Lisianski Island (Hawaiian: Papa‘āpoho) is one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, with a land area of and a maximum elevation of above sea level. It is a low, flat sand and coral island about northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. The island is surrounded by reefs and shoals, including the extensive Neva Shoals. Access to the island is possible only by helicopter or by boat via a narrow sandy inlet on the southeastern side of the island. Administration Politically, Lisianski Island is part of the City and County of Honolulu in the State of Hawaii. However, as part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, it is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It has no resident human population. Geology and topography Lisianski Island is made of limestone that caps the submerged summit of an extinct shield volcano that was active about 20 million years ago. Lisianski Island is undergoing the slow process of erosion, and features a depression between two tall sand dunes, that is thought to once have been a lagoon like the one on Laysan, its nearest neighbor. For this reason, the island's selected Hawaiian name, Papa‘āpoho, means "island with a depression". Over three-quarters of the Bonin petrels that nest in Hawaii nest here. Recent discovery of subfossils on the island indicate that Laysan duck populations once occurred on the island, possibly inhabiting the former lagoon. History Lisianski Island is named after Yuri Lysianskyi, a Russian Imperial explorer and an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy. Lysianskyi was the commanding officer of the Russian-American Company's merchant sloop Neva, which was on an exploration mission as part of the first Russian circumnavigation of the world when she ran aground on the island in 1805. Lysianskyi reported the island to be of little interest, except insofar as its surrounding reefs and shoals posed a threat to passing vessels. King Kamehameha IV claimed the island for the Kingdom of Hawaii on 10 May 1857. In 1890, the North Pacific Phosphate and Fertilizer Company acquired a twenty-year lease on the island from the Kingdom of Hawaii. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, Lisianski Island became part of the Republic of Hawaii in 1894. On August 12, 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii, including Lisianski Island, and Lisianski Island was included in the Territory of Hawaii upon its creation on April 30, 1900. In 1909, Lisianski Island became