Samoan Islands with black sand beaches. The highest peak is Mt. Silisili, on the island of Savai'i, one of the highest peaks in Polynesia at . The highest point in American Samoa is on Ta’u, Lata Mountain, at . The two large islands of Upolu and Savai'i in Samoa, are among the largest of Polynesian islands, at and , respectively, exceeded in size only by the two main islands of Fiji and the Hawaiian islands of Hawaiʻi and Maui. The island of Upolu is more populated than Savai'i. The next largest island is Tutuila, where the city and harbor Pago Pago (population
Hawaiian monk seal Theodore Roosevelt created the Hawaiian Islands Reservation that included the Northwest Hawaiian islands. The Reservation later became the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge (HINWR) and moved under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Throughout the 1980s, the National Marine Fisheries Service completed various versions of an Environmental Impact Statement that designated the Northwest Hawaiian Islands as a critical habitat for the Hawaiian monk seal. The designation prohibited lobster fishing in waters less than 10 fathoms in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands and within 20 nautical miles of Laysan Island. The National Marine Fisheries Service designated all beach