Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, Central Pacific Ocean
© Ian Shive/Tandem Stills + Motion
Idyllic island escape
Welcome to this eco-friendly Pacific paradise, halfway between Hawaii and American Samoa. The Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge was established in 2001 to conserve, manage, and restore fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats.
Home to a vast reef system, this atoll has three shallow lagoons, and numerous sandy and reef-rock islets with vegetation like coconut palms, Scaevola, and towering Pisonia trees. The lush greenery here is a bustling neighborhood that is home to over a million birds, including the masked booby, great frigatebird, and sooty tern. It is also one of the few places outside the Galápagos Islands where red-footed boobies are found. There is a huge variety of marine wildlife in and around the atoll, including green sea turtles, hawksbill turtles, and the mighty coconut crab, the world's largest land invertebrate.