Chagos Archipelago

A coral atoll system in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometers south of the Maldives, centered on the Great Chagos Bank, the world's largest coral atoll, which alone holds roughly half of the Indian Ocean's high-quality reef area across more than 15,000 square kilometers of total archipelago. Skipjack and yellowfin tuna, sharks, sea cucumbers and sea turtles depend on the reef community. Legal and illegal fishing, turtle poaching, shark-fin harvesting and sea-cucumber collection for Asian markets press on the ecosystem, whose remoteness has offered some natural resilience; a UK-designated Marine Protected Area established in 2010 bars extractive industry, though the designation remains internationally contested.