Palmyra Atoll: Pacific Remote Island

**About the Filmmaker**

Richard Brooks is the owner of Lightning Strike Productions Ltd. and an experienced drone pilot with over 10 years of professional flying experience. He holds an A2 Certificate of Competency (A2 CofC) and a General Visual Line of Sight Certificate (GVC) Drone Operator licence, specialising in aerial cinematography for television and film productions.

Richard flies the DJI Mavic 3 Pro Cine, a professional broadcast-quality drone equipped with three focal-length cameras capable of recording 5.1K Apple ProRes 422 HQ footage. His clients have included National Geographic, Animal Planet, Channel 4, and Al Jazeera.

**About the Film**

Palmyra Atoll lies approximately 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, near the geographic centre of the Pacific Ocean. Part of the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands National Monument, it is one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries. The only residents are researchers working with The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Before the Second World War, the U.S. military extensively engineered the natural atoll by dredging lagoons and creating artificial islands to support aircraft operations and provide sheltered anchorages for ships. Today, nature is gradually reclaiming the landscape. Eroding causeways and man-made islands are allowing fresh ocean water to circulate once again, helping restore the lagoon's marine ecosystem.

The atoll's designation as a National Marine Sanctuary is currently under consideration, reflecting its exceptional ecological importance.

Filmed in November 2022 using the DJI Air 2S.