ISLANDS IN THE SEIZE: 8 HOTLY DISPUTED ISLANDS AND ATOLLS

Islands in the Seize: 8 Hotly Disputed Islands & Atolls
By Steve, Web Ecoist, 25 September 2012.

From sultry tropical seas to frosty arctic oceans, dozens of obscure, isolated and often uninhabited islands lie awash in ambiguous seas, contested by countries countless kilometres away. Chronically disputed by neighbouring nations and the occasional focus of fervent nationalistic frenzy, these islands, atolls and archipelagos exist in a geographic limbo that shifts with the winds of political power.

1. Daioyu Islands/Senkaku Islands/Tiaoyutai Islands

Images/more info via: Asahi Shimbun, CSMonitor and Asian Gazette Blog

These islands are situated in the East China Sea about 120 miles northeast of Taiwan (ROC), 200 miles east of the Chinese (PRC) mainland and 200 miles southwest of the Japanese island of Okinawa. The respective names of these and the other islands and island groups listed in this article are posted in alphabetical order. The dispute over the islands is mainly between China and Japan. Though historical claims and counterclaims date back centuries, the dispute has heated up recently, possibly fuelled by an upcoming leadership change in China.

Image via: The Possibilities Are Endless

The Pinnacle Islands, to use a neutral and non-nationalistic name, are made up of five small islands and three barren rocks. The islands have historically been uninhabited except for the occasional establishment of fish processing facilities connected with the rich fishing grounds surrounding the islands.

2. Island of Vukovar

Images via: Alen Marić and Moja Ladja

The Island of Vukovar (Vukovarska ada, in Croatian) hugs the Serbian shore of the Danube river northeast of the Croatian city of Vukovar. While the nation of Yugoslavia existed, the island was considered to be part of Croatia. During the 1991-95 Croatian War of Independence, however, Serb-affiliated forces occupied the island and Serbian police still patrol to maintain order.

Image via: HR Forum

The Island of Vukovar is locally renowned for its bathing beaches, which were off-limits to Croatian citizens for 16 years after the breakup of Yugoslavia. In 2006, however, authority over the island was granted to Vukovar’s Sports Recreation Society Dunav, and Croatians were allowed to visit the island during daylight hours in summer.

3. Huangyan Island/Scarborough Shoal

Images/more info via: Papansin Kaba?, Dave Fox’s GlobeJotting and News.com.au

Scarborough Shoal, called “Kulumpol ng Panatag” by the Philippines and Huangyan Island by China, is located 137 miles (220 km) due west of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Though claimed by China, Taiwan and the Philippines, the shoal is much closer to the latter.

Image via: Paulhechanova/Panoramio

The shoal is not a seamount but merely a high point of a regional oceanic plain. Coral reefs have grown around the shoal’s edges allowing a shallow lagoon to form in its centre. As the highest point of Scarborough Shoal itself is just 3 meters (9.8 ft) above sea level, perhaps global warming will eventually solve the issue of sovereignty.

4. Hans Island/Tartupaluk

Images/more info via: DND Journal, CBC.ca and NoBadNews

Canada and Denmark have a boundary dispute? Unlikely as a quick look at a globe or atlas may make it seem, the two nations abut along a borderline demarcated through the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait, which separates Canada’s arctic Ellesmere Island from Denmark-administrated northern Greenland. The fly in the ointment is Hans Island (Tartupaluk, in Inuit), a city-block-sized rock inconveniently positioned in the centre of the Channel and split equally by the agreed-upon international borderline.

Image via: Dave Walsh Photo

It’s very unlikely that either Canada or Denmark will exaggerate the issue beyond a war of words (or flags) but with global warming making the previously frosty region more amenable to commercial fishing and resources development, the right to plant one’s flag becomes an issue of paramount economic importance.

5. Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas

Images/more info via: Juggle, The Travelling Naturalist and A Tangled Web

If comparative geographic distance was the prime arbiter of territorial disputes, Argentina would have a lock on the Falkland Islands or as they’re known by the South American claimants, Las Islas Malvinas. The islands, uninhabited at the time, were discovered by Dutch explorer Sebald de Weert in 1600. A series of claims and counter-claims involving some or all of the islands by Great Britain, France, Spain and Argentina then ensued before the UK formally declared sovereignty in 1833.

Image via: A Tangled Web

Argentina was in de facto control of the Falkland Islands in the early years of the 19th century, assuming Spain’s claims to the islands as the successor state to the Viceroyalty of the River Plate. The dispute then simmered for almost 150 years before Argentine forces invaded the islands in 1982, precipitating the Falklands War. Presently the 778 islands which together form the Falkland Islands archipelago are home to approximately 3,140 people of mainly British descent, who were granted UK citizenship in 1983.

6. Northern Territories/Southern Kurile Islands

Images/more info via: RIA-Novosti, Crisis In Japan, CCTV and Guardian UK

The Kuril Islands dispute involves the seizure, by military forces of the Soviet Union, of four islands known in Japan as the Northern Territories. The islands include Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan, and the Habomai group of small islands. The seizure occurred in the final few days of the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation which began on August 9th of 1945.

Image via: Lionsv

The USSR expelled all Japanese citizens from the islands following the war and the islands now boast a Russian population of around 19,000. The islands’ climate is harsh and unforgiving with harsh, long winters and damp, foggy summers. Marine life abounds in the area and much of the non-political wrangling over the islands revolves around fishing rights.

7. La Navasse/Navassa Island

Images/more info via: OceanDots, NOAA/CORIS and Trexsoft

The United States has chosen not to take sides in a number of on-going island disputes but there’s no straddling the fence when it comes to Navassa Island, or “La Navasse” as natives of neighbouring (and claiming) Haiti refer to it. The tiny (2.01 sq mi or 5.2 sq km) island has no natural sources of water and although it was discovered way back in 1504 by some of Christopher Columbus’ sailors, it was pretty much ignored and avoided for the next 350 years.

Image via: USGS

Claimed by Haiti as far back as 1801 and located just 40 nautical miles (46 miles or 74 km) west of Jérémie on Haiti’s southwestern peninsula, Navassa Island currently exists as an unorganized unincorporated territory of the United States administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The closest American territory is the Guantanamo Bay naval base 90 nautical miles (100 miles or 170 km) to the north.

8. Dokdo/Liancourt Rocks/Takeshima

Images/more info via: Socyberty, Shimane, East Asia Forum and Waegook-Tom

The Liancourt Rocks, named for the French whaler Le Liancourt which nearly foundered on them in 1849, are a varied collection of islets, rocks and reefs (over 90 in all) located 215 kilometres (116 nautical miles) from the Korean mainland Korea and 211 kilometres (114 nautical miles) from Honshu, the main island of Japan. The island group is dominated by two islands that together form the remnants of a volcanic cone approximately 2 to 4.5 million years old.

Image via: Picsto-Pin

Called “Dokdo” by Korea and “Takeshima” by Japan, the islands are the centre of a fierce dispute that has seriously affected relations between Korea and Japan. Such is the level of nationalistic fever and xenophobic vitriol expounded by those on either side of the issue, it seems beyond the realm of possibility that the dispute will ever be resolved in a mutually agreeable manner. If, however, saner heads should prevail some day, then hopes can be raised towards the resolving of ALL other island disputes. Let’s hope that day someday comes. [Dokdo-Takeshima.com]

[Source: Web Ecoist. Edited. Some links added.]