National Geographic's Ocean Now is an exploration, research, and conservation project that aims to find, survey, and help protect the last healthy, undisturbed places in the ocean. By carefully studying how marine ecosystems work without human interference, we can learn how to help healthy reefs thrive, help unhealthy reefs recover, and better preserve the ocean, which covers more than two-thirds of our planet.

In 2005 and 2007, Dr. Enric Sala and a team of scientists traveled to the Northern Line Islands in the North Pacific. There, the crew discovered a marine world that science never knew existed—one that hadn't yet been explored and damaged by humans: with an ecosystem little changed from its condition hundreds of years ago.

"We started at an island with 10,000 people and very degraded marine life," Sala explains. "We continued to an island with 2,500 people, then to one with ten people, and finally to one with zero people and a virtually intact ecosystem. It was a trip back in time, from degraded to pristine."
Spring 2009: An Expedition of Hope
Now, Sala and a team of scientists are journeying farther into the South Pacific—this time to the southern Line Islands. These are among the most remote and isolated atolls on Earth. They are rarely visited. No person calls them home.

On March 27, 2009, the crew departed from Tahiti. They will spend six weeks visiting the islands of Flint, Vostok, Millennium, Starbuck, and Malden, documenting and studying every aspect of the marine life off their shores: water quality, fish populations, predator populations, and the health and diversity of the coral reef itself—the heart of the tropical marine ecosystem.

National Geographic is sending photographers along on this expedition, with the mission of documenting the life of the islands - underwater and above.

The expedition is the first comprehensive study of its kind. Researchers hope to use the data to establish a baseline model for healthy coral reefs, to quantify the effects of human activity on these ecosystems, and to devise a blueprint for the conservation of already degraded reefs.

The crew has a satellite phone and data connection and will be answering your questions and sending pictures, video, and stories directly from the boat as their journey progresses.

Why the southern Line Islands?
The southern Line Islands are among the most untouched waters in the world. The islands are a province of the Republic of Kiribati and are about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) south of Hawaii. Kiribati has set an international model of conservation by designating all of the waters fully protected and off limits to commercial fishermen and shipping lines.

The islands are so far from any major industrial area that commercial fishermen have never approached the area with their wide nets and ocean dredges. Several islands have been briefly inhabited over the past few centuries, but the southern Line Islands have generally avoided the human impact that has degraded many similar ecosystems.