Palmyra Atoll

Randy Olson

Freelance/National Geographic Magazine

The Nature Conservancy hopes to purchase Palmyra Atoll for $37 million. The atoll was slated for a nuclear waste dump or a resort complex. The owners (whose family had lost their fortune keeping the atoll out of the hands of the U.S. Government in WWII) wanted the island to remain wild. There is more acreage underwater in sand shoals and coral reefs than on land. Palmyra is second only to the Galapagos in Red-Footed Boobies and other bird and marine life.

Randy Olson, "Palmyra Atoll," in POYi Archive, Item #30563, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/30563 (accessed June 7, 2025).