My Mission You see, I’m on a mission to find some of the healthiest places in the ocean. I’ve found 13 so far. T is one may be the healthiest of all. It’s thrilling to explore them. I’m not diving


just for the thrill, though. I can learn a lot from a place like this. I can find out what a healthy reef ecosystem should look like. I can discover what kinds of organisms live in it. I can see how they interact with and depend on one another. I can watch how they use rocks, sand, and other nonliving parts of their habitat. Just as important, I can compare it to reefs


that aren’t as healthy. I’ve seen far too many of those. Sick reefs don’t have many corals. T e water may be cloudy. In some, all the fish are tiny. Armies of sea urchins crawl across the seafloor. Swarms of jellies float in the water. Many reefs that look like that are dying. I look at these sick reefs and ask myself:


What’s missing? T at’s what this and other healthy reefs can tell me. T e answer could show us how to save our seas.


The Search To find this reef, I started with a diff erent question. What harms the oceans? I already know the answer. People do. So I knew I needed to find a place with few


or no people. I studied maps. Finally, I found four specks of land in the middle of the ocean. T ey’re called the Pitcairn Islands. T ousands of kilometers of water surround them. No one lives on three of these islands.


About 50 people live on the fourth one. I had a hunch I’d find what I was looking for here.


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