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Treasured Islands of Palmyra: Nature’s Stronghold in the Pacifi_ National Geographic magazine 3/2001 20 images Created 1 Apr 2021

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  • Convict surgeonfish swim through the water above coral.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671346.JPG
  • Shark-hunting dogs help control the local shark population on Palmyra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671351.JPG
  • A man swings to splash-down on an uninhabited tropical atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671356.JPG
  • A barren tree floats adrift in the crystal-clear waters of Palmyra Atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672502.JPG
  • A boobie rests in an alcove along the shore of Palmyra Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672508.JPG
  • Scars of World War II, a ship channel (upper left) mark this link in the Line I slands Chain.  Family owned until the year 2000, Palmyra was eyed as a nuclear dump and as a tourist resort before the Nature Conservancy acquired it for 30 m illion dollars.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671347.JPG
  • Scars of World War II, a rusty gun mount marks a link in the Line Islands chain.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671348.JPG
  • A masked booby attends a nestling.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671349.JPG
  • Schools of mulletfish (Mugilidae) prudently detour around a blacktip reef shark (center) (Carcharhinus melanopterus) just off Home Island of the Palmyra Atoll .
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671350.JPG
  • A coconut sign marks a building erected as a mess hall for a failed copra plantation
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671352.JPG
  • Balsa-like Pisonia trees grow unmolested on the islands of Palymra.  The fiber of this tropical tree is soft like balsa wood.  The buttress trunks and tangled branches of these trees allow for Palmyra to transform itself into a spectacul ar forest nursery for tens of thousands of nesting seabirds and their young each spring.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671353.JPG
  • Coconut crabs, the largest land crustacean, live unmolested on Palmyra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671354.JPG
  • The underwater coral scene of Palmyra Atoll:  Schools of fish swim in unison in the crystal blue waters of Palmyra Atoll.  Palmyra lies 400 miles north of the Equator in an expanse of the ocean known as the intertropical convergence zone .
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672471.JPG
  • Underwater coral scene off Palmyra Atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672479.JPG
  • Surgeonfish  slice through the coral rich waters off Palmyra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672488.JPG
  • A coconut crab, the largest land crustacean.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672494.JPG
  • Seabirds fill the sky over Palmyra Atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672506.JPG
  • A grasshopper scales a leaf.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672509.JPG
  • A school of black surgeonfish (Acanthurus species) fish slice through the coral rich waters of Palmyra Atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672515.JPG
  • An author standing in the waters off of Palmyra Atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_675133.JPG