During the 1960s and early 1970s, the United States used Kanton as a missile-tracking station. The island was before abandoned altogether in 1976, but then later resettled by members of the I-Kiribati community, who continue to reside there today. In 2008, the government of Kiribati designated the islands the “Phoenix Islands Protected Area”, which was at the time the world's largest marine protected area. Collaborations between Kiribati, the New England Aquarium, and Conservation International have allowed scientific expeditions to explore the Phoenix Islands in order to quantify the ocean's flora and fauna. This area is of particular scientific interest because it has been relatively untouched by human activity.