Area on the submarine ridges of Salas y Gomez and Nazca was launched for the very first time. Then, in February 2009, the World Wildlife Fund, WWF Chile, published a scientific revision in the Latin American Journal of Aquatic Research, giving the scientific background that supported the government report for the declaration of the non-take MPA Motu Motiro Hiva. This declaration follows the efforts of Oceana and National Geographic to both study and highlight the ecological value of this area, and to encourage its protection. These organizations are planning additional expeditions to the area in order to draft a conservation plan, and to propose the widening of the protected area to encompass the whole Exclusive Economic Zone around the island. Geology Salas y Gómez is a volcanic high island, consisting of the summit of a large mountain which rises about 3500 metres from the sea bed. Scott Reef (not to be confused with Scott Reefs off Western Australia), 1.5 km further northeast, is another peak of the same mostly submarine mountain, and has a least depth of 25 meters above it. Salas y Gómez is part of the same Salas y Gómez Ridge as Easter Island to the west, these two locations being the only places where the otherwise submarine mountain range extends above sea level. There are several dozen more seamounts in the range, which extends 2232 km eastward until Nazca Seamount at , where it joins the Nazca Ridge. Salas y Gómez is the fourth youngest mountain in the chain, which is being formed by the Nazca Plate floating over the Easter hotspot. The two youngest mountains in the chain, Pukao and Moai, are seamounts to the west of Easter Island. Flora Salas y Gómez and Easter Island form a distinct ecoregion, the Rapa Nui subtropical broadleaf forests. However Salas y Gómez is largely barren with no forests and only four species of terrestrial plants; these include Asplenium obtusatum ("spleenwort"), a type of fern which only grows in protected areas at higher elevations. Fauna Besides a number of insect species, the only non-aquatic fauna are about a dozen species of seabird, which use the island as a rookery, with the estimated number of adult birds in 1985: Those numbers may vary considerably from year to year, due to weather conditions, and it has been observed that the overall numbers were much lower in 1986. Marine fauna includes a