Isla Pérez is an island located in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

, 130 km (80.7 mi) north of Progreso, Mexico, off the coast of the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

. It belongs to the

Arrecife Alacranes National Park Scorpion Reef () is an atoll containing a small group of islets in the Gulf of Mexico, about off the northern coast of the state of Yucatán, Mexico. Designated a national park, the reef is part of the Campeche Bank archipelago and is the larges ...

, and is the largest island in the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

. The waters and

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

s surrounding the island provide an important refuge for sea life and attract many fishermen to the region. The island has little vegetation, with a hot and dry climate that is not hospitable to human life. Historically, the island has been used as a navigation reference point in the southern

, particularly for mariners between the

Yucatán Channel The Yucatán Channel or Straits of Yucatán (Spanish: ''Canal de Yucatán'') is a strait between Mexico and Cuba. It connects the Yucatán Basin of the Caribbean Sea with the Gulf of Mexico. It is just over wide and nearly deep at its deepest po ...

and

Bay of Campeche The Bay of Campeche (), or Campeche Sound, is a bight in the southern area of the Gulf of Mexico, forming the north side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It is surrounded on three sides by the Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz. The ...

. Because of its importance to navigation, the

Mexican Navy The Mexican Navy () is one of the components of the Mexican Armed Forces. The Secretariat of the Navy is in charge of administration of the navy. The commander of the navy is the Secretary of the Navy, who is both a cabinet minister and a career ...

has stationed a small detachment there.

References

* Yucatán en el tiempo. Enciclopedia Alfabética. México 1998. Coral reefs Biosphere reserves of Mexico Islands of Yucatán Reefs of Mexico Protected areas of Yucatán {{marine-geo-stub

See also

References