Phoenix Islands

Phoenix Islands

The Phoenix Islands – learning from pristine reefs

In order to keep coral reefs healthy, it is critical to understand why coral reef communities look and act they way they do. With so many things damaging reefs at once, however, it’s almost impossible to disentangle the effects of global-scale (climate change) versus local-scale (overfishing, pollution) impacts. Only in places where humans are absent can we begin to understand this.

The extremely remote Phoenix Islands harbor one of the very few reef ecosystems left on the planet that has largely escaped the influence of humans. Visiting these reefs is literally like taking a journey back in time, and they have been hailed as a success story of coral reef protection, including in National Geographic magazine (January 2011).

The goal of our research here is to understand how these very healthy reefs function in the absence of human impacts. We will then be able to apply lessons learned in the Phoenix Islands to sustainable management and conservation of more impacted reefs around the world.

Pangaea Explorations is inviting a handful of guest crew to join this important mission.  We are looking for divers, journalists, photographers, educators and passionate individuals to compliment the dedicated Scripps science team.