There are over 556 National Wildlife Refuges in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s National Wildlife Refuge system, and for the past two weeks I volunteered as acting Refuge Manager for Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. 

Due to some unexpected circumstances, Palmyra’s Refuge Manager could not remain on the island. Given my past experience as a researcher on Palmyra, an assistant to the past Refuge Manager, and my flexible schedule – I was more than willing to stay in that capacity.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s mission on Palmyra Atoll is to conserve, protect and, where appropriate, restore the natural community. It is a place where wildlife comes first, all else takes a back seat.

In addition to my duties as acting Refuge Manager, which included  general monitoring and safekeeping of the refuge as well as shorebird and seabird counts, I had the opportunity to learn from the researchers that were doing their fieldwork on island during those two weeks. 

One of the researchers, Garreth Williams from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is doing a benthic mapping project using an array of carefully placed cameras, GPS tracks, and very careful boat steering. The final stitched product has incredible resolution – a picture of several thousand square meters of reef from with amazing zooming capacity that allows you to identify organisms down to species. Pretty amazing work!

Now back to the mainland!