Friday, November 16, 2012

Papahānaumokuākea - USA

This place with such a weird name is a Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  
These are Hawaiian squirrelfish at French Frigate Shoals.
The national monument was inscribed on the World Heritage List in July 2010 and this is the only US site that i'm still missing.

Photo: U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Pacific Region's
The site encompasses 140,000 square miles (360,000 km2) of ocean waters, including ten islands and atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, internationally recognized for both its cultural and natural values as follows:
"The area has deep cosmological and traditional significance for living Native Hawaiian culture, as an ancestral environment, as an embodiment of the Hawaiian concept of kinship between people and the natural world, and as the place where it is believed that life originates and to where the spirits return after death. On two of the islands, Nihoa and Makumanamana, there are archaeological remains relating to pre-European settlement and use. Much of the monument is made up of pelagic and deepwater habitats, with notable features such as seamounts and submerged banks, extensive coral reefs and lagoons. It is one of the largest marine protected areas (MPAs) in the world." - in: wikipedia
This is the last touchnote card sent by Miguel.

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