Eagle Islands
| Eagle Islands | ||
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| Waters | Indian Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 6 ° 13 ′ S , 71 ° 18 ′ E | |
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| Number of islands | 2 | |
| Main island | Eagle Island | |
| Total land area | 2.5 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
Eagle Islands (also Îles Aigle , dt. Called "Eagle Island") is an uninhabited group of islands on the western reef of the Great Chagos Bank ( Large Chagosbank ) that the world's most extensive Atoll structure has. It belongs geographically to the Chagos Archipelago and politically to the British Indian Ocean Territory .
The archipelago is about 20 kilometers west of the Three Brothers and consists of:
- Eagle Island ( Île Aigle , at 6 ° 11 ′ S , 71 ° 20 ′ E ), the main island, and
- Sea Cow Island ( Île Vache Marine , Eng. "Manatee Island", at 6 ° 14 ′ S , 71 ° 18 ′ E ).
The larger of the two islands, Eagle Island, has a land area of 2.45 km² and is the largest land mass within the Chagos Archipelago after Diego Garcia .
There were once coconut palm plantations and a small Chagossian settlement on Eagle Island . When the British captain Robert Moresby visited the islands in 1837, they were only visited temporarily by plantation workers. The island is now a nature reserve and part of the Chagos Conservation Management Plan , which aims, among other things, to restore the original fauna and flora and thus to eradicate introduced species.