The breeding populations of both birds have since been extirpated, although they continue to use the island for roosting. There are no resident landbirds. ==History== The island was discovered by France in 1720s.
It was recorded by the French navigator Jean Marie Briand de la Feuillée and named “Île des Sables” (‘Isle of Sand’). ===Wreck of the ship Utile=== On 31 July 1761 the French ship Utile ("Useful"), a frigate of the French East India Company, chartered by Jean-Joseph de Laborde and commanded by Captain Jean de La Fargue, transporting slaves from Madagascar to Mauritius in contravention of Mauritian law, ran onto the reefs of the island.
On 27 September 1761, a contingent of 122 French sailors (crew and officers) left Tromelin aboard the Providence.
However, they met with a categorical refusal from the governor, with the justification that France was fighting the Seven Years' War and thus no ship could be spared, the island of Mauritius being itself under threat of attack from British India. Castellan left Mauritius (Isle de France) to return to France in 1762 and never gave up hope to one day return to the Isle of Sand to save the Malagasy people.
The news of the castaway slaves got published and stirred the Parisian intellectual milieu; later, the episode was all but forgotten with the end of the Seven Years' War and the bankruptcy of the East India Company. In 1773, a ship passing close to Tromelin Island located the slaves and reported them to the authorities of Isle de France.
This sailor remained on Tromelin Island and, some time later, probably around 1775, built a raft on which he embarked with three men and three women, but which disappeared at sea. It was not until 29 November 1776, 15 years after the sinking, that Ensign Tromelin-Lanuguy, captain of the corvette Dauphine, reached Tromelin Island and rescued the survivors – seven women and an eight-month-old child.
He arrived at the island on 29 November 1776, and rescued eight stranded enslaved Malagasy people who had been on the island for 15 years. ==Description== Tromelin is situated in the Mascarene Basin and is part of the Iles Eparses.
This sailor remained on Tromelin Island and, some time later, probably around 1775, built a raft on which he embarked with three men and three women, but which disappeared at sea. It was not until 29 November 1776, 15 years after the sinking, that Ensign Tromelin-Lanuguy, captain of the corvette Dauphine, reached Tromelin Island and rescued the survivors – seven women and an eight-month-old child.
Maillart decided to baptize the child Jacques Moyse (Moses), on the day of his arrival in Port-Louis on 15 December 1776, and to rename his mother Eve (her Malagasy name was Semiavou) and to do the same with the child's grandmother, whom he called Dauphine after the name of the corvette that rescued them.
In 1954, France constructed a meteorological station and a landing strip on the island. It is a matter of dispute whether the building agreement transferred sovereignty of Tromelin from one to the other, and Mauritius claims the island as part of its territory, on the grounds that France has not retained its sovereignty over island in 1814 which was de facto part of the colony of Mauritius at the time of independence.
The fire was maintained for fifteen years, thanks to the wood from the wreck, the island being devoid of trees. A second expedition, organized in November 2008, did not reveal the burials observed in 1851 by an English naval officer.
In 1954, France constructed a meteorological station and a landing strip on the island. It is a matter of dispute whether the building agreement transferred sovereignty of Tromelin from one to the other, and Mauritius claims the island as part of its territory, on the grounds that France has not retained its sovereignty over island in 1814 which was de facto part of the colony of Mauritius at the time of independence.
Indeed, as early as 1959, even before independence, Mauritius informed the World Meteorological Organization that it considered Tromelin to be part of its territory.
The latter were decimated in 1986 by cyclone Erinesta. ===Important Bird Area=== The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of its significance as a seabird breeding site.
The results of the research were made public on 17 January 2007.
A co-management treaty was reached by France and Mauritius in 2010, but has not been ratified. Tromelin has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of , contiguous with that of Réunion.
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