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The Oceania Portal

Map of Oceania

Oceania is a geographical (often geopolitical) region consisting of numerous countries and territories—mostly islands—in the Pacific Ocean. The exact scope of Oceania is controversial, with varying interpretations including East Timor, Australia, and New Zealand.

The primary use of the term Oceania is to describe a continental region (like Europe or Africa) that lies between Asia and the Americas, with Australia as the major land mass. The name Oceania is used, rather than Australasia, because unlike the other continental groupings, it is the ocean rather than the continent that links the nations together. Oceania is the smallest continental grouping in land area and the second smallest, after Antarctica, in population.

  

Daily article

Huli Wigman from the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

The Independent State of Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands. Its capital and one of its few major cities is Port Moresby.

It is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, with over 700 indigenous languages and at least as many indigenous societies, out of a population of just over 5 million. It is also one of the most rural, with only 18% living in urban centres. The majority of the population live in indigenous societies and practise subsistence-based agriculture.

  

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Selected article

Laysan and Short-tailed Albatrosses at Northwest Hawaiian Islands National Monument.

The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is a U.S. National Monument encompassing 140,000 square miles (360,000 km2) of ocean waters and ten islands and atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, making it one of the largest Marine Protected Areas in the world.

Although it is not a sanctuary, the ocean area is part of a system of 13 National Marine Sanctuaries administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge (254,418.10 acres or 1,029.59 km) in the monument is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

The monument supports 7,000 species, one quarter of which are endemic. Prominent species include the threatened Green Sea Turtle and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, the Laysan and Nihoa Finches, the Nihoa Millerbird, Laysan Duck, seabirds such as the Laysan Albatross, numerous species of plants including Pritchardia palms, and many species of arthropods. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, populations of lobster have not recovered from extensive harvesting in the 1980s and 1990s, which is now banned; the remaining fisheries are overfished.

  

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