Middle Brother (Chagos Bank)

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The island is an important breeding site for sooty terns Sooty tern on nest.jpg
The island is an important breeding site for sooty terns

Middle Brother, also known as Île du Milieu, is an 8-hectare coral island on the Great Chagos Bank atoll of the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory. It is one of the three islands in the Three Brothers group on the western side of the atoll, and forms part of the Chagos Archipelago strict nature reserve. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International for its significance as a breeding site for seabirds, notably sooty terns, of which 12,500 pair were recorded in a 2004 survey. [1]

Coral Marine invertebrates of the class Anthozoa

Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically live in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Corals species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.

Great Chagos Bank island group

The Great Chagos Bank, in the Chagos Archipelago, about 500 km (310 mi) south of the Maldives, is the largest atoll structure in the world, with a total area of 12,642 km2 (4,881 sq mi). The atoll is administered by the United Kingdom through the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

Atoll Ring-shaped coral reef, generally formed over a subsiding oceanic volcano, with a central lagoon and perhaps islands around the rim

An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. The coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the volcanic crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow and form the reefs. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a rate slow enough to permit reef growth upward and outward to replace the lost height.

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Nelsons Island island

Nelson Island or Nelsons Island or Legour Island is the northernmost and the easternmost island of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure, located in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The nearest neighbour is Île Boddam in the Salomon Islands.

Cauvin Bank mountain in Seychelles

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Pitt Bank mountain in Seychelles

Pitt Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Southwest of the Chagos Archipelago. It is almost 56 km long Northwest to Southeast, with a width between 20 and 30 km. It stretches from 06°48'S to 07°16'S and 071°06'E to 071°36'E. The total size is 1317 km, making it the second largest ocean bank in the Chagos Archipelago, after the Great Chagos Bank, and before Speakers Bank. The closest land is Île Lubine of Egmont Atoll, located 22 km northeast off the northern end of Pitt Bank. The least depth is 7 metres at the Southeastern Rim, and the deepest areas of the former lagoon reach 44 metres.

Wight Bank mountain in Seychelles

Wight Bank is a small, wholly submerged atoll structure in the Southwest of the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean. It is located 6 kilometres to the SE off the southeastern tip of Pitt Bank at 7°25′S71°32′E. It is less than 2 km in diameter, and its total area is about 3 square kilometres. The closest piece of land is Île Sudest of Egmont Atoll, at 80 km (50 mi) NNW. Diego Garcia is 94 km (58 mi) to the east. The least charted depth is 8.5 km (5.3 mi).

Petite Ile Bois Mangue island in Seychelles

Petite Île Bois Mangue is a 9 ha island on the Peros Banhos Atoll in the Chagos Archipelago of the British Indian Ocean Territory. It is part of the Peros Banhos strict nature reserve and has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for lesser noddies, of which 12,000 pairs were recorded in a 2004 survey.

Ile Parasol

Ile Parasol is an 8 ha island on the Peros Banhos Atoll in the Chagos Archipelago of the British Indian Ocean Territory. It is part of the Peros Banhos strict nature reserve and has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for sooty terns, of which 14,000 pairs were recorded in a 2004 survey.

Ile Longue (Peros Banhos)

Ile Longue is a 26 ha island on the Peros Banhos Atoll in the Chagos Archipelago of the British Indian Ocean Territory. It is part of the Peros Banhos strict nature reserve and has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for sooty terns, of which 32,000 pairs were recorded in a 2004 survey.

Sea Cow Island

Sea Cow Island, also known as Île Vache Marine, is a round 18 ha island on the Great Chagos Bank atoll of the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory. It was named after the dugongs that were once abundant in the area, although they have since become regionally extinct. It is the smaller of the two islands in the Eagle Islands group on the western side of the atoll and forms part of the Chagos Archipelago strict nature reserve. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for brown noddies, of which 11,500 pairs were recorded in a 2004 survey.

North Brother (Chagos Bank)

North Brother, also known as Île du Nord, is a round 6 ha coral island on the Great Chagos Bank atoll of the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory. It is one of the three islands in the Three Brothers group on the western side of the atoll, and forms part of the Chagos Archipelago strict nature reserve. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for 20,000 seabirds, notably Audubon's shearwaters of which 420 pairs were recorded in a 2004 survey.

South Brother (Chagos Bank) Coral island

South Brother, also known as Île du Sud, is a 23 ha coral island on the Great Chagos Bank atoll of the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory. It is one of the three islands in the Three Brothers group on the western side of the atoll, and forms part of the Chagos Archipelago strict nature reserve. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for seabirds, including brown noddies and lesser noddies.

The Chagos Marine Protected Area, located in the central Indian Ocean in the British Indian Ocean Territory of the United Kingdom, is one of the world's largest marine protected areas, and one of the largest protected areas of any type on Earth. It was established by the British government on 1 April 2010 as a massive, contiguous, no-take marine reserve, it encompasses 640,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi) of ocean waters, including roughly 70 small islands and seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago.

References

  1. "Middle Brother, Chagos Bank". Important Bird Areas factsheet. BirdLife International. 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-24.

Coordinates: 06°09′20″S71°30′59″E / 6.15556°S 71.51639°E / -6.15556; 71.51639

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.