Nelson Island or Nelsons Island is the northernmost and the easternmost island of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure, located in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The nearest neighbour is Île Boddam in the Salomon Islands.
Nelson Island occupies the only emerging reef structure in the northern fringe of the Great Chagos Bank. This lonely island has been always uninhabited, even between the 17th and the 20th century when there were coconut plantations in other islands of the Chagos. The low bushy sandy island stretches in an East-West direction. Its length is 1.5 km (1 mi) and it is only 0.2 km (0 mi) wide in its broadest area. Owing to its remoteness there has always been a numerous population of sea turtles in this island.
Read more about Nelsons Island: Important Bird Area
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)