Serranilla Bank

Geography

Serranilla Bank is a former atoll, now a mostly submerged carbonate platform consisting of shallow reef environments. It is about 40 km in length and 32 km in width, covering an area of over 1200 km2, almost entirely under water. Three small cays and two rocks emerge above the water to form the bank's islands. These are West Breaker, Middle Cay, East Cay, Beacon Cay, and Northeast Breaker. They are largely barren, with sparse vegetation of bushes and some trees. Many shipwrecks are located in its vicinity. The bank lacks coral reefs and has minimal sediment cover. Accretion of the bank is not keeping up with the rise in sea level. The south-eastern portion is covered mainly by hardgrounds, while the rest of the bank is mostly covered by thin Halimeda sediments.

Beacon Cay is the largest islet in the Bank. It is overbuilt with small military facilities, which house a small rotating garrison of Colombian naval personnel. There is a lighthouse on a coral ledge in the southwest approach to the bank. It is a 33 m tall skeletal tower built atop a 3-storey crew residence. The lamp emits a focal plane beam of light as two white flashes every 20 seconds. The current lighthouse was first erected in 1982, and was reconstructed in May 2008 by the Colombian Ministry of National Defense. It is currently maintained by the Colombian National Navy and overseen by the state's Maritime Authority.

History

The Serranilla Bank was first shown on Spanish maps in 1510 as Placer de la Serranilla. It was mentioned by Louis-Michel Aury, whose ship was shipwrecked on it in 1820.{{cite book |chapter=XII: Viaje del general Aury a Santafé por el Magdalena |trans-chapter=XXI: General Aury's trip to Santafé by the Magdalena |title=Las Memorias de Agustín Codazzi |first=Agustín |last=Codazzi |author-link=Agustín Codazzi |date=1970 |editor-last= Gerulewicz |editor-first=Marisa Vannini de |location=Caracas |publisher=Univ. Central de Venezuela |url=https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/memorias-de-agustin-codazzi-881712 |language=es}} In later history, it has been the subject of conflicting claims by several sovereign states; in most cases, the dispute stems from attempts by a state to expand its exclusive economic zone over the surrounding seas.

Between 1982 and 1986, Colombia maintained a formal agreement with Jamaica, which granted regulated fishing rights to Jamaican vessels within the territorial waters of Serranilla Bank and the nearby Bajo Nuevo Bank.{{cite book |author2-link=American Society of International Law

Nicaragua formerly claimed all the islands on its continental shelf, covering an area of over 50,000 km2 in the Caribbean Sea, including the Serranilla Bank and all islands associated with the San Andrés and Providencia archipelagoes. It had persistently pursued this claim against Colombia in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), filing cases in both 2001 and 2007. Nicaragua formally accepted the ICJ's 2012 ruling of Colombian sovereignty in a 2014 constitutional amendment.

The United States' claim was made in 1879 and 1880 under the Guano Islands Act |access-date = 2008-01-13 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120414172502/http://www.doi.gov/oia/Islandpages/acquisition_process.htm |archive-date = 2012-04-14

Honduras claimed Serranilla Bank as part of its national territory in Article 10 of its Constitution. In 1986, it agreed upon a maritime boundary demarcation with Colombia that excluded Honduras of any control over the bank or its surrounding waters. The ratification of this boundary on 20 December 1999 proved to be controversial within Honduras, as it ensured that the state implicitly recognized Colombia's sovereignty over the claimed territory. At that time, Nicaragua disputed Honduras' legal right to hand over these areas before the ICJ. Despite the agreement with Colombia, the Honduran government has not officially renounced the claim in the Constitution.

Notable fauna

In 1952, Serranilla Bank was the site of the last sighting of the now-extinct Caribbean monk seal.

References

References

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2. [https://books.google.com/books?id=x5WnB-gwWYEC&pg=PA333 ''Derrotero de las islas Antillas y de las costas orientales de América'' p. 333]
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8. International Court of Justice. (2012). "Territorial and maritime dispute (Nicaragua vs Colombia)".
9. [http://sanandresislas.es.tl/SERRANILLA.htm Sanandresislas] – description and photographs of Serranilla Bank.
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