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Anegada is the northernmost of the British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands

The British Virgin Islands is a British overseas territory, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands, the remaining islands constituting the United States Virgin Islands....
, a group of islands which form part of the archipelago
Archipelago

An archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago literally means "chief sea", from Italian language arcipelago , derived ultimately from Greek language arkhon and pelagos ....
 of the Virgin Islands
Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands are an archipelago, part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea. The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles, where the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean....
. It lies approximately north of Virgin Gorda
Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda is the third-largest and second most populous of the British Virgin Islands . Located at approximately 18 degrees, 48 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area of about 8 square miles ....
. Anegada is the only inhabited British Virgin Island formed from coral
Coral

Corals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone?like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals....
 and limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
, rather than being of volcanic
Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
 origin.






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Anegadawestendaerial
Anegada is the northernmost of the British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands

The British Virgin Islands is a British overseas territory, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands, the remaining islands constituting the United States Virgin Islands....
, a group of islands which form part of the archipelago
Archipelago

An archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago literally means "chief sea", from Italian language arcipelago , derived ultimately from Greek language arkhon and pelagos ....
 of the Virgin Islands
Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands are an archipelago, part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea. The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles, where the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean....
. It lies approximately north of Virgin Gorda
Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda is the third-largest and second most populous of the British Virgin Islands . Located at approximately 18 degrees, 48 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area of about 8 square miles ....
. Anegada is the only inhabited British Virgin Island formed from coral
Coral

Corals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone?like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals....
 and limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
, rather than being of volcanic
Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
 origin. While the other islands are mountainous, Anegada is flat and low. Its highest point is only about above sea level, earning it the name which translates as “the drowned land.”

At about 15 square miles (38 square kilometers), Anegada is the second largest of the British Virgin Islands, but it is also the most sparsely populated of the main islands (population roughly 200). Most of the population on Anegada live in the main town, The Settlement
The Settlement (BVI)

The Settlement is the main and only town on Anegada in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean....
.

The primary business on Anegada is tourism. On a typical day during the tourist season, the island will have an additional 200 or so visitors. Commercial fishing is also a substantial business on Anegada, with local fishermen providing the majority of the fresh fish and lobster catch for the rest of the British Virgin Islands.

The remoteness of Anegada is one of its main attractions. Most visitors come to Anegada to relax, spending their days on Anegada's beautiful but relatively deserted north shore beaches. Its miles of south shore flats has a large population of bonefish
Bonefish

The bonefish is the type species of the Albulidae, or bonefishes. It is amphidromous, living in inshore tropical waters, moving onto shallow tidal flats to feed with the incoming tide, and retreating to deeper water as the tide ebbs....
, making Anegada a popular destination for fly fishing
Fly fishing

Fly fishing is a distinct and ancient angling method, most renowned as a method for catching trout and salmon, but employed today for a wide variety of species including Esox, bass , panfish, and carp, as well as ocean species, such as Red drum, Common snook, tarpon, bonefish and striped bass....
.

Access to the island is via the small Auguste George Airport (NGD), thrice-weekly ferries
Ferry

A ferry is a form of transport, usually a boat or ship, used to carry passengers and their vehicles across a body of water. Ferries are also used to transport freight and even railroad cars....
, and private boat.

Horseshoe Reef

Anegada Horseshoe Reef
Anegada is known for miles of white sand beaches and the -long Horseshoe Reef, the largest barrier coral reef
Coral reef

Coral reefs are aragonite structures produced by living organisms. In most reefs the predominant organisms are colonial cnidarian that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate....
 in the Caribbean
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
, and the fourth largest on earth. The reef makes navigation to Anegada difficult. While charter boats freely sail among most of the other Virgin Islands, charter companies often forbid clients to sail to Anegada to avoid running aground on the reef.

The reef has claimed hundreds of shipwrecks, including HMS Astraea (1808), the Donna Paula
St Phillip's Church, Tortola

St. Phillip's Church in the Kingston area of Tortola in British Virgin Islands is claimed by local historians to be the oldest free African American church in the Americas....
 (1819), the MS Rocus (1929) As such, it was once an important scuba diving
Scuba diving

SCUBA diving is Underwater diving, or taking part in another activity, while using a scuba set. By carrying a source of breathing gas , the scuba diver is able to stay underwater longer than with the simple breath-holding techniques used in snorkeling and free-diving, and is not hindered by air lines to a remote air source....
 destination. In an effort to protect the reef, the BVI government has made anchoring on Horseshoe Reef illegal.

Fauna

Anegada is also known for miles of white sand beaches, the large salt ponds which cover much of the west end of the island, and unique fauna. In the 1830s thousands of Caribbean Flamingo
Caribbean Flamingo

The American Flamingo or Caribbean Flamingo is a large species of flamingo closely related to the Greater Flamingo and Chilean Flamingo....
s lived in these ponds, but they were hunted for food and feathers throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries and disappeared by 1950. They are now being re-established into the ponds. The birds are another tourist draw, but officials are trying to keep the number of visitors to the flamingo areas at a level that allows the birds to flourish.

Other rare or endangered animals include the Anegada rock iguana (Cyclura pinguis
Cyclura pinguis

The Stout Iguana or Anegada Ground Iguana is a crirically endangered species of lizard of the genus Cyclura belonging to the Iguanidae family....
) and several species of turtle
Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the Order Testudines , most of whose body is shielded by a special bone or cartilage animal shell developed from their ribs....
s. Conch
Conch

A conch is one of a number of different species of medium-sized to large saltwater snails or their shells.True conchs are Marine gastropod molluscs in the family Strombidae, and the genus Strombus....
, Caribbean lobster (Metanephrops binghami
Metanephrops binghami

Metanephrops binghami, the Caribbean lobster or Caribbean lobsterette, is a lobster which inhabits the western Atlantic Ocean: from the Bahamas and southern Florida to French Guiana, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea ....
), and many fishes can be found near Anegada, particularly in the deep waters off the North Drop to the north of the island.

The reef adjacent to the Settlement used to be one of the more fertile conch grounds in the Caribbean, but overfishing has wiped out the conch population at the site. Visitors to the settlement are greeted by the sight of mountains of empty conch shells on the shore when they arrive.

There are also populations of feral
Feral

A feral organism is one that has escaped from domestication and returned, partly or wholly, to its wildlife state. The introduction of feral animals or plants, like any introduced species, can disrupt ecosystems and may, in some cases, contribute to extinction of indigenous species....
 cattle
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
, donkey
Donkey

The 'donkey' or 'ass', Equus africanus asinus, is a Domestication member of the Equidae or horse family, and an Odd-toed ungulates. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the Wild Ass, E....
s, goat
Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae....
s and sheep
Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
 which live in all areas of the island.

Western Salt Ponds of Anegada was designated a Ramsar Site
Ramsar Convention

File:RAMSAR-logo.gifThe Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental Ecology functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational val...
 on May 11, 1999.

Education

Approximately 40 students attend school at the Claudia Creque Educational Centre. This self-contained school is the only school on Anegada, and handles pre-school, primary, and secondary levels. It is funded and operated by the British Virgin Islands government.

Footnotes


External links