Obama to visit far-flung Midway Atoll in conservation push

HONOLULU (AP) — Halfway between East and West, President Barack Obama is traveling Thursday to one of the most remote corners of the ocean — Midway Atoll — to amplify his call for global action on environmental protection.

Supporters argued the larger monument was needed to protect a place considered sacred by Native Hawaiians by making it off-limits to commercial fishing and recreational activities.

The unusual visit to a place where just a few dozen people live comes as Obama uses his final months in office to try to galvanize global action on climate change, which he says is inherently linked to conservation.

The Japanese attack in 1942 was a pivotal moment in World War II, with the U.S. delivering a resounding defeat that degraded the Japanese Navy's capacity in the Pacific.

The wealth of biological diversity is nearly unparalleled: millions of birds, hundreds of species of fish and marine invertebrates, green sea turtles and Hawaiian monk seals.