Papahānaumokuākea

Overview

About

Papahānaumokuākea was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010 as a mixed site.

Travel tips

Access: the monument stretches about 1,931 km north-west of Honolulu through mostly uninhabited atolls and islets. It is not open to general visitors and has no scheduled passenger service.

Entry: entry is by permit only, for research, conservation, education and Native Hawaiian cultural activities. Individuals cannot travel there on their own.

Midway: Midway Atoll is run as a national wildlife refuge. Public visitor programmes that ran in earlier years have ended; only staff, contractors and volunteers on official business go there, by chartered aircraft landing at Henderson Field.

Learning about it: the Mokupapapa Discovery Center in Hilo, Hawaii, has exhibits and education programmes on the monument and is the main place for most visitors to learn about it.

Seeing the same species: the coasts and dive sites of the main Hawaiian Islands show species found in the monument, such as Hawaiian monk seals, green sea turtles and reef life.

Time: half a day for the Discovery Center in Hilo.

Season: Hawaii is warm all year. Albatrosses gather to breed on Midway in winter and spring.

Note: this is a national marine monument with strict rules on fishing, collecting and landing, and no alien species may be brought in.

Why it was inscribed

A unique testimony to a cultural tradition or civilisation; linked to major events, beliefs or works of art and literature; a record of Earth’s history and landforms; an example of ecological and biological processes; an important habitat for biodiversity and threatened species.

Papahānaumokuākea is a chain of low islands and atolls stretching about 1,900 km north-west of the main Hawaiian Islands; with the surrounding waters it is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world, with extensive coral reefs, seabirds, sea turtles and Hawaiian monk seals. In Native Hawaiian tradition these waters are where life began and where spirits return after death, and Nihoa and Mokumanamana keep ritual sites of early settlers.