Serranilla Bank
| Serranilla Bank | ||
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| Waters | Caribbean Sea | |
| Geographical location | 15 ° 55 ′ N , 79 ° 54 ′ W | |
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| Number of islands | 3 islands, 2 rocks | |
| Main island | Beacon Cay | |
| length | 45 km | |
| width | 37 km | |
| Land area | 30 ha | |
| total area | 1 200 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited (occasional visit from fishermen) | |
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The Serranilla Bank ( English Serranilla Bank , Spanish Banco Serranilla ) is an uninhabited, partially sunken atoll in the southwestern Caribbean Sea around 400 km northeast of the coast of Nicaragua . Of the original, oval reef edge, only the eastern and southern parts are visible.
geography
The Serranilla Bank, rising steeply from the sea, is around 45 km long, 37 km wide and covers a sea area of around 1200 km². It consists of underwater reefs , rocks and some shallow cays on the south and east sides. Most parts of the coral reef dry out at low tide . With the exception of a shoal near the cays to the east and south of the bank, water depths of 9 to 37 meters are reached. Hundreds of shipwrecks lie near the Serranilla Bank .
Northeast Breaker , as the bank's easternmost elevation above sea level, is a coral reef elevation with a rock. The position is about 2 km west of the eastern edge of the bank. In a south-westerly direction, about 5.5 km away is the easternmost cay of the bank.
East Cay is 5.5 km west of the east end of the bank. The small island rises 2 meters from the sea and is covered with bushes .
Beacon Cay , the largest island in the bank at 800 meters in length, is about 14 km southwest of East Cay. It rises to 2.5 meters above sea level and consists almost entirely of sand and coral rock. The island is loosely covered with grass , bushes and about 30–50 coconut trees . At its western end is a coral beacon . A number of buildings and military facilities exist on the island. The US Marine Corps maintained a base here during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 . Today the plant is abandoned. Reports that the island is almost completely covered with buildings cannot be confirmed by recent photos. There is an active lighthouse on Beacon Cay that has been in operation since 1977. It is a 33 meter high steel lattice construction on the roof of a 3-storey crew building. The lighthouse's beam is visible every 20 seconds. It is unclear who operates the lighthouse today, although it can be assumed that it is the Dirección General Marítima (DIMAR), the Colombian marine authority. A good anchorage for sailors (depth: 11 m) is located about 2 km north-west of the island.
Middle Cay is about 3.5 km west of East Cay. The island rises about 2 m from the sea and consists almost entirely of sand.
West Breaker is 15 km west of Beacon Cay. These are dangerous for shipping, about 0.5 m high rocks on a coral platform. In 1985 sailors reported that the dangerous shoals and reefs extended up to 3.5 km further west than indicated on the maps.
History & State Affiliation
The Serranilla Bank is first mentioned on Spanish nautical charts in 1510. The state affiliation of the Serranilla Bank is controversial.
The United States of America officially claimed the atoll in 1879 and 1880 . The basis for this was and is the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Colombia , Nicaragua and Jamaica also claim the atoll. In the Constitution of Honduras , the Serranilla Bank is even expressly designated as the territory of Honduras.
The governments of the USA and Colombia agreed in September 1972 to transfer various islands and coral reefs that had previously been covered by the Guano Island Act of 1856 to Colombian sovereignty . This resolution was ratified by the US Senate in 1981 . The Serranilla Bank was not expressly covered by this agreement . In official documents of the US administration, is, however, stated that the Serranilla bank no longer under the jurisdiction ( " jurisdiction would fall") of the United States, as they had been handed over to the Colombian authorities in September 1,981th In 1986 the governments of Colombia and Honduras signed a bilateral agreement that was to regulate the sea borders in the south-western Caribbean. In this agreement, Honduras expressly waives its claims to the Serranilla Bank, which is awarded to Colombia. This led to violent protests within Honduras as territory listed in the constitution was abandoned. Nicaragua was not included in the agreement and protested violently against the results of this agreement. In the same year Nicaragua brought charges against Honduras before the International Court of Justice in The Hague . In December 2007, the International Court of Justice established the 15th parallel and the 82nd longitude as the temporary dividing line between Honduras and Nicaragua. The further course of the border is still unclear.
Today the atoll is occasionally visited by lobster fishermen.
Old crew building, in the background the lighthouse
The lighthouse (presumably in the 1970s)
See also
Web links
- The Serranilla-Bank on oceandots.com ( Memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- Wolfgang Schippkes Inselarchiv (English)
- The lighthouse of Serranilla Bank (English)
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- ↑ Wolfgang Schippke's Inselarchiv ( Memento of the original from November 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Russ Rowlett: Lighthouses of Northern Colombia ( English ) In: The Lighthouse Directory . University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Retrieved September 17, 2011.
- ↑ USDepartment of the Interior - Office of Insular Affairs ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ United States General Accounting Office - US Insular Affairs (PDF; 863 kB)
- ^ Worldstatesmen.org
- ↑ United States General Accounting Office - US Insular Affairs (PDF; 863 kB)
- ^ Federal Communications Commission, 1999
- ↑ Information Office Nicaragua (see publications | Movida 03-2000)
