Pearl & Hermes Atoll
- date unknown
Pearl and Hermes Atoll, located 140 km southeast from Midway Atoll, is a largely submerged atoll structure surrounded by a 70 km long reef crest that encloses a large lagoon with a major opening in the southwest. The atoll is approximately 32 km long and 20 km across.
There are seven islets on the atoll, situated either on the outer reef crest or on the back reef slope, with a total land area of 0.36 km². The islets — often washed over by storms — support grasses, vines and herbs. They include: Seal Kittery Island, Grass Island, Bird Island, and Southeast Island (the largest on the atoll) along the southern reef rim; with North Island and Little North Island at the north east corner. Currents and storms continually create and remove new islands as land is exposed or submerged.
The atoll features a dramatic coral landcape with networks of elongated reef crests, tall pinnacles, spur-and-groove formations, deep canyons, caves and holes which contribute to the spectacular abundance and diversity of fish at the atoll — greater than anywhere else in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands — although coral species present are not as diverse as at Pearl & Hermes Atoll. In all, the reefs cover over 770 km².
Around 160,000 birds from 22 species may be seen at Pearl and Hermes. They include Black-footed Albatrosses (Diomedea nigripes), Tristram's Storm Petrels (Oceanodroma tristrami), and one of two recorded Hawaiian nest sites of Little Terns (Sterna albifrons). Hawaiian Monk Seals (Monachus schauinslandi) and Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) breed and feed at Pearl and Hermes, which is also a mating area for Spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris).
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
