1.10.1 The NWHI represent one of the last remaining
examples of an intact apex predator-dominated coral reef ecosystem
with large top predator fish such as sharks in abundance. Because
it is isolated, many aspects of the area represent what a completely
pristine and undisturbed bio-geographic system would look like at
this latitude if one still existed.
1.10.2 The area is geologically unique. The islands
were created from a single plume of magma rising from a hot spot in
the earth’s mantle. Built up over millions of years of eruption,
high volcanic islands were formed, then carried north-westerly by
the movement of the Pacific Plate beneath. Twenty-eight million years
ago the last emergent feature of the chain, Kure, was located where
the present Big Island of Hawaii is now located.