Midway Island USA
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The atoll is a national wildlife refuge closed to public visits, and it may only be approached with US federal permits. This call is experienced from the ship's deck — which makes it no less memorable.
More than 2,000 kilometres northwest of Honolulu, halfway between America and Asia — hence the name. It is a coral ring a few kilometres across enclosing a turquoise lagoon around two main islands, Sand and Eastern.
The turquoise lagoon, chalk-white beaches and rows of buildings left from the days when Midway served as a stop for transpacific flying boats and later as a military base. Above all, the birds: albatrosses escort the ship as tireless gliders, skimming the waves without a wingbeat.
Because it was the turning point of the Pacific war. From 4 to 7 June 1942, six months after Pearl Harbor, American aviation broke the Japanese advance there by sinking four enemy aircraft carriers. A national memorial honours that history on the atoll.
Nearly three million seabirds breed there each year on a few square kilometres, including the largest albatross colony in the world. Laysan albatrosses literally cover the ground in nesting season, alongside petrels, terns and frigatebirds. The atoll also shelters the Laysan duck, saved narrowly from extinction.
A female albatross banded in 1956, the oldest known wild bird in the world, still observed in recent years by the biologists who rotate through the station. Seafarers like her name: Wisdom.
The national marine monument to which Midway belongs: one of the largest protected marine areas on the planet, covering the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and their waters.
Spinner dolphins hunt in the lagoon waters, and green sea turtles and Hawaiian monk seals, both protected, frequent the reefs. Bring binoculars and long lenses: as the reef nears, the sea itself changes population.
Because North Pacific currents deposit debris there from across the hemisphere, which conservation teams collect tirelessly to protect the nests. Seeing this scrap of land so alive and so exposed rarely leaves anyone unmoved.
Very few. Ships rarely cruise these waters, and those that do are mainly expedition voyages or transpacific repositionings. Some carry naturalists, who find here the finest commentary hours of their season.
