It was officially named Kure Island in 1924 and then Kure Atoll in 1987. Sometimes spelled Cure, its English name was for a Russian navigator who sighted the atoll. At the time it was called Ocean Island.īefore the mid-19th century, Kure Atoll was visited by several ships and given new names each time. The camp from survivors of a shipwreck on Kure in the 19th century. White-capped Noddy Tern ( Anous minutus)Īs of 2002, 92 species of algae have been discovered in the central lagoon of Kure Atoll.Red-tailed Tropic-bird ( Phaethon rubricauda).Wedge-tailed Shearwater ( Pufinus pacificlcs).Laysan Albatross ( Diomedea immutabilis).Black-footed Albatross ( Diomedea nigripes).Seabirds known to be at Kure in one survey: Kure Atoll has a coral reef that is the most distant from the equator. Overall Green Island is 1.5 miles long and up to half a mile wide. The east side arcs down from north point and the shore includes east beach, southeast beach, and south beach, which arcs around to West point on the south side of the island.

Green Island is roughly triangular with a point to the north and with a northwest beach extending down to a western point. A survey of plant life in 2001, counted about 50 different species of plant on Green Island. Another type of tree on Green Island is the heliotrope tree ( Tournefortia argentea), there are two groves of ironwood trees ( Casuarina equisetifolia), and other common plants are Verbesina and Bermuda grass.

Green Island has a wide variety of vegetation including groves of Beach Naupaka ( Scaevola taccada), which are a popular habitat for birds. Sand Island is not known to have plant life. Sand Island is about one acre in size and lies to the west of Green Island. Green Island is in the southeast quadrant of the ring, with an area of 235 acres. The coral reef is a rough ring shape about six miles across and has two islands within, Sand Island and Green Island. The polynesian rat ( Rattus exulans) has been on the island since it was discovered. A growing number of Hawaiian monk seals ( Monachus schauinslandi) haul out on its beaches. There is a total land area of 213.097 acres (86.237 ha), with Green Island on the southeast side. It consists of a 6-mile (10 km) wide nearly circular barrier reef surrounding a shallow lagoon and several sand islets. Kure is the northernmost coral atoll in the world. Although located to the west of Midway Atoll, Kure Atoll has a time zone 1 hour ahead at UTC−10:00 (the same as the rest of Hawaii). The International Date Line lies approximately 100 miles (87 nmi/160 km) to the west. Some green sea turtles come ashore on a Kure Atoll beach In the late 20th century it was home to a radio base that supported location finding, and in the 21st century it is mostly a nature reserve. Kure was discovered in the 19th century and was a common site of shipwrecks. Kure is inhabited by small crews of usually four people who collect trash that washes up and research the wildlife. It is currently managed as a Wildlife Bird Sanctuary by the State of Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resource–Division of Forestry and Wildlife as one of the co-trustees of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument with support from the Kure Atoll Conservancy. Green Island, in addition to being the nesting grounds for tens of thousands of seabirds, has recorded several vagrant terrestrial birds, including snow bunting, eyebrowed thrush, brambling, olive-backed pipit, black kite, Steller's sea eagle and Chinese sparrowhawk. Politically, it is part of Hawaii, although separated from the rest of the state by Midway, which is a separate unorganized territory.

A short, unused and unmaintained runway and a portion of one building, both from a former United States Coast Guard LORAN station, are located on the island. The only land of significant size is called Green Island and is a habitat for hundreds of thousands of seabirds. A coral ring six miles across encloses a lagoon several meters deep.

Atoll coral reef