The Bazaruto Archipelago () is a group of six islands in

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

, near the mainland city of Vilankulo. It comprises the islands of Bazaruto, Benguerra, Magaruque, Santa Carolina and Bangué.

Geography

The group belongs to the Vilanculos and Inhassoro districts of

Inhambane Province Inhambane is a province of Mozambique located on the coast in the southern part of the country. It has an area of 68,615 km2 and a population of 1,488,676 (2017 census). The provincial capital is also called Inhambane. The climate is trop ...

. The islands were formed from sand deposited by the Save River, which has since shifted its course. Santa Carolina is a true rock island with deep channels and is just in size. It has three beautiful beaches with coral reefs close to the shore. The island, also known as Paradise Island, is regarded as the "gem" of the islands forming the Bazaruto Archipelago, which is a proclaimed marine national park. Tourist attractions include sandy beaches,

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, and opportunities for

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

and fishing.

Ecology

View east towards a Bazaruto Archipelago island

The archipelago became a

National Park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

in 1971. There is a wide abundance of reef fish,

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

, Moorish idols,

parrot Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

and butterfly fish to name but a few.

Sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...

s, game fish and devil rays are regularly seen. Various endangered marine

megafauna In zoology, megafauna (from Ancient Greek, Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and Neo-Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") are large animals. The precise definition of the term varies widely, though a common threshold is approximately , this lower en ...

s, such as

whale shark The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter feeder, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known Extant taxon, extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of . The whale shark holds many records for ...

, manta, leatherback turtle,

cetaceans Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively c ...

including

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

, and the

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest ...

. Bazaruto's dugong population counts about 120 individuals, making it the largest of remnant populations in Mozambique. Cetacean biodiversity had been much richer than today before being reduced by human activities including illegal mass hunts by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and Japan in 1960s to 1970s, resulting disappearances or rarities of many species such as the

southern right whale The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20� ...

s. Since the archipelago's geography provides a number of different ecosystems, an unusual variety of species occur within a relatively small area. Bazaruto is one of two largest islands, the other being Benguerra. The skinks '' Scelotes duttoni'', '' Scelotes insularis'', and '' Lygosoma lanceolatum'' are endemic to the Bazaruto Archipelago.

History

It has been speculated that the Bazaruto Archipelago may be the island named Crocodile ( in Persian) mentioned in the 11th-century Egyptian Book of Curiosities. This island is the last place in a list of sites along the East African coast known to Egyptian merchants and is the fifth stop after

Kilwa Kilwa Kisiwani ('Kilwa Island') is an island, national historic site, and Hamlet (place), hamlet community located in the township of Kilwa Masoko, the district seat of Kilwa District in the Tanzanian region of Lindi Region, Lindi in southern Ta ...

. Bazaruto supports a substantial population of crocodiles.M. Horton (2018), "The Swahili Corridor Revisited", ''African Archaeological Review'', 35(2), 341–346.

References

{{Authority control Archipelagoes of Mozambique Mozambique Channel Geography of Inhambane Province Southern Zanzibar–Inhambane coastal forest mosaic Important Bird Areas of Mozambique