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Baker Island

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Baker Island is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about 3,100 kilometres (1,700 nmi) southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, and is a possession of the United States. Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, 68 kilometres (37 nmi) to the north.

The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind, and strong sunshine. The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area devoid of any lagoon. Baker's highest point is 8 metres (26 ft) above sea level.

The island now forms the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge, which consists of all 405 acres (1.64 km2) of the island and a surrounding 30,500 acres (123 km2) of submerged land. The National Wildlife Refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an insular area under the U.S. Department of the Interior. Baker Island is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U.S.

Its defense is the responsibility of the United States; though uninhabited, it is visited annually by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. For statistical purposes, Baker is grouped with the US Minor Outlying Islands.

For more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Island



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