After a tour of the remote islands, she'll be in Honolulu on Friday to participate in a ceremony to give the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument a Hawaiian name.

The biologically rich region teems with 14 million nesting seabirds and about 7,000 species of birds, fish and marine mammals, a quarter of which are unique to Hawaii.

And more are still being discovered. An expedition returning from the area only just this fall claimed to have found species entirely new to science.

President Bush's proclamation in June created the nation's 75th national monument and the largest no-take marine sanctuary in the world including nearly 140,000 square miles of islands, atolls, reefs and ocean waters.

Midway is home to the world's largest colony of Laysan albatrosses, about 400,000 nesting pairs, many of which will likely now be caring for an army of new, fuzzy hatchlings.

The atoll, however, is probably best known for the Battle of Midway, which began June 3, 1942, with an attempt by Japanese fighter pilots to destroy the U.S. air base there. Three-day fight turned the tide of the war in the Pacific in favor of the U.S.

Bush's tour of the atoll's Sand and Eastern islands will include both historic and natural attractions.

She will view the banding of red-tailed tropic birds and albatross chicks, visit World War II memorials and learn about the problems of marine debris — the pieces of plastic and fishing gear that can clog the digestive tracks of birds and entangle whales.

The Hawaiian name for the monument won't be officially revealed until Friday.

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Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine Monument