Clipperton Island ( or ) is an uninhabited coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean, southwest of Mexico and west of Costa Rica, at.

Clipperton Island is low-lying and largely barren, save for scattered grasses and a few clumps of coconut palms.

Clipperton Island has a tropical oceanic climate, with average temperatures of.

Location of Clipperton Island

The only land animals known to exist on Clipperton Island are bright-orange crabs ( which are poisonous to consume ), birds, lizards and rats, the last of which seem to have arrived from recently wrecked ships.

A recent report ( 2006 ) by the NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, indicates that the increased rat presence on Clipperton Island has led to a decline in both crab and bird populations, causing a corresponding increase in both vegetation and coconut palms on the island.

Mexico reasserted its claim over Clipperton Island late in the 19th century, and on December 13, 1897, sent the gunboat La Democrata to occupy and annex it.

Survivors from Clipperton Island, 1917

By 1914, around 100 people — men, women, and children — were living on Clipperton Island, resupplied every two months by a ship from Acapulco.

Following this, no further attempts were made to permanently colonize Clipperton Island, though it would be briefly occupied during the 1930s and ' 40s.

The tragic tale of the Mexican colony on Clipperton Island has been the subject of several novels, including Ivo Mansmann's Clipperton, Schicksale auf einer vergessenen Insel (" Clipperton, Destinies on a Forgotten Island "); ISBN 3-354-00709-5 ( in German, no English translation available ) and Colombian writer Laura Restrepo's La Isla de la Pasión in the Spanish language.

Clipperton Island was abandoned by the end of World War II, after briefly being occupied by the US ( 1944 – 45 ).

There have been infrequent scientific and amateur radio expeditions, and in 1978 Jacques-Yves Cousteau visited with his team of divers, plus a survivor from the 1917 evacuation, to film a television special called Clipperton: The Island that Time Forgot.

Satellite image of Clipperton Island

Commencing in 2010, the Nautilus Explorer will be running diving expeditions from Cabo San Lucas to Clipperton Atoll via Socorro Island every spring.

During the night of February 10, 2010, the Sichem Osprey, a Maltese chemical tanker, ran aground on Clipperton Island on its way from the Panama Canal to South Korea.

# REDIRECT Clipperton Island

# REDIRECT Clipperton Island

One interesting feature observed about Clipperton Island's flora is that the vegetation is arranged in parallel rows of species ; dense rows of taller species alternate with lower, more open vegetation.

Much more is known about Clipperton ‘ s second voyage to the Pacific Ocean, in 1719.

A small volcanic outcrop rising to on its southeast side is referred to as " Clipperton Rock ".

Land elevations average, though Clipperton Rock, a barren volcanic outcrop located in the atoll's southeast, is considerably higher and forms the island's tallest point.

When Snodgrass and Heller visited Clipperton in 1898, they reported that " no land plant is native to the island ".

* One uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico which belongs directly to the central State public land and is administered by the high-commissioner of the French Republic in French Polynesia: Clipperton.

However, Clipperton has had no permanent inhabitants since 1945.

The reef surrounding Clipperton is exposed at low tide.

While some sources have rated the lagoon water as non-potable, testimony from the crew of the tuna clipper M / V Monarch, stranded on Clipperton for 23 days in 1962 after their boat sank, indicates otherwise.

In contrast, however, survivors of the ill-fated Mexican military colony on Clipperton in 1917 ( see below ) indicated that they were dependent upon rain for their water supply, catching it in several old boats they used for this purpose.

Although 115 species of fish have been identified in the waters near Clipperton, the only economic activity in the area is tuna fishing.

The result is that Clipperton is now virtually a sandy desert, with only 674 remaining palms counted by C. Jost during the " Passion 2001 " French mission, and five islets in the lagoon with grass that these terrestrial crabs cannot reach.

The name Île de la Passion () was officially given to Clipperton in 1711 by French discoverers Martin de Chassiron and Michel Du Bocage, commanding the French ships La Princesse and La Découverte.

The first scientific expedition to Clipperton took place in 1725 under Frenchman M. Bocage, who lived on the island for several months.

In 1858 France formally laid claim to Clipperton.

Clipperton's name comes from John Clipperton, an English pirate and privateer who fought the Spanish during the early 18th century, and who is said to have passed by the island.

Other claimants included the United States, whose American Guano Mining Company claimed it under the Guano Islands Act of 1856 ; Mexico also claimed Clipperton due to activities undertaken there as early as 1848 – 1849.

On November 17, 1858, Emperor Napoleon III annexed Clipperton as part of the French colony of Tahiti.

On November 24, 1897, French naval authorities found three Americans on Clipperton working for the American Guano Company, who had raised the American flag on the island.

However, U. S. authorities denounced their act, assuring the French that they did not intend to assert American sovereignty over Clipperton.

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