Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument

Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, formerly named Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, is a group of remote United States Pacific island territories and surrounding waters in the central Pacific Ocean, comprising seven islands and atolls: Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island. It was established on January 6, 2009 and expanded on September 25, 2014, and covers about 1,269,980 square kilometers, described as the most widespread collection of marine and terrestrial life protected areas on the planet under the jurisdiction of a single country. It protects deep coral reefs and seamounts and numerous endemic species of corals, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, seabirds, land birds, insects and vegetation found nowhere else, and is closed to commercial fishing and deep sea mining. It is managed jointly by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees its terrestrial and reef areas, and NOAA, which oversees fishery related activity in its outer zones. Its own IUCN protected area category is not stated in the source consulted; it is classified here as a Habitat and Species Management Area on general classification knowledge as a disclosed low-confidence closest fit.