Tong is also getting kudos in the scientific and environmental communities for giving back to the world with his important conservation initiative: creation of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, a remote archipelago of eight coral atolls and two submerged reef systems in an expanse of ocean totaling 410,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of California.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The small Pacific island nation of Kiribati has created the world's largest protected marine reserve--the 410 500-square-kilometre Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), one of the planet's last intact coral archipelagos currently threatened by over-fishing and climate change.

On 12 July, Lexington and her destroyers arrived and took over the search, which now shifted away from the Phoenix Islands to the open waters north and west of Howland.