Physical Feature: Kuroshio Current

Kuroshio Current. Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

The Kuroshio Current is one of the primary large-scale currents that affect the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. This Western Pacific current runs along the eastern edge of Taiwan northward, then along the eastern edge of Japan and into the North Pacific about half way up the length of Japan's largest island, Honshu. The current transports warm water that sustain some of Japan's northern coral reefs, and also carry larvae away from these reefs. These larvae cross the vast Pacific as the Kuroshio feeds into the North Pacific Current, and some of these larvae deposit in the western atolls and islands of the Monument. The western part of the Monument have many marine flora and fauna that are native to Japan, such as the Japanese Angelfish.

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