Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary
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How it came to be
Some 500 km off Colombia's Pacific coast, the barren rock of Malpelo rises from the sea. It is the only part of the undersea Malpelo Ridge above the surface, and its highest point, Cerro de la Mona, is 300 metres high. The island is made of lavas 16 to 17 million years old.
The island appears on maps as early as 1530. After its discovery it became a Spanish possession and later passed to Colombia. No one has ever lived here permanently. A small, rotating unit of the Colombian Navy is stationed on the island, and only a limited number of divers and scientists visit.
Malpelo became a flora and fauna sanctuary in 1995, and in 2005 the sanctuary was enlarged thirteenfold, from 65,450 to 857,500 hectares. Schools of more than 200 hammerhead sharks and more than 1,000 silky sharks have been recorded, and as the largest no-fishing zone in the Eastern Tropical Pacific it was inscribed in 2006.
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