Hmmm, interesting! It appears like some sort of shallow reef with some man-made structures. You can tell that the light blue area is where there is shallow water because of the white waves and the slight discoloration of the surface beneath the water, indicating some sort of reef or sea plant growth. Possibly a research area for scientists? On the left side of the reef there is a boat that is about 50 m long, which is 1/8 around a 400m track, which means that it is relatively small, not big like a cruise ship. Maybe yacht-sized, like a research boat?
2006-06-24 15:45:29
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answer #2
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answered by Cap'n Eridani 3
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Okinotori
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The Okinotori coral reefs or "Okinotori Islands" (æ²ã鳥島, Okinotorishima or Okinotori-shima?), formerly called Parece Vela (Portuguese or Spanish for "it looks like a sail"), are located at 20°25′N 136°05′E, 1740 km south of Tokyo, Japan. They are also located 534 km Southeast of Oki Daito or 567 km WSE of Minami Iwo Jima of the Ogasawara Islands. The Japanese meaning of the name is "remote bird islands" and they are also sometimes referred to as "the southernmost islands of Japan".
The waters around the reefs are believed to be rich in oil and other resources. The Japanese assertion that the Okinotori coral reefs are islands would allow for exclusive economic zone (EEZ) control over an ocean area of 154,500 square miles (400,000 km²). This is larger than the entire country of Japan itself. The People's Republic of China has disputed this claim, however, saying the area only consists of rocks and not islands.
The area has three tiny individual islets:
Higashikojima (æ±å°å³¶, "Eastern Islet", area 1.6 m²)
Kitakojima (åå°å³¶, "Northern Islet", nevertheless rather in the West, area 6.4 m²)
Minamikojima (åå°å³¶, "Southern Islet", an artificial islet)
The islets, which rise only 0.1 to 0.2 m above high tide, are in the western part of a lagoon that is surrounded by an atoll-like submerged coral reef, over which the waves break, and that extends 4.6 km East-West and 1.7 km North-South, with an area of roughly 5 km² within the rim of the reef. A fourth, even smaller rock is located at the eastern end of the lagoon. There is an entrance into the lagoon from the south.
Contents [hide]
1 Dispute
2 History
3 Administration
4 See also
5 External links
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Dispute
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an island is "a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide". It states that "rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone".
One area of the reefs is roughly the size of a twin bed and pokes 7.4 centimeters (2.9 inches) out of the ocean. The other is the size of a small bedroom and rises about twice as high. The entire reef consists of approximately 7.8 square kilometers (3 square miles), most of which is submerged even at low tide. They are thus far uninhabitable and no economic activity has been possible yet.
Okinotori lies at a militarily strategic point, midway between Taiwan and Guam, where U.S. forces are based. Vessels of the PRC are believed to have been mapping the ocean's bottom over which U.S. warships might pass on their way to Taiwan. The PRC conducted four maritime surveys near Okinotori in 2001, two in 2002, and one in 2003. However, the number of such incidents rose to four in 2004. This has drawn protests from Japan. The Americans support the Japanese claim that Okinotori are islands, not rocks.
The status as an island (instead of an uninhabitable rock) under International Law is debated by the PRC (which calls it å²é¸ç¤, where ç¤ means rock or reef), since it would give Japan a huge Exclusive Economic Zone around it, with an area of more than 430 000 km². It has argued that Japan has no right to EEZ control over such a large ocean area through occupation of the reefs.
The PRC has also accused Japan of territorial expansionism and criticizes any moves to legitimize Okinitori as islands with EEZ rights. Japan is contesting ownership of territories with all of its neighbors in the region: the Republic of China (Taiwan), Russia, and South Korea.
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History
In 1789, the British ship Iphigenia first discovered the coral reefs and, in the following year, they were named "Douglass Reef". In 1922 and 1925, the Japanese navy ship Manshu investigated the area. And, in 1931, confirming that no other countries had claimed the reefs, Japan declared it Japanese territory. Okinotori was subsequently placed under the jurisdiction of Tokyo as a part of the Ogasawara Islands and named "Okinotorishima" or, less commonly, "Okinotori-shima".
After Japan's defeat in World War II, the United States assumed sovereignty over the Ogasawara islands. In 1968, the U.S. returned authority over the islands to Japan. The issue of Okinotori, however, was not addressed and did not attract much attention until the late 1970s when various countries started to claim their EEZs.
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Administration
Administratively, the island is considered part of Ogasawara village, Tokyo. In 1939, the construction of a Naval Base was started by Japan, but suspended in 1941, at the start of the World War II hostilities in the Pacific.
Typhoons and global warming are constant threats to Okinotori's existence. A few decades ago, there were about five or six visible protrusions. But by 1989, only two were visible.
In order to prevent the island from submersion caused by erosion and maintain the claim to the EEZ, the Japanese government launched an embankment building project in 1987, and Higashikojima and Kitakojima were surrounded by concrete. Japan has encased the reefs with $280 million worth of concrete and covered the smaller one with a $50 million titanium net to shield it from debris thrown up by the ocean's waves. In fact, the Japanese government has spent over $600 million dollars fortifying the reefs to prevent them from being completely washed away.
Furthermore, the right-wing Nippon Foundation has drawn plans to build a lighthouse and increase the size of the reef by breeding microorganisms known as foraminifera.
Currently, Japan carries out research and observation of the island, as well as repair work on the embankment of the islets. A platform on stilts, with a helicopter landing pad has been erected in a shallow part of the lagoon between Higashikojima and Minamikojima.
In 2005, the government installed a radar, repaired a heliport, and placed an official address plaque saying, "1 Okinotori Island, Ogasawara Village, Tokyo" in Japanese. More substantial settlement, however, has proven difficult due to the small size of the reefs.
Right-wing Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has talked of building a power station, despite protests by environmentalists. His government has helped fund expeditions to Okinotori by Japanese fishermen and scientists.
2006-06-28 10:08:35
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answer #5
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answered by gonzalezii 3
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