Desnœufs Island is an island in Seychelles, lying at the southern edge of the Amirantes group, in the Outer Islands, with a distance of 321 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, the archipelago's main island. The city was first established as the seat of the British Empire, British co ...

History

The origin of the name seems to be its French meaning, "one of nine", as it is one of the nine main islands of the Amirantes.

Geography

Desnœufs Island is the southernmost island of the Amirantes chain, is a nearly circular island with a high rim surrounding a central depression (instead of a lagoon). It is up to 5.5 m high. Most of the land is exposed

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, after the

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

has been exploited in the 20th century. The island has a fringing reef, and the reef flat is narrow. Landing can be extremely difficult, with heavy swells sweeping round the island even during the calmest sea conditions.

Administration

The island belongs to Outer Islands District. Being an island with a small population, there are not any government buildings or services. For many services, people have to go to Victoria, which is a difficult task.

Economics

The occasional villagers of Marie Louise Island used to poach eggs illegally on the island when the island was a base for the commercial exploitation of seabirds, especially the eggs of the

sooty tern The sooty tern (''Onychoprion fuscatus'') is a tern in the family Laridae. It is a seabird of the tropical oceans, and remarkably, has evolved the ability to fly for years at a time, skimming the sea surface for food, and returning to land only ...

(''Onychoprion fuscatus''). recent years the island was made a reservation, and is visited once a year shortly by IDC members and scientists from Mahe. There are ruins on the island from the time of the poaching.

Flora and fauna

The terrestrial vegetation on the island is limited because of the high number of seabirds. The island is almost treeless and is covered by grasses and other low-growing plants. It has been identified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports a breeding population of 430,000 pairs of

s, and a large number of

boobies A booby is a seabird in the genus ''Sula'', part of the family Sulidae. Boobies are closely related to the gannets (''Morus''), which were formerly included in ''Sula''. Systematics and evolution The genus ''Sula'' was introduced by the Fre ...

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

and

hawksbill The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution that is largely ...

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...

s also nest there. The island is also known for its rich fish life.

Image gallery

File:Seychelles large map.jpg, Map 1 File:Outer Islands in Seychelles.svg, District Map

References

External links

National Bureau of Statistics

2010 Sailing directions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desnoeufs, Seychelles Islands of Outer Islands (Seychelles) Important Bird Areas of Seychelles Seabird colonies