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The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands or Leeward Hawaiian Islands are the small islands and atolls in the Hawaiian island chain located northwest (in some cases, far to the northwest) of the islands of Kauai and Niihau. Politically, they are all part of Honolulu County in the U.S. state of Hawaii, except Midway Atoll, which is a territory distinct from the State of Hawaii, and grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands.[1] The United States Census Bureau defines this area, except Midway, as Census Tract 114.98 of Honolulu County. Its total land area is 3.1075 square miles (8.048 km2). All the islands except Nihoa are north of the Tropic of Cancer, making them the only islands in Hawaii that lie outside the tropics.

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands form part of the Hawaiian island chain
NW Hawaiian Islands
Location of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean
NW Hawaiian Islands
NW Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian Islands)
Geography
LocationPacific Ocean
Coordinates25°00′N 169°00′W
ArchipelagoHawaiian Islands
Administration
United States
State/TerritoryHawaii and Midway Island

The Northwestern or Leeward Hawaiian Islands include:


The Islands


The interior of Laysan, showing the hypersaline lake
The interior of Laysan, showing the hypersaline lake
1909 map of the Hawaiian Islands Reservation.
1909 map of the Hawaiian Islands Reservation.

Other islands or reefs were previously mapped as part of this chain but are now considered to be either phantom islands or misidentifications of existing islands. The following reefs continued to appear on maps as late as 1934:[3]


Geology


The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were formed approximately 7 to 30 million years ago, as shield volcanoes over the same volcanic hotspot that formed the Emperor Seamounts to the north and the Main Hawaiian Islands to the south.[7] As the Pacific Plate moved north and later northwest over the hot spot, volcanic eruptions built up islands in a linear chain. The isolated land masses gradually eroded and subsided, evolving from high islands in the south, much like the Main Islands of Hawaii, to atolls (or seamounts) north of the Darwin Point. Each of the NWHI are in various stages of erosion. Nihoa, Necker, and Gardner Pinnacles are rocky, basalt islands that have not eroded enough to form an atoll, or that lack a substantial coral reef. Laysan and Lisianski are low, sandy islands that have been eroded longer. French Frigate Shoals, Pearl and Hermes, Midway, and Kure are atolls.

North of the Darwin Point, the coral reef grows more slowly than the island's subsidence, and as the Pacific Plate moves northwest, the island becomes a seamount when it crosses this line. Kure Atoll straddles the Darwin Point, and will sink beneath the ocean when its coral reef cannot keep up with the rate of subsidence, a destiny that awaits every Hawaiian island.[8]


Biodiversity and Endemism


The Nihoa finch
The Nihoa finch

The Hawaiian Islands are about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from North America and 3,800 miles (6,100 km) from Asia, and it is because of this isolation that the Hawaiian Islands have extraordinary numbers of unique species.[9] Only a species that could fly or swim immense distances could reach the archipelago. But whereas Polynesians, and later, Europeans, have largely altered the ecosystem of the Main Hawaiian islands by introducing alien species, the ecosystems of the NWHI remain, for the most part, intact. The extensive coral reefs found in Papahānaumokuākea are home to over 7,000 marine species.[10] Of the many species that live here, over 1,700 species of organisms are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands (i.e., they are found nowhere else). For this reason, the region has been dubbed "America's Galápagos".

Though not subject to nearly as much extinction as the main islands, the Leeward Islands have had their share of abuse. From the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, fishermen, guano miners, and feather hunters killed most of the birds and sea life living in the NWHI. Rabbits were introduced to Laysan and Lisianski, where they multiplied and devoured most of the vegetation, permanently extinguishing several species. However, most of the damage was reversed, and the islands were restored largely to their pre-exploitation state.


Important Bird Area


The NWHI has been recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of its seabirds and endemic landbirds. The seabird colonies in the IBA form one of the largest assemblages of tropical seabirds in the world, with over 14 million birds of 21 species.[11]

Some of the endemic species of the NWHI include the Nihoa and Laysan finch, the Laysan duck (the "rarest native waterfowl in the United States"),[12] and the Nihoa fan palm. Other notable species are the Laysan albatross, the highly endangered Hawaiian monk seal, and the green sea turtle. The only native trapdoor spiders in the Hawaiian archipelago (Nihoa spp.), recently discovered, are found here. Most endemic species are highly vulnerable to extinction as one major catastrophic event could wipe out all of the vegetation on each small island. Additionally, seventy percent of all coral reefs in the United States are found here.


Exploration


The reserve sign on Lisianski
The reserve sign on Lisianski

Archeological evidence suggests ancient Hawaiians visited but did not live on Mokumanamana (Necker) and French Frigate Shoals, and the islands were deserted when Europeans arrived in the 18th century. Agricultural terraces indicate Hawaiians lived on Nihoa for extended periods of time. Mokumanamana lacks vegetation and is unsuitable for agriculture, and archeological studies indicate early Hawaiians only visited and used the island for religious purposes.

The first of the Leeward Isles to be discovered by Europeans was Nihoa. James Colnett discovered it in 1786, although historically the credit has gone to William Douglas. Later that year, La Pérouse discovered Necker, and named it for Jacques Necker, the French Minister of Finance. La Pérouse then went on to discover French Frigate Shoals. The last of the NWHI to be discovered was Midway Atoll, which was found by N.C. Middlebrooks in 1859. In 1925, the Tanager Expedition travelled to many of the NWHI. The islands were mapped, new species were discovered and described, and the archeological sites on Nihoa and Necker were found.


Naming system


Most of the islands have two names: one in English and one in Hawaiian (indicated in parentheses above). The majority of the Hawaiian names used as alternatives to the English ones were created in modern times; the original names that ancient Hawaiians gave to all of these islands that they encountered prior to Western contact are found in various oli (chants) and moʻolelo (stories).


National Monument


On June 15, 2006, American President George W. Bush issued a public proclamation creating Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906. The Monument encompasses the islands and surrounding waters, forming the largest marine wildlife reserve in the world. President Theodore Roosevelt had declared the Northwestern Hawaiian chain a bird sanctuary in 1909, and the islands had been protected since 2000 with a designation as an 'ecosystem reserve' by President Bill Clinton, but increasing it to national monument status provides unprecedented control. 139,000 square miles (360,000 km2) of ocean was at that time set aside for protection, about the size of the U.S. state of California.

In August 2016, President Barack Obama expanded the area of the monument by roughly four times. The expanded monument was at that time the world's largest marine protected area.[13][14]

Entry to the Monument is limited through a permit system, jointly administered by NOAA, FWS, and the state of Hawaii. Anyone who comes to the islands must follow stringent procedures designed to prevent any stray species from entering and disrupting the ecosystem. All clothes must be bought new, and kept wrapped until before arrival. In fact, all "soft" items (camera strap, blanket) must be bought new, and all "hard" items (camera, binoculars) must be cleaned thoroughly. Then, every item must be frozen for 48 hours. A new set of equipment must be prepared for each island one is going to, to prevent inter-island species introduction. However, French Frigate Shoals and Midway Atoll are exempted from these rules, as they are deemed too altered by humans already to worry about introducing new species.


See also



Notes


  1. "Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument". www.papahanaumokuakea.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
  2. Rauzon, 100
  3. Rand McNally World Atlas Pictorial Edition. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company. 1934. p. 57.
  4. Gleason, Kelly. "A Sounding Lead on a Distant Reef, Captain Pollard’s Lessons Learned", Nantucket Historical Association
  5. Murphy, Robert Cushman (1951). "Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition 59: The populations of the Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus pacificus)." American Museum Novitates 1512: 1–21. PDF fulltext
  6. Charles A. Ely, A. Binion Amerson, Jr. (October 1, 1970). "New light on Snow's Krusenstern Island." The Auk 87:800–804.
  7. Clague, D.A. and Dalrymple, G.B. (1989) Tectonics, geochronology, and origin of the Hawaiian-Emperor Chain in Winterer, E.L. et al. (editors) (1989) The Eastern Pacific Ocean and Hawaii, Boulder, Geological Society of America.
  8. Rauzon, 3
  9. Rauzon, 4
  10. "Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument". official web site, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original on 2013-10-11. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  11. "Northwestern Hawaiian Islands)". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. 2020. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  12. FWS (2009). "Laysan Duck - Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge". U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
  13. Eagle, Nathan (August 26, 2016). "Obama To Create World's Largest Protected Marine Area Off Hawaii". Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  14. "Fact Sheet: President Obama to Create the World's Largest Marine Protected Area". whitehouse.gov. August 26, 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2016 via National Archives.

References





На других языках


[de] Nordwestliche Hawaii-Inseln

Die Nordwestlichen Hawaii-Inseln oder Inseln unter dem Winde (abgekürzt NWHI, englisch Northwestern Hawaiʻian Islands oder Leeward Islands, hawaiisch Papahānaumokuākea) sind eine Kette kleiner Inseln, Atolle und Korallenriffe im zentralen Pazifischen Ozean.
- [en] Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

[es] Islas de Sotavento (Hawái)

Las islas de Sotavento de Hawái (en inglés: Northwestern Hawaiian Islands o Leeward Islands) son las islas, atolones, arrecifes y bancos de arena del archipiélago de Hawái situadas al noroeste de las islas de Kauai y Niihau.

[fr] Îles hawaïennes du Nord-Ouest

Les îles hawaïennes du Nord-Ouest ou îles hawaïennes sous le vent, en anglais Northwestern Hawaiian Islands et Leeward Islands sont un ensemble de petites îles et atolls de l'archipel d'Hawaï située au nord-ouest des îles de Kauai et Niihau. Elles font partie de l'État américain d'Hawaï à l'exception des îles Midway administrées par l'United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Elles sont rattachées au Comté d'Honolulu et forme le Monument national marin de Papahānaumokuākea. Leur superficie totale est d'environ 8 km2.

[it] Isole Hawaii nordoccidentali

Le Isole Hawaii nordoccidentali o Isole Leeward sono un insieme di piccole isole e atolli della Catena Insulare Hawaiiana situate a nordovest (in alcuni casi anche molto lontano) delle Isole Kauai e Niihau. Sono amministrate dallo Stato americano delle Hawaii fatta eccezione per l'Atollo di Midway, che ha strutture residenziali temporanee ed è amministrato dallo United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Nello Stato delle Hawaii, fanno parte della Contea di Honolulu. Lo United States Census Bureau definisce quest'area come Zona di Censimento 114.98 della Contea di Honolulu. La sua superficie terrestre totale è di 8,0485 Km².

[ru] Подветренные Гавайские острова

Северо-западные Гавайские острова или Подветренные острова (англ. Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) — маленькие острова и атоллы в гряде Гавайских островов расположенные на северо-западе (в некоторых случаях, далеко на северо-западе) от островов Кауаи и Ниихау. Они находятся в ведении американского штата Гавайи, за исключением атолла Мидуэй, имеющего временные жилые помещения и находящегося в ведении Службы рыбных ресурсов и дикой природы США. Острова являются частью округа Гонолулу штата Гавайи. Общая площадь земель островов составляет 14,3 км² (8,0485 км² (3,1075 кв миль) без острова Мидуэй (6,23 км²)).



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