Directions Latitude 28° 12 31. For further information please contact the refuge by telephone at 80, or by e-mail at Barr圜. It was open to tourists (mostly birders) for a few years but since 2012 has been closed to public visitation. Because of Midway Atolls remote location in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, it can only be reached by air, or by sailboats under a special use permit system.

Fish and Wildlife Service as the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of Midway National Memorial. At that time, after extensive de-militarization and clean-up, the U.S. The atoll served as a Naval facility from 1942 until 1997. This marked a decisive turning point in the Pacific Theater during WW2.

An outnumbered American task force succeeded (in large part because we’d been able to decipher much of the Japanese naval code) in both repulsing the invasion and sinking all four Japanese aircraft carriers. On June 4, 1942, an Imperial Japanese Navy armada including four aircraft carriers attempted to capture Midway and its landing strip, as the first step toward a second assault on the Hawaiian Islands. While the atoll may be small, it has seen its share of drama. It is best remembered for its starring role in the historic Battle of Midway. Midways two flat islands northwest of Hawaii act as giant landing strips for albatrosses and millions of other seabirds, which rely on the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to raise their young.

Midway atoll national wildlife refuge