Voyage to the Remote Phoenix Islands

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Enderbury is low and very small, less than 2 square miles in area, but this almost treeless island is home for thousands of sea birds. Not all islands that formed as coral atolls have lagoons: Enderbury has only a shallow wet area in its center, no longer connected to the ocean. Like many South Pacific islands, Enderbury was heavily mined in the 19th century for phosphorous-rich bird guano, which was used to make fertilizer and gunpowder. (Photo by Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)