March Educational Meeting (Zoom) – Palmyra Atoll by Matt Miller

Palmyra Atoll: A Paradise in the Pacific. The Palmyra Atoll is a cluster of islands 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, but unlike many Pacific islands, it historically has never had human inhabitants. The site of a small naval base during WWII, today it is jointly managed by The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Take a virtual journey to Palmyra with Matt Miller, editor of The Nature Conservancy’s Cool Green Science, who visited the atoll as part of a fish research project in 2021. Palmyra is an atoll with immense seabird nesting colonies, healthy coral reefs, 12 land crab species including the gigantic coconut crab, sea turtles, sharks, manta rays and more. This diversity was threatened by the presence of invasive rats, eradicated in 2015. Matt will share stories of conservation and hope from Palmyra, today one of the most pristine island ecosystems anywhere in the world.