Europa Island
Europa Island (French: Île Europa) is a 28 km2 low-lying tropical atoll in the Mozambique Channel, about a third of the way from southern Madagascar to southern Mozambique. The island had never been inhabited until 1820, when the French family Rosier moved to it. The island officially became a possession of France in 1897. The island, garrisoned by a detachment from Réunion, has a weather station and is visited by scientists. Though uninhabited, it is part of the "Scattered Islands" of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands administrative region. Europa Island was the setting of a 1968 episode of "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau", partly focusing on the breeding habits of the green sea turtle.
Description
Europa is 6 km in diameter, with a maximum altitude of 6 metres, and has 22.2 kilometres of coastline. It is surrounded by coral beaches and a fringing reef and encloses a mangrove lagoon of around 9 km2 and open to the sea on one side. There are no ports or harbours but anchorage is possible offshore. Its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), contiguous with that of Bassas da India, is 127,300 km2. The airstrip is 1,500 metres long.
