The Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge is part of the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Established in 1909 by Theodore Roosevelt's Executive Order 1019, the refuge covers the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, with the exception of Midway and Kure Atolls. It consists of a chain of islands, reefs, and atolls, including Nihoa, Necker, French Frigate Shoals, Gardner Pinnacles, Maro Reef, Laysan Island, Lisianski Island, and Pearl and Hermes Reef. These remote islands extend about 800 miles northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands. The many small islands provide bare rocky, lowland shrub and grass, sand, and wetland habitat for over 30 species and 14 million breeding sea birds, wintering shorebirds, and endangered endemic songbirds and waterfowl. These islands and reefs also provide breeding and foraging habitat for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal and the threatened Hawaiian green sea turtle. The over 1,805,403 acres of submerged coral reefs are home to over 7,000 species of coral, algae, mollusks, fish, crustaceans, and other marine vertebrates and invertebrates. Visitation to the refuge is by special use permit only.

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