| Disputed reef and islets | |
|---|---|
 Satellite image of Serranilla Bank | |
  Serranilla Bank Location in the Caribbean Show map of Caribbean | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Caribbean Sea |
| Coordinates | 15°50′N79°50′W / 15.833°N 79.833°W /15.833; -79.833[1] |
| Total islands | 4 |
| Major islands | Beacon Cay |
| Administration | |
| Department | San Andrés and Providencia |
| Claimed by | |
| Territory | U.S. Minor Outlying Islands |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 0 |
| Additional information | |
| Time zone | |
Serranilla Bank (Spanish:Isla Serranilla, Banco Serranilla andPlacer de la Serranilla)[2] is a partially submergedreef, with small uninhabitedislets, in the westernCaribbean Sea. It is situated about 350 kilometres (220 mi) northeast of thePunta Gorda River,Nicaragua, and roughly 280 kilometres (170 mi) southwest ofJamaica.[1] The closest neighbouring land feature isBajo Nuevo Bank, located 110 kilometres (68 mi) to the east.
Serranilla Bank was first shown onSpanish maps in 1510. It is administered byColombia as a part of thedepartment ofSan Andrés and Providencia.[3][4] The reef is subject to a sovereignty dispute involvingColombia,Jamaica, and theUnited States. A previous claim byHonduras was resolved in favor of Colombia when the two countries approved a treaty establishing their maritime boundaries.[5] Jamaica's claim was largely considered to be resolved when it established a "Joint Regime Area" with overlapping maritime boundaries in 1993, acknowledging Colombian control of Bajo Nuevo Bank and Serranilla Bank, even though the treaty mentioned the dispute over territorial waters.[6][7] On 19 November 2012, in regards to Nicaraguan claims to the islands, theInternational Court of Justice (ICJ) upheld Colombia's sovereignty over the bank. However, the judgment does not analyze or mention the U.S. claim over the reef.[8]
Serranilla Bank is a formeratoll, now a mostly submergedcarbonate platform consisting of shallowreef environments. It is about 40 kilometres (25 mi) in length and 32 kilometres (20 mi) in width, covering an area of over 1,200 square kilometres (460 sq mi), almost entirely under water. Three smallcays and two rocks emerge above the water to form the bank's islands. These are West Breaker, Middle Cay, East Cay, Beacon Cay, and Northeast Breaker.[9] They are largely barren, with sparse vegetation of bushes and some trees. Manyshipwrecks are located in its vicinity.[10] The bank lackscoral reefs and has minimal sediment cover.Accretion of the bank is not keeping up with the rise in sea level. The south-eastern portion is covered mainly byhardgrounds, while the rest of the bank is mostly covered by thinHalimeda sediments.[11]
Beacon Cay is the largestislet in the Bank. It is overbuilt with small military facilities, which house a small rotating garrison of Colombian naval personnel. There is alighthouse on acoral ledge in the southwest approach to the bank. It is a 33-metre (108 ft) tall skeletal tower built atop a 3-storey crew residence. The lamp emits a focal plane beam of light as two white flashes every 20 seconds. The current lighthouse was first erected in 1982,[12] and was reconstructed in May 2008 by the ColombianMinistry of National Defense. It is currently maintained by theColombian National Navy and overseen by the state's Maritime Authority.[9][13][14]
The Serranilla Bank was first shown onSpanish maps in 1510 asPlacer de la Serranilla. It was mentioned byLouis-Michel Aury, whose ship was shipwrecked on it in 1820.[15] In later history, it has been the subject ofconflicting claims by severalsovereign states; in most cases, the dispute stems from attempts by a state to expand itsexclusive economic zone over the surrounding seas.
Between 1982 and 1986, Colombia maintained a formal agreement withJamaica, which granted regulated fishing rights to Jamaican vessels within theterritorial waters of Serranilla Bank and the nearby Bajo Nuevo Bank.[16][17] In November 1993, the two states agreed upon amaritime delimitation treaty establishing a "Joint Regime Area" to cooperatively manage and exploit living and non-living resources in designated waters between the two banks.[18] However, the territorial waters immediately surrounding the cays themselves were excluded from the zone of joint-control, as Colombia considers these areas to be parts of its coastal waters.[19][20] The agreement came into force in March 1994.[17]
Nicaragua formerly claimed all the islands on itscontinental shelf,[21] covering an area of over 50,000 km2 in the Caribbean Sea, including the Serranilla Bank and all islands associated with the San Andrés and Providencia archipelagoes. It had persistently pursued this claim against Colombia in theInternational Court of Justice (ICJ), filing cases in both 2001 and 2007.[22][23] Nicaragua formally accepted the ICJ's 2012 ruling of Colombian sovereignty in a 2014constitutional amendment.[24]
TheUnited States' claim was made in 1879[25] and 1880 under theGuano Islands Act[26] by James W. Jennett.[27][28] Most claims made by the U.S. over theguano islands in this region were officially renounced in a treaty with Colombia dated September 1972.[29] But whether or not Serranilla Bank was included in the agreement is disputed. There is no specific mention of the feature in the treaty, and as per Article 7 of the treaty, only matters specifically mentioned in the document are subject to it. The U.S. considers the reef aninsular area.[28][30]
Honduras claimed Serranilla Bank as part of its national territory in Article 10 of itsConstitution.[31] In 1986, it agreed upon amaritime boundary demarcation with Colombia that excluded Honduras of any control over the bank or its surrounding waters.[4][32] Theratification of this boundary on 20 December 1999[33] proved to be controversial within Honduras, as it ensured that the state implicitly recognized Colombia's sovereignty over the claimed territory.[34] At that time, Nicaragua disputed Honduras' legal right to hand over these areas before the ICJ.[21][35] Despite the agreement with Colombia, the Honduran government has not officially renounced the claim in the Constitution.
In 1952, Serranilla Bank was the site of the last sighting of the now-extinctCaribbean monk seal.[36]
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