page_title: Navassa Island
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Navassa Island / Geography, topography and ecology / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Luftaufnahme der Südwestküste von Navassa, Karibisches Meer English: Aerial photo of the southwest coast of Navassa Island in the Caribbean Sea
context_page_description: Navassa Island is a small uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. Located northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba, 40 nautical miles west of Jérémie on the south west peninsula of Haiti, the island is subject to an ongoing territorial dispute between Haiti and the United States, which administers the island through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The U.S. has claimed the island since 1857, based on the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Haiti's claim over Navassa goes back to the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 that established French possessions in mainland Hispaniola, that were transferred from Spain by the treaty. As well as the western half of the main island and certain other specifically named nearby islands, Haiti's 1801 constitution also claimed "other adjacent islands", though Navassa was not mentioned by name. Since its 1874 Constitution, and after the establishment of the 1857 U.S. claim, Haiti has explicitly named "la Navase" as one of the territories it claims. Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, best known for his publications on Saint-Domingue, referred to la Navasse as the "small French island of Saint-Domingue" in 1798.
context_section_description: Navassa Island's topography, ecology, and modern history are similar to that of Mona Island, a small limestone island located in the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which were once centers of guano mining, and are nature reserves for the United States. Transient Haitian fishermen and others camp on the island but the island is otherwise uninhabited. It has no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages, and its only natural resource is guano. Economic activity consists of subsistence fishing and commercial trawling activities.
  There were eight species of native reptiles, all of which are believed to be, or to have been, endemic to Navassa Island: Celestus badius (an anguid lizard), Aristelliger cochranae (a gecko), Sphaerodactylus becki (a gecko), Anolis longiceps (an anole), Cyclura (cornuta) onchiopsis (a rock iguana), Leiocephalus eremitus (a curly-tailed lizard), Tropidophis bucculentus (a dwarf boa), and Typhlops sulcatus (a tiny snake). Of these the first four remain common with the last four likely extinct. Feral cats, dogs and pigs currently inhabit the island.
  In 2012, a rare coral species, Acropora palmata (Elkhorn coral), was found underwater near the island. The remaining coral was found to be in good condition.
caption: Navassa Island has a steep and rocky coastline that rings the island.
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