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Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll) Friends!
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Supporting wildlife, honoring cultural significance, and those who fought in the Battle of Midway.
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PapahÄnaumokuÄkea Marine National Monument – Where Nature and Culture are One
PapahÄnaumokuÄkea spans the Northwestern region of the Hawaiian Islands covering three-quarters of the Hawaiian archipelago and over 582,000 square miles and including Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll). As noted by the PapahÄnaumokuÄkea Cultural Working Group, āIt is the ancestral homeland of our people, the KÄnaka, and the place to which we return when we leave the physical world.ā Today PapahÄnaumokuÄkea is inscribed as a United Nations World Heritage Site, recognized and valued in the international realm where nature and cultural are one.
February 2025 Stories From PapahÄnaumokuÄkea!
Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge lies within one of the most expansive and culturally immersed Marine Protected Areas on Earth known as PapahÄnaumokuÄkea Marine National Monument, a World Heritage Site encompassing 583,000 square miles of ocean water including islands and atolls of the Northwestern Islands.
Snapshots of the human history of Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll)
Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge / Battle of Midway National Memorial is part of the much larger ecosystem immersed in an extraordinary cultural sea and landscape within PapahÄnaumokuÄkea Marine National Monument. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Atoll's Hawaiian name is Kuaihelani meaning the “backbone of the heavens.” Before the recent discovery of Kuaihelani it was given the place name Pihemanu meaning “a loud din of birds.” Kuaihelani is a magical place of stunning natural beauty, abundant wildlife, and monumental history ā a place to be cared for (mÄlama) and preserved into perpetuity. Itās also home to a small community of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service staff, volunteers, and contractors. Click the images below to explore different aspects of life on this special atoll.
