Take a trip to the Phoenix Islands! This video shows the virtual bathymetry of the seamounts in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, giving you a glimpse of what's underneath all that water.
With a size of 408,250 km2 (157,626 sq. miles), the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world and the largest marine conservation effort of its kind by a Least Developed Country (LDC).
Kiribati first declared the creation of PIPA at the 2006 Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Brazil. On January 30, 2008, Kiribati adopted formal regulations for PIPA that more than doubled the original size to make it at that time the largest marine protected area on Earth. In 2010 PIPA was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. It is the largest and deepest World Heritage site on Earth.
