Johnston Atoll is an unincorporated territory of the United States, under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force (USAF). The island is closed to public entry, and limited access for management needs is only granted by a letter of authorization from the USAF. A special use permit is also required from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to access the island by boat or enter the waters surrounding the island, which are designated as a National Wildlife Refuge and part of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. The Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge extends from the shore out to 12 nautical miles, continuing as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System out to 200 nautical miles. The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument extends from the shore out to 200 nautical miles.
The isolated atoll has been under the control of the U.S. military since 1934. During that time, it has been used as a naval refueling depot, an airbase, a testing site for nuclear and biological weapons, a secret missile base, and a site for the storage and disposal of chemical weapons and Agent Orange. Those activities left the area environmentally contaminated. The USAF completed remediating the contamination in 2004 and performs only periodic monitoring today.
The island is home to thriving communities of nesting seabirds and has significant marine biodiversity. USAF and USFWS teams conduct environmental monitoring and maintenance to protect the native wildlife. In the 21st century, one ecological problem was yellow crazy ants that were killing seabirds, but by the 2020s these were eradicated.
The atoll originally consisted of two islands, Johnston and Sand Island surrounded partially by a coral reef. Over the 20th century, those two islands were expanded, and two new islands, North (Akau) and East (Hikina) were created mostly by coral dredging. A long airstrip was built on Johnston, and there are also various channels through the coral reef.
Geography
Johnston Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, located about southwest of the island of Hawaiʻi, and is grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The atoll, which is located on a coral reef platform, has four islands. Johnston Island and Sand Island are both enlarged natural features, while Akau (North) and Hikina (East) are two artificial islands formed by coral dredging. By 1964, dredge and fill operations had increased the size of Johnston Island to from its original , increased the size of Sand Island from , and added the two new islands, North and East, of respectively.
The four islands compose a total land area of . Due to the atoll's tilt, much of the reef on the southeast portion has subsided. But even though it does not have an encircling reef crest, the reef crest on the northwest portion of the atoll does provide for a shallow lagoon, with depths ranging from .
Climate The climate is tropical but generally dry. Northeast trade winds are consistent. There is little seasonal temperature variation. With elevation ranging from sea level to at Summit Peak, the islands contain some low-growing vegetation and palm trees on mostly flat terrain, and no natural freshwater resources.
+Areas (ha) Island 1942 1964 (final) Johnston Island 19 241 Sand Island 4 9 North (Akau) Island N/A 10 East (Hikina) Island N/A 7 Total land area 23 267 Johnston Atoll 13,000 13,000Johnston Atoll has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh; Trewartha: BSha). It is a dry atoll with just over of annual rainfall.Rauzon, Mark J. (2016). Isles of Amnesia: The History, Geography, and Restoration of America's Forgotten Pacific Islands. University of Hawai'i Press, Latitude 20. Page 136. .
Wildlife
About 300 species of fish have been recorded from the reefs and inshore waters of the atoll. It is also visited by green turtles and Hawaiian monk seals. The possibility of humpback whales using the waters as a breeding ground has been suggested, albeit in small numbers and with irregular occurrences.Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System: Storage and Disposal of the European Munition Stock Pile: Environmental Impact Statement, Volume 2, 1990, pp.86 Many other cetaceans possibly migrate through the area, including Cuvier's beaked whales.
Birds
Seabird species recorded as breeding on the atoll include Bulwer's petrel, wedge-tailed shearwater, Christmas shearwater, white-tailed tropicbird, red-tailed tropicbird, brown booby, red-footed booby, masked booby, great frigatebird, spectacled tern, sooty tern, brown noddy, black noddy, and white tern. It is the world's largest colony of red-tailed tropicbirds, with 10,800 nests in 2020. It is visited by migratory shorebirds, including the Pacific golden plover, wandering tattler, bristle-thighed curlew, ruddy turnstone and sanderling.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1995. Bird list of Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.Version 30DEC2002 The island, with its surrounding marine waters, has been recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International for its seabird colonies.
Flora The first list of plants cataloged on Johnston Atoll was published in Vascular Plants of Johnston and Wake Islands (1931), based on the Tanager Expedition (1923) collections. Three species were described: Lepturus repens, Boerhavia diffusa, and Tribulus cistoides. In the 1940s, when the island was used for aviation activities for the war, Pluchea odorata was introduced from Honolulu.
History Early history
The first Western record of the atoll was on September 2, 1796, when the Boston-based American brig Sally accidentally grounded on a shoal near the islands. The ship's captain, Joseph Pierpont, published his experience in several American newspapers the following year, accurately portraying Johnston and Sand Island along with part of the reef. Still, he did not name or lay claim to the area."DISCOVERY. In lat. 16, 45, N. long. 169, 38 W. from London, on my passage from the Sandwich Islands to China, the 2d. of Sept. 1796, at midnight, in company with the sch. Prince William Henry, William Wake, master, of London, we both ran ashore on the North-side of a reef of Coral rocks and sand, where we continued until the next day noon─at which time the weather being very clear, we saw two small Islands of Sand, bearing W by N. 4 or 5 miles distant; and from our topgallant-mast-head, we saw the shoal extending E.S.E. southerly round to W.S.W.─but how far we were not able to determine. Keep the lat. 17. N. and the shoal will not be seen. JOSEPH PIERPONT." The Boston Price Current and Marine Intelligencer, September 14, 1797. Also in the Philadelphia Gazette, September 18, and Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia, Pa), September 19, 1797. The islands were not named until after they were sighted on December 14, 1807, from of the Royal Navy, commanded by Captain Charles James Johnston. The ship's journal recorded: "on the 14th [December] made a new discovery, viz. two very low islands, in lat. 16° 52′ N. long. 190° 26′ E., having a dangerous reef to the east of them, and the whole not exceeding four miles in extent".
In 1856, the United States enacted the Guano Islands Act, which allowed U.S. citizens to take possession of uninhabited and unclaimed islands containing guano deposits. Under this act, William Parker and R. F. Ryan chartered the schooner Palestine specifically to find Johnston Atoll. They located guano on the atoll on March 19, 1858. They proceeded to claim the island as U.S. territory. That same year, S. C. Allen, sailing on the Kalama under a commission from King Kamehameha IV of Hawaii, sailed to Johnston Atoll, removed the American flag, and claimed the atoll for the Kingdom of Hawaii (June 14–19, 1858). Allen named the atoll "Kalama" and the nearby smaller island "Cornwallis.".
Returning on July 22, 1858, the captain of the Palestine again hoisted the American flag to re-assert US sovereignty over the island. On July 27, however, the "derelict and abandoned" atoll was declared part of the domain of Kamehameha IV. On its July visit, however, the Palestine left two crew members on the island to gather phosphate. Later that year, Kamehameha revoked the lease granted to Allen when he learned the atoll had been claimed previously by the United States.
In 1872, Parker's widow sued for title to the island based on her husband's development work there. The U.S. Attorney General denied that claim because Parker had sold his share several years before.U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, vol. 69, p. 1178
By 1890, the atoll's guano deposits had been almost entirely depleted (mined out) by U.S. interests operating under the Guano Islands Act. In 1892, surveyed and mapped the island to determine its suitability as a telegraph cable station. (This investigation was dropped when it was decided to run the cable via Fanning Island). By 1898, the United States had taken possession,When Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. in 1898 during the Spanish–American War, the name of Johnston Island was not included in the list of 'Hawaiian Islands'. and a U.S. Territorial Government was established. On September 11, 1909, this office leased Johnston Atoll to a private citizen, Max Schlemmen of Honolulu, for agricultural purposes. The lease stipulated planting of coconut trees, and that "lessee will not allow use of explosives . . in the water immediately adjacent . . for the purposes of killing or capturing fish . . lessee will not allow destruction or capturing of birds . . " The lessee soon abandoned the project, however, and on August 9, 1918, the lease was reassigned to a Honolulu-based Japanese fishing company. A sampan carried a work party to the island; they built a wood shed on the SE coast of the larger island and ran a small tramline up the slope of the low hill to facilitate the removal of guano. Neither the quantity nor the quality of the guano was sufficient to cover the cost of gathering it, and the project was soon abandoned.
National Wildlife Refuge since 1926
The Tanager Expedition was a joint expedition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Bishop Museum of Hawaii, which visited the atoll in 1923. The expedition to the atoll consisted of two teams accompanied by destroyer convoys, with the first departing Honolulu on July 7, 1923, aboard the , which conducted the first survey of Johnston Island in the 20th century. Aerial survey and mapping flights over Johnston were conducted with a Douglas DT-2 floatplane carried on her fantail, which was hoisted into the water for takeoff. July 10–22, 1923, the atoll was recorded in a pioneering aerial photography project. The left Honolulu on July 16 and joined up with the Whippoorwill to complete the survey and then traveled to Wake Island to complete surveys there. Tents were pitched on the southwest beach of fine white sand, and a thorough biological survey was made. Hundreds of sea birds of a dozen kinds were the principal inhabitants, together with lizards, insects, and hermit crabs. The reefs and shallow water abounded with fish and other marine life.