Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument

Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is a United States marine protected area covering the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, including ten islands and atolls such as Midway Atoll. It was created on June 15, 2006, with an initial protected area of about 140,000 square miles, and was expanded more than fourfold on August 26, 2016 to reach the boundary of the United States exclusive economic zone, bringing its total area to approximately 582,578 square miles, one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. The monument shelters more than 7,000 marine species, roughly a quarter of them found nowhere else, and although only about 15 square kilometers of its area remain above sea level, that land supports numerous terrestrial species and archaeological sites significant to Native Hawaiians. It also holds numerous shipwrecks and aircraft wrecks from the Second World War. Commercial fishing within the monument has been banned since 2010, and it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010. It is managed jointly by NOAA, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and is classified under IUCN protected area category Ia.