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Île Raphael (called after Mme. Veuve Raphaël -1820s) is an island in the Cargados Carajos shoals (Saint Brandon), a group of thirty outer islands of Mauritius. Île Raphael is the operational Headquarters of thirteen islands managed by Raphaël Fishing Company. Raphael Fishing Company facilitates an area on one of the thirteen permanently granted islands, Île Raphael, to the Mauritius National Coast Guard and to the Mauritius Meteorological Services.[1] Île Raphael residents amount to less than 30 people and constitute the majority of Saint Brandon's entire population.

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Île Raphaël is the principal base for fishing activities carried out by the 95-year-old Raphael Fishing Company[2] under a permanent grant[3] confirmed for thirteen islands in this Biodiverse Hotspot within the Madagascar Hospot in the Indian Ocean.

Île Raphaël - A Base for The Protection of a Key Biodiversity Area

The thirteen Saint Brandon islands which Raphaël Fishing Company controls from its headquarters on Raphaël Island (Île Raphael) and which it has directly and indirectly held for the last hundred and twenty years are constituent islands of the Cargados Carajos coral reef atoll system which is a designated Key Biodiversity Area (KBA)[4] in the Southwest Indian Ocean. The Cargados Carajos are closely skirted by busy Southeast Asian shipping lanes (North and South of the Archipelago) making its unique ecosystem extremely vulnerable to a variety of man-made (as well as natural) disasters which pose credible threats to its long-term existence as a Key Biodiversity Area.

In April 2016, Raphaël Fishing Company Ltd., through its majority shareholder,[5] privately funded and organised a fact-finding mission by world class experts in the field of conservation. Three international experts (Professor Henk Bauwman[6] (Ecotoxicology, Environmental Pollution, Bird Ecology); Professor Tony Martin (world's foremost expert on marine mammals) and Dr. Nick Cole (herpetologist; MWF Islands Restoration Manager) inspected the islands to raise awareness about the need to protect the islands’ flora and fauna but also to investigate, for the longer term, the effects of plastic and heavy metal pollution in the Indian Ocean.

Ongoing and future threats to Raphaël Fishing Company's thirteen islands include: -

• (i) Rust & heavy metal seepage from existing shipwrecks into coral reefs
• (ii) Seepage of rust and heavy metals from future shipwrecks
• (iii) Spillage of petroleum/ heavy oil as a direct consequence of new shipwrecks
• (iv) Cyclones and high winds up to 180 km/h (110 mph) with associated flooding
• (v) Tsunami, potentially from any future earthquake in southern Sumatra to the East and, speculatively, from the Reunion Hotspot inter alia
• (vi) Outbreaks of disease and importation of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) into its globally unique flora and fauna.

These threats are predicted to be ratcheted up by what is currently being termed global climate change. Damage to this Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) would mean unprecedented collateral damage to the postcard image of Mauritius, already battered by the MV Wakashio oil spill of 2020 and the near shipwreck of March 2021. This is because beginning in the sixties, St. Brandon had already been previously proposed as a Marine Protected Area by the World Bank; it has also been identified as an Important Bird Area in Africa by BirdLife International, has been designated an Important Bird Area under the Nairobi Convention, has been proposed as a nature reserve by UNEP and confirmed as a Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) by the CEPF. Various UN agencies, specialised NGOs and the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation have echoed and supported these designations and aspirations multiple times on record, so far to no avail in terms of action on the ground.

The Thirteen Islands of Raphael Fishing Company

The Thirteen islands held by Raphael Fishing Company which are part of the KBA Biodiversity hotspot within the Madagascar hotspot as well as being an Important Bird Area are shown below:-

• Île Raphael (Raphaël Island)
• l'île du Sud (South Island, l'île Boisées) 16°48′55″S 59°30′09″E
• Petit Fou
• l'Avocaire (Avocaré Avoquer, L'Avocaire) 16°36′10″S 59°38′26″E, 0.02 km2 (0.0077 sq mi)
• l'île aux Fous (Fous, Ile Fou)
• l'île du Gouvernement
• Petit Mapou
• Grand Mapou
• La Baleine
• l'île aux Cocos (Île Cocos, Île aux Cocos) 16°48′56″S 59°30′09″E, 0.5 km2 (0.19 sq mi)
• Verronge (Verronge) 16°40′43″S 59°36′23″E
• l'île aux Bois
• La Baleine Rocks

Image gallery

• 
  Raphael Island Church
• 
  Protecting St Brandon Islands
• 
  Protecting Fauna of St Brandon Atoll

References

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