Jarvis Island is a low-lying coral atoll with a small land area, located in the Northern Line Islands of the west-central Pacific Ocean. Of the three U.S. equatorial possessions, Jarvis Island is the largest. It is an unincorporated territory that is currently a protected National Wildlife Refuge that is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The seabird colonies of the brown and masked boobies, red-tailed tropicbirds, lesser frigatebird, blue noodies, Polynesian storm petrels, and sooty terns, endangered sea turtles, as well as the coral reef ecosystem, which is considered one of the most remote and pristine in the world, are what makes this island so special and unique. Jarvis Island is the largest of all of the US equatorial possessions with no permanent inhabitants. There is no natural freshwater sources, and the island can only be accessed if you have a special permit to be there.
In 1821, British Captain Matthew Brown first sighted Jarvis Island on the ship Eliza Francis. The name "Jarvis" came after this ship's owners - Edward, Thomas, and William Jarvis. In 1841, the U.S. Exploring Expedition sent a surveying team to check it out. Using the Guano Islands Act, the U.S. claimed Jarvis Island in March of1857. In 1858, it was formally annexed by the U.S., who mined for fertilizer due to its guano deposits. It became one of the most exploited guano islands of them all. By 1879, the islands were abandoned because all of the guano was removed. In 1889, Great Britain annexed the island, but they never developed or exploited it further. In 1935, the U.S. reclaimed Jarvis Island. There were colonists who lived on the island from 1935 to 1942. They were mostly young Hawaiian men who were part of the "American Equatorial Island Colonization Project" that was led by the US Department of Commerce. During World War II, they were removed from the island due to the concern of a possible Japanese attack. It remains an uninhabited U.S. National Wildlife Refuge today.
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