More than 90 years of mining phosphate, a rich fertilizer base, had provided Nauru with a brief period of wealth, but it also created an environmental disaster. The phosphate fields are now depleted and have turned almost 80 percent of Nauru into a landscape resembling the barren surface of the moon.
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Fregata minor - The great frigate bird is found throughout the Pacific, Indian, and Southern Atlantic Oceans. Both sexes have a red gular sac hanging from their throat. This featherless pouch is used for storing food plucked from the water. The males also use this sac during courtship displays by inflating it into an enormous balloon to attract females. Frigate birds snatch their food out of the ocean on the wing. They do not land in the water. Their short legs and two meter wingspan would make it almost impossible to take off.
