Map - Cargados Carajos (Cargados Carajos)

Cargados Carajos (Cargados Carajos)
It is highly likely that the name Saint Brandon was derived from the French sailors and corsairs that sailed to and from Britanny, after a town called Saint-Brandan. It has since been Anglicised to Saint Brandon and is also known as the Cargados Carajos Shoals, an Indian Ocean archipelago about 430 km Northeast of Mauritius consisting of sand banks, shoals and islets. Saint Brandon consists of five island groups, with about 28–40 islands and islets in total, depending on seasonal storms and related sand movements. There are 22 named islands and shoals. The archipelago is low-lying and is prone to substantial submersion in severe weather by tropical cyclones in the Mascarene Islands. (On January 14, 2015, intensifying Cyclone Bansi produced 167 km/h wind gusts and flooded the entirety of Raphael Fishing Company's Île Raphael in St. Brandon). It has an aggregate land area estimated variously at 1.3 sqkm and 500 acre. Economic activity in the region is currently limited to sustainable line fishing by Raphael Fishing Company and catch-and-release fly fishing and fly casting which is deemed to be amongst the best in the world. Flats fishing for trophy bonefish, Indo-Pacific permit, massive Giant Trevally is practised by visitors from all over the world on very extensive shallow banks covering approximately 900 sqmi around the islands. By the early 19th century, most of the islands were in use as fishing stations. Today Raphael Fishing Company is the only company left on the Archipelago with three fishing stations and accommodation for sports fishermen on two islands (L'île du Sud and Île Raphael). Geographically, the Archipelago is part of the Mascarene Islands and is situated on the Mascarene Plateau formed by the separation of the Mauritia microcontinent during the separation of India and Madagascar around 60 million years ago from what is today the African continent.

Politically, St. Brandon is part of the territory of the Republic of Mauritius and is grouped within the Outer Islands of Mauritius along with Agaléga, Tromelin (sovereignty disputed with France) and the Chagos Archipelago (sovereignty disputed with Britain), including Diego Garcia. The Outer Islands are geographically defined as "all the islands comprised in the State of Mauritius other than the Islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues". They are administered from Port Louis by the Outer Island Development Corporation (OIDC), which is responsible for their management and development. OIDC reports directly to the prime minister's office. Under a judgment by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on 30 July 2008, thirteen islands of Saint Brandon were adjudged as being a permanent grant to the Raphaël Fishing Company Ltd.

The reef measures more than 50 km from north to south and is 5 km wide, cut by three passes. The reef area is 190 sqkm. The islands have a small population, mostly fishermen, counted at 63 people on census night in 2001. The bulk of this population, approximately 40 people, live on Île Raphael, with smaller settlements existing on Avocaré Island, L'Île Coco, and L'île du Sud (South Island, l'île Boisées). A settlement on Albatross Island was abandoned in 1988. The islands are rich in marine flora and fauna, but on some government-held islands the birds have been severely affected by the uncontrolled presence of rats. Apart from the ongoing conservation work carried out by the centenarian Raphael Fishing Company, there is no infrastructure in place by the Republic of Mauritius to protect government-held islands from rats and invasive species.

In the past, the Cargados Carajos shoals were a large, volcanic island (part of the Mascarenes, caused by the Réunion hotspot). Over time the island has been eroded becoming submerged with an accompanying coral atoll. The archipelago is part of the Mascarene plateau, a submarine plateau North and East of Madagascar that is the second largest in the Indian Ocean after the Kerguelen Plateau.

Some of the Individual islands on the reef include:

A number of unnamed islands and sand cays complete the Cargados. The total number of islands on the reef can change and be close to 40.

Siren Island, L'île du Sud (South Island, l'île Boisées), Pearl Island (Île Perle), and Frigate Island (Île Frégate) are west of the reef, while North Island (Île du Nord) is about 4 km northeast of the northern tip of the reef.

Albatross Island, about 18 km north, is geographically a separate single coral island at location 16°15'S, 59°35'E.

Albatross Island is the highest (its highest point is 6 m above sea level) and the largest of the islands in the group, with an area of 1.01 sqkm, followed by Raphaël, Tortue, Avocaré Island, L'Île Coco (Coco Island) and L'île du Sud (South Island, IDS, l'île Boisées).

The main settlement and the administrative centre of St. Brandon is Île Raphaël, which is held on permanent grant by the Raphaël Fishing Company together with twelve other islands L'île du Sud (South Island, l'île Boisées), Petit Fou, Avocaré Island, l'île aux Fous (Fous, Ile Fou), l'île du Gouvernement, Petit Mapou, Grand Mapou, La Baleine, L'Île Coco, Verronge, l'île aux Bois and Baleines Rocks) under adjudication by the UK's Privy Council in 2008. Île Raphaël can have up to 35 resident employees and a coast guard and meteorological station (with eight residents in 1996). Smaller settlements exist on Avocaré Island, L'Île Coco, and L'île du Sud (South Island, l'île Boisées); the settlement on Albatross was abandoned in 1988. 
Map - Cargados Carajos (Cargados Carajos)
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Country - Mauritius
Flag of Mauritius
Mauritius (Maurice ; Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2000 km off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Agaléga and St. Brandon. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, along with nearby Réunion (a French overseas department), are part of the Mascarene Islands. The main island of Mauritius, where most of the population is concentrated, hosts the capital and largest city, Port Louis. The country spans 2040 km2 and has an exclusive economic zone covering 2300000 km2.

Arab sailors were the first to discover the uninhabited island, around 975, and they called it Dina Arobi. In 1507, Portuguese sailors visited the uninhabited island. The island appears with the Portuguese names Cirne or Do-Cerne on early Portuguese maps. The Dutch took possession in 1598, establishing a succession of short-lived settlements over a period of about 120 years, before abandoning their efforts in 1710. France took control in 1715, renaming it Isle de France. In 1810, the United Kingdom seized the island, and four years later, in the Treaty of Paris, France ceded Mauritius and its dependencies to the United Kingdom. The British colony of Mauritius included Rodrigues, Agaléga, St. Brandon, the Chagos Archipelago, and, until 1906, the Seychelles. Mauritius and France dispute sovereignty over the island of Tromelin as the Treaty of Paris failed to mention it specifically. Mauritius remained a primarily plantation-based colony of the United Kingdom until independence in 1968.
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MUR Mauritian rupee ₨ 2
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