HONOLULU (AP) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it’s removed nearly one million pounds of decades-old shipwreck debris from two remote national wildlife refuges in the Pacific.
The agency said Wednesday said the removal is the first phase of coral reef restoration work at Palmyra Atoll and Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuges.
The iron in the wrecked ships was fueling the growth of invasive organisms that were smothering once-healthy, diverse coral.
Two of the ships were at Palmyra Atoll. One was a Taiwanese fishing vessel that ran aground in 1991. The other was a pontoon barge grounded in the 1950s.
At Kingman Reef Refuge, team members removed debris from an unmarked vessel than ran aground eight years ago.
The refuges are 1,000 miles south of Honolulu.
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