Spratly Islands

The Spratly Islands are 100 small uninhabited islands in the South China Sea.[1] Fish are an abundant resource around the islands. The countries of Brunei Darussalam, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam have a commercial interest in them. These countries share control of the islands but have varying claims of territory.

The islands are named after the British whaling captain Richard Spratly who saw Spratly Island in 1843.

The islands have less than 2 km2 (490 acres) of land area. This is spread over an area of more than 425,000 km2 (164,000 sq mi).The biggest island is Taiping Dao. The island is also known as It Aba. It is about 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi) long and about 350 metres (1,150 ft) wide at its widest point.

References

  1. ↑ "Spratly Islands" at CIA World Factbook Archived 2009-06-10 at the Wayback Machine; excerpt, "no indigenous inhabitants"; retrieved 2013-4-19.




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