Jarvis Island

A Coral Island at the End of the World

Jarvis Island is a small, low-lying coral island in the South Pacific, located roughly halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an unincorporated territory of the United States, administered as a National Wildlife Refuge by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and it has no permanent population. The island was mined extensively for guano during the 19th century and briefly settled in the 1930s under the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project, but those settlers were evacuated during World War II and the island has been uninhabited ever since.

Nature in Undisturbed Condition

The absence of people has been good for Jarvis Island. The island supports large nesting colonies of seabirds, a healthy surrounding reef and undisturbed scrub vegetation. Green sea turtles nest on its beaches. The waters are remote enough from fishing pressure to remain in notably good condition, and the island is included within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, one of the largest marine protected areas in the world.

Access Is Essentially Non-Existent

Visiting Jarvis Island requires a special-use permit from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which is issued only for scientific or educational purposes. There is no anchorage, no landing facility, no fresh water, no shelter and no communications equipment on the island. Any visit requires a self-sufficient expedition by private vessel. The nearest inhabited island is Kiribati, and the nearest anything else is a considerable distance in every direction.

Part of a Quiet Collection

Jarvis Island is one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, a scattered collection of Pacific and Caribbean territories that are legally US soil but have no civilian population and no path to statehood. Like Baker and Howland islands nearby, it observes UTC-12, making it one of the last places on earth to mark the end of each day. It is, in most practical senses, a place that exists more as a legal and ecological fact than as a destination.