St. François Atoll is one of two

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 ...

s of the

Alphonse Group The Alphonse Group belong to the Outer Islands of the Seychelles, lying in the southwest of the island nation, southwest the capital, Victoria, on Mahé Island. The closest island is Desnœufs Island of the Amirante Islands, further north. ...

in the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...

that are part of the Outer Islands.

Geography

St. François Atoll lies 403 km south of

Victoria, Seychelles Victoria () is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Seychelles, situated on the north-eastern side of Mahé, Seychelles, Mahé island, the archipelago's main island. The city was first established as the seat of the British Empire, Bri ...

. It is located just south of Alphonse Atoll, the second atoll of Alphonse Group, separated from it by a deep channel called Canal de Mort. The atoll is uninhabited and has two islands, St. François and Bijoutier Island. The aggregate land area of the islands of the atoll is . The total area of the atoll, with length of and width of , is , including reef flat and

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...

St. François Island

The area of the island is . St. Francois is easily accessible at less than 30 minutes distance by boat from Alphonse. It has a coastline of , and is located south of Bijoutier Island.

Bijoutier Island

The northern and smaller island takes its name from the French word ''bijoutier'', meaning "jeweller". The area of the island is . The island is only accessible by boat during

high tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables c ...

. The island is small enough that it takes only a few minutes to walk completely around it. It has a coastline of .

History

In 1562 the whole of the

(Alphonse, St. François and Bijoutier) were collectively named on Portuguese charts as San Francisco. This might explain how St. François was given its name. Chevalier Alphonse de Pontevez commanding the French frigate '' Le Lys'' visited on 28 June 1730 and named St François possibly following the Portuguese name for the group. Some sources (giving the incorrect date for the visit) claim it was to commemorate the religious feast of St

Francis de Sales Francis de Sales (french: François de Sales; it, Francesco di Sales; 21 August 156728 December 1622) was a Bishop of Geneva and is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church. He became noted for his deep faith and his gentle approach to ...

of 29 January. The origin of the name of Bijoutier island is unknown. A feature of St. François Atoll is the number of

shipwrecks A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

, standing as grim reminders of the perils of the sea. St. François island once supported a population of a handful of men engaged in harvesting coconuts but the plantation was never productive.

Flora and fauna

In 2007, Island Conservation Society established a conservation center on Alphonse to manage conservation on the island and on neighboring St. François. There is a small breeding population of 13 pairs of

black-naped tern The black-naped tern (''Sterna sumatrana'') is an oceanic tern mostly found in tropical and subtropical areas of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is rarely found inland. Description The tern is about 30 cm long with a wing length of 21� ...

. A small colony of

tropical shearwater The tropical shearwater (''Puffinus bailloni'') is a seabird in the family Procellariidae formerly considered conspecific with Audubon's shearwater (''Puffinus lherminieri''). Subspecies There are five listed subspecies of the tropical shearwa ...

was rediscovered in 2013, the first confirmed breeding record since the 1950s. Migratory bird numbers are huge and include globally significant numbers of

crab plover The crab-plover or crab plover (''Dromas ardeola)'' is a bird related to the waders, but sufficiently distinctive to merit its own family Dromadidae. Its relationship within the Charadriiformes is unclear, some have considered it to be closely ...

and Saunders's tern. Seychelles’ largest concentrations of Eurasian whimbrel,

ruddy turnstone The ruddy turnstone (''Arenaria interpres'') is a small cosmopolitan wading bird, one of two species of turnstone in the genus ''Arenaria''. It is now classified in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae but was formerly sometimes placed in the plov ...

and

grey plover The grey plover or black-bellied plover (''Pluvialis squatarola'') is a large plover breeding in Arctic regions. It is a long-distance migrant, with a nearly worldwide coastal distribution when not breeding. Taxonomy The grey plover was forma ...

have also been recorded here. The only land bird is the house sparrow and this is its most southerly outpost in Seychelles. Significant numbers of hawksbill turtles and

green turtles The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

nest on St François and Bijoutier, and the waters of the atoll provide important foraging habitat for immature turtles of both species.

Transport

The islands can be reached by boat from Alphonse.info on magazine
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Image gallery

File:Seychelles large map.jpg, Map 1 File:Outer Islands in Seychelles.svg, District Map File:Alphonse Group.png, Satellite image of

(Alphonse Atoll north) File:StFrancois.jpg, St. François Atoll from south,
with St. François Island in the foreground File:Bijoutier.JPG, Bijoutier

References

External links

Seychelles Bird Records Committee

National Bureau of Statistics

Info on the island

2010 Sailing directions

Resort
{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Francois Atoll Atolls of Seychelles Outer Islands (Seychelles)