Coëtivy Island
Encyclopedia
Coëtivy Island is a small coral island in the Seychelles
Seychelles
Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....
290 km south of Mahe
Mahé, Seychelles
Mahé is the largest island of the Seychelles, lying in the north east of the nation. The population of Mahé is 80,000. It contains the capital city of Victoria and accommodates 90% of the country's total population...
, at 07°08′S 56°16′E. Along with Île Platte
Île Platte
Île Platte, or Platte Island is 135 km south of Mahé, the main island of the Seychelles. At , it is clearly south of the Seychelles Bank and belongs to the Outer Islands...
, the nearest neighbor 171 km northwest, it comprises the Southern Coral Group
Southern Coral Group
Southern Coral Group is a collective term for two islands of Outer Islands of the Seychelles, lying in the south of the island nation, between 135 and 300 kilometers south of the capital, Victoria, on Mahé Island.-Islands:...
and therefore belongs to the Outer Islands (Seychelles)
Outer Islands (Seychelles)
The Outer Islands or Coralline Seychelles is a collective term for those islands of the Seychelles that are not on the shallow Seychelles Bank which defines the location of the Inner Islands. They are located at distances of 230 to 1150 km from the main Seychelles island of Mahé, and are all...
. Its area is 9.31 km² and it has a population of 252. It was named after by Chevalier de Coetivy who first sighted the island in 1771. Until 1908 it was politically part of Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
.
The island is privately owned by the paranatal Seychelles Marketing Board
Seychelles Marketing Board
Super Magic Brothers is a football club based in Victoria, Seychelles. Since its formation in 1985, it has dominated the importation of goods to Seychelles, particularly essential goods. SMB also operates a prawn farm on Coëtivy Island. Until 2008 the team was called Seychelles Marketing Board...
(SMB). Coetivy has recently been known for its shrimp farm
Shrimp farm
A shrimp farm is an aquaculture business for the cultivation of marine shrimp or prawns for human consumption. Commercial shrimp farming began in the 1970s, and production grew steeply, particularly to match the market demands of the United States, Japan and Western Europe...
s (black tiger prawn) and shrimp processing plant that began in the early 1990s; (from 1989-1992 the business was in "development phase"). There is also some vegetable farming in which the produce is sold in markets on Mahe
Mahe
-Places:* Mähe, a subdistrict of Tallinn, Estonia* Mahe district, one of the four districts of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India** Mahé, India, a municipality in Mahe district and former French colony* Mahe, Ladakh, a town in Ladakh, India...
.