Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge
Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge, 18 miles south of the equator and 1,300 miles south of Honolulu, is over 36,400 acres, including 1,100-acre (1.6 square mile) Jarvis Island. The majority of the refuge is marine habitat, including extensive coral reefs and other inshore tropical ocean habitats. Jarvis is an uninhabited low, flat, and sandy; vegetated only by sparse grasses, prostrate vines, and low-growing shrubs (scant rainfall and intense sun).
The refuge is managed primarily as nesting and roosting habitat for about 20 species of seabirds and shorebirds. Principal species are sooty terns, gray-backed terns, shearwaters, red-footed boobies, brown boobies, masked boobies, lesser and great frigatebirds, red-tailed tropicbirds, and brown noddies.
Threatened green sea turtles and endangered hawksbill turtles forage near the reef along with hundreds of species of fish, corals, and other invertebrates. The refuge is closely monitoring the return of nesting seabirds totally removed from the island by feral cats, which were eliminated in the early 1980s. Jarvis Island was exploited for commercial guano harvesting during the 19th century.
