Eagle Islands is a group of two

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s in the

Chagos Archipelago The Chagos Archipelago () or Chagos Islands (formerly the Bassas de Chagas, and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives archi ...

. They are located on the central-western rim of the

Great Chagos Bank The Great Chagos Bank, in the Chagos Archipelago, about south of Maldives, is the largest atoll structure in the world, with a total area of . The atoll is administered by the United Kingdom through the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) ...

, which is the world's largest coral

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

structure.

Islands

With a land area of 2.45 km, Île Aigle is the largest single island of the Great Chagos Bank, and after

Diego Garcia Diego Garcia is an island of the British Indian Ocean Territory, a disputed overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is a militarised atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of the 60 small islands o ...

the second largest of the Chagos Archipelago. *Eagle Island (Île Aigle) *

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. History It was named after the dugongs that were once abundant in t ...

(Île Vache Marine)

History

There was once a coconut plantation in Ile Aigle, as well as a small settlement of Chagossian plantation workers. But at the time of Commander

Robert Moresby Robert Moresby (15 June 1794 – 15 June 1854Some sources mention that he is thought to have died in 1863.) was a captain of the East India Company's Bombay Marine/Indian Navy who distinguished himself as a hydrographer, maritime surveyor a ...

's survey of the Chagos, in 1838, this island was populated only occasionally. Not long after the settlement of the Chagos group by the French planters at the end of the 18th century, the tendency was to concentrate the workers on only a few islands from which the plantations were run, like Ile Boddam in the Salomon Atoll. In 1975 during the

Joint Services The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

Expedition to Danger Island (JSDI), the expedition members were taken by

RFA Resurgent RFA ''Resurgent'' (A280) was an armament support ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Built by Scotts of Greenock as ''Changchow'', a cargo/passenger liner for the China Navigation Co. Made redundant by the Communist victory in 1949, ''Changchow ...

to Eagle Islands and then by

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

and inflatable craft to Danger Island and onward to Three Brothers. The expedition made a topographical survey of the coral reefs, an ecological survey of the corals on it and a study on the metabolism of the reef. A reference collection of samples of the flora and fauna of the area was also undertaken. Since 1998 the islands are part of the Chagos Archipelago Strict Nature Reserve and it is forbidden to land on the islands or anchor a boat nearby. The islands have large populations of nesting seabirds.6: British Indian Ocean Territory
/ref>

References

External links

Joint Services Expedition To Danger Island - (1975) commemorative postcardChagos research papers and books
Chagos Archipelago Uninhabited islands of the British Indian Ocean Territory Nature reserves Former populated places in the Indian Ocean {{BritishIndianOcean-geo-stub