Ten educators from Hawai'i and Pacific Island nations landed Tuesday on Nihoa Island as part of a special voyage in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

They come from Maui, Kaua'i, Moloka'i, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Australia, Palau, Marshall Islands, Fiji and American Samoa and are specialists in cultural practices, fisheries, conservation, math, science and coral reef ecology, said Andy Collins, education and technology coordinator for the monument.

Bringing them together in the world's largest marine protected area during the International Year of the Reef allows them to "step away from their day-to-day things and how they work in their own local communities," Collins said by satellite phone yesterday.

Together on the NOAA ship Hi'ialakai for 12 days, this diverse group is talking and thinking about "Pacific-wide marine management and how they might do things differently," said Collins, who is writing a blog for The Advertiser about the trip.

The privilege of walking on Nihoa — a 171-acre seabird nesting habitat and Hawaiian cultural site — was not lost on the travelers, several said via e-mail interviews from the Hi'ialakai yesterday.

"The most amazing thing is the remoteness of Nihoa," said Hawaiian cultural educator Hank Eharis of Hana. "To think about how everything lives here ... how it evolved to handle the weather and lack of water. And yet there is an abundance of life."

The uninhabited island is home to 72 species of insects, two types of land birds that live only there (the Nihoa finch and Nihoa millerbird) and unique, endangered plants. It contains more than 80 archeological sites, which prove that more than 100 people at a time lived here and cultivated crops before Western contact.

Accessing Nihoa is not easy, since visitors must jump from an inflatable boat to a rock ledge. It's possible only in good weather.

The educators had a "chicken skin" moment in the inflatable boat after Kamehameha Schools cultural specialist Kekuewa Kikiloi chanted a request to ancestors for permission to come ashore, Collins recounted. "A monk seal came right up by boat, swimming around," he said. "It was really powerful. Very auspicious."

Collins said he was thrilled that by walking only in rocky gullies during the visit Tuesday, the group was able to avoid stepping on any of the thousands of sea bird burrows dug into the ground.

Wildlife comes first in the marine national monument, which was established by President Bush two years ago and is co-managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, with input from the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The monument covers nearly 140,000 square miles — more than 100 times larger than Yosemite National Park — and is home to more than 7,000 marine species, a quarter of which are found nowhere else on Earth.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands encompassed by the monument are the primary habitat for critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals, green sea turtles and a major nesting site for millions of sea birds.

Uncle Mervin Dudoit of Moloka'i said seeing the monument has strengthened his conservation message for young fishermen on Moloka'i. "I am going to take back (the idea of) take only what you need for your 'ohana," he said.

Margaret Tabunakawai, a fisheries manager in Fiji, said, "Before this cruise I really didn't know about the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Now that I have been learning something new every day, I am excited about what the successes of the monument can do for all of the Pacific."

Said Collins: "I hope that they see how all of us in Oceania are connected and how we can learn from each other how to manage our marine and island resources."

The educators' voyage began from Honolulu on Sunday. Today they will be at Mokumanamana, or Necker Island, then at French Frigate Shoals for several days before returning to Honolulu on July 24.