Malpelo Island

Geography

Malpelo is the only island that rises above the surface from the Malpelo Ridge, which is a solitary volcanic submarine ridge that extends in a northeast-southwest direction for 300 km and has a width of 100 km. This island is surrounded by a number of offshore rocks. Off the northeast corner are the Tres Mosqueteros. Off the southwest corner are Salomón, Saúl, La Gringa, and Escuba. All the rocks are surrounded by deep water, and most of the face of the main island is very steep. Soundings between 1000 and are obtainable within a few kilometres of the shore and the currents are strong and changeable. As an oceanic island, it has never been connected with any other islands or the mainland.

Malpelo Island is composed of Miocene pillow lavas, volcanic breccias, and basaltic dikes that have been dated as being 16 to 17 million years old. This island and the underlying and underwater Malpelo Ridge were created along with the Carnegie Ridge in the Late Miocene by a very complex interaction between the Cocos-Nazca Spreading Centre and the Galápagos hotspot.

History

Prehistory

Malpelo Island was presumably isolated from human contact prior to European discovery. It is uninhabited, and is located in the same area as other oceanic eastern Pacific islands, such as Cocos Island, Galápagos and the Revillagigedo Islands, which were all uninhabited at the time of European discovery, and possibly throughout their entire history prior to that.

Discovery

The exact date of Malpelo's discovery is unclear, although it may have been the first of the remote eastern Pacific islands to have been discovered by Europeans, as it appears on Peruvian maps from as early as 1530. Malpelo became a possession of Spain following its discovery, and was subsequently annexed by Peru, and later Colombia.

Modern history

Because of its remoteness, Malpelo counts as an DXCC "entity" for amateur radio purposes. Several DXpeditions to the island have been made with the permission of the Colombian government.

In September 2024, three Ecuadorian nationals were apprehended for illegal fishing activities within the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, a protected marine area. The individuals were intercepted by the Colombian National Navy while transporting approximately 40 illegally caught fish, including Sailfish, Marlin, Dorado, Albacore, Tollo Sharks, and Hammerhead Sharks. Following their arrest, the suspects were charged with offenses including environmental damage, ecocide, and violation of national fishing regulations. During preliminary hearings, they entered no-contest pleas. A judge subsequently ordered their detention pending further legal proceedings.

Natural history

At first glance, the island seems to be barren rock, devoid of all vegetation, but deposits of bird guano have helped colonies of algae, lichens, mosses, and some shrubs and ferns to establish themselves, all of which glean nutrients from the guano. Lizards are the only non-avian vertebrates on the island, with three species in total.

• Agassiz's anole (Anolis agassizi)
• Dotted galliwasp (Diploglossus millepunctatus)
• Colombian leaf-toed gecko (Phyllodactylus transversalis)

It is also home to a unique species of land crab, Johngarthia malpilensis, first described in 1893.

The island has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding population of some 60,000–110,000 Nazca boobies, as estimated in 2007.

Malpelo is home of a unique shark population; swarms of 500 hammerhead sharks and hundreds of silky sharks are frequently seen by diving expeditions, making it a very popular shark-diving location. It is one of the few places where the smalltooth sand tiger has been seen alive; it is frequently spotted at the dive site "El bajo del Monstruo". Acanthemblemaria stephensi, the Malpelo barnacle blenny, is a species of chaenopsid blenny found in coral reefs around Malpelo. The largest no-fishing zone in the East Pacific, measuring over 850,000 hectares, surrounds the island.

The Malpelo Nature Reserve, a plant and wildlife sanctuary, covering 857500 ha centered at . is trying to preserve the biodiversity of the site. On July 12, 2006, Malpelo was declared by UNESCO as a natural World Heritage Site because of its status as an important shark reserve.

Chronology

• 1530 – Malpelo is said to have been recorded in a map of this date.
• 1542 – Cristóbal Vaca de Castro visited.
• 1550 – Malpelo was recorded in Pierre Desceliers' map.
• 1704 – Wreck of the English vessel Cinque Ports
• 1790 – Spanish landing on Malpelo was mentioned to Alessandro Malaspina.
• 1793 – James Colnett visited.
• 1837 – A note in The Nautical Magazine recorded a visit.
• 1995 – Malpelo was designated as a flora and fauna sanctuary.

Gallery

File:Malpelo Island Cliffs.jpg|Shore and cliffs File:Malpelo nazca booby NOAA.jpg|Nazca booby Sula granti

References

References

1. (2010). "Pacific Coast: Malpelo Island". Coastal and Marine Geology Program, United States Geological Survey, Santa Cruz, California.
2. (2010). "Coasts of Colombia". Coastal and Marine Geology Program, United States Geological Survey, Santa Cruz, California.
3. (2006). "Structure of the Malpelo Ridge (Colombia) from seismic and gravity modeling". Marine Geophysical Research.
4. Hoernle K., P. Bogaard, R. Werner, F. Hauff, B. Lissinna, G.E. Alvarado and D. Garbe-Schnberg (2002) ''Missing history (16–71 Ma) of the Galápagos hotspot: implications for the tectonic and biological evolution of the Americas.'' Geology. 30(9):795–798.
5. Macnaughtan, Don. (February 1, 2014). "Mystery Islands of Remote East Polynesia: Bibliography of Prehistoric Settlement on the Pitcairn Islands Group". Wordpress: Don Macnaughtan's Bibliographies.
6. Wurm, Stephen A., Mühlhäusler, Peter and Tryon, Darrell T.. ''Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas'', Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110819724
7. [https://dokufunk.org/amateur_radio/dxcc_entities/index.php?CID=9629&lang=EN Malpelo]
8. (17 September 2024). "Extranjeros pescaban ilegalmente en santuario de Malpelo, en Buenaventura (Valle)". La Patria.
9. Rand, A.S. G.C. Gorman, and W.M. Rand. 1975. Natural history, behavior, and ecology of Anolis agassizi. Pages 27-38 in J. Graham, editor. The Biological Investigation of Malpelo Island, Colombia. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, No.176.
10. Savage, J.M. and K.R. Lips. 1993. A review of the status and biogeography of the lizard genera Celestus and Diploglossus (Squamata: Anguidae), with description of two new species from Costa Rica. Revista de Biología Tropical, 41: 817-842.
11. Huey, R.B. 1975. A new gecko from Malpelo Island (Sauria: Gekkonidae: Phyllodactylus). Pages 44-46 in J. Graham, editor. The Biological Investigation of Malpelo Island, Colombia. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, No.176.
12. Faxon, Walter. (1893). "Preliminary Descriptions of New Species of Crustacea: ''Gecarcinus malpilensis'', sp. nov.". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
13. . (2021). ["Malpelo Wildlife Sanctuary"](http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/santuario-de-fauna-y-flora-malpelo-iba-colombia). *BirdLife International*.
14. Schneider, P. (nd) [http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com/articles/malpelo/malpelo.html Malpelo Island the "Mount Everest" of shark and large pelagic diving.] Advanced Diver Magazine Digital. Bradenton, Florida.
15. "Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary". United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
16. A Colombian foundation[http://www.fundacionmalpelo.org/ Fundación Malpelo y Otros Ecosistemas Marinos]
17. [https://www.protectedplanet.net/malpelo-fauna-and-flora-sanctuary-world-heritage-site-natural-or-mixed Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary in Colombia] ''Protected Planet''