Bird Droppings Led to U.S. Possession of Newly Protected Pacific Islands
A 19th-century quest for natural fertilizer, bird guano, led to the world's largest marine reserve.
Blame it on "guano mania." A craze for natural fertilizer made from bird droppings spurred the U.S. to take possession of a group of remote Pacific islands in the 19th century, and now those islands are home to the world's largest marine reserve.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced an expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to cover nearly 490,000 square miles, six times larger than its previous size. (See "U.S. Creates Largest Protected Area in the World, 3X Larger Than California.")
The Guano Islands Act of 1856 made it possible. The United States long ago used the act to claim islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as territory, which means
