area of water where a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potentially the extended continental shelf ( ...

(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. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most of ...

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 (non-living) processes such as deposition of sand or wave eros ...

in the PIPA ( Orona (Hull), Nikumaroro (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 Kiribati, Republic ...

( Orona (Hull), Nikumaroro (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 desc ...

'' (green

macroalgae Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of Macroscopic scale, macroscopic, Multicellular organism, multicellular, ocean, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Brown algae, Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ...

) (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'' and '' Lobophytum'') 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 thornlike 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 ''Tridacna'' is a genus of large saltwater clams, Marine (ocean), marine bivalve molluscs in the subfamily Tridacninae, the giant clams. Many Tridacna species are threatened. They have heavy shells, fluted with 4 to 6 folds. The Mantle (mollus ...

'') occur in low numbers: '' Tridacna squamosa''; ''

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 ''Tridacna gigas'', the giant clam, is the best-known species of the giant clam genus ''Tridacna''. Giant clams are the largest living bivalve molluscs. Several other species of "giant clam" in the genus ''Tridacna'' are often misidentified as ...

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

seamount A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly 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 university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

(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, it i ...

Sea Education Association
(SEA), and Schmidt Ocean Institute have carried out scientific research expeditions of these seamount habitats, which have been identified being rich in deep-water coral 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, 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 mo ...

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 coloniz ...

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 Int ...

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 i ...

. 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 are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated form ...

, cats, ants, pigs, dogs and

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

.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 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 noddies 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 or stormy petrel may refer to one of two bird family (biology), families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: * Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the No ...

, 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 Masked Boobies File:Phoenix Islands Protected Area-114868.jpg, Masked Boobies 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, Juvenile Booby 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 is a committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List and the List of World Her ...

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

World Heritage site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

in the world.

References

External links

*
Phoenix 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. * {{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 Articles with WikiMiniAtlas displaying incorrectly; WMA not showing area