Spratly Islands facts for kids

The Spratly Islands

The Spratly Islands are 100 small uninhabited islands in the South China Sea. A lot of fish are found around them so countries like China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam are interested in them. These countries share control of the islands but each of them want to take control of all or most of the islands.

Geographic and economic overview

The Spratly Islands were, in 1939, coral islets mostly inhabited by seabirds. Despite the Spratly Islands naturally consisting of 19 islands (see below), according to a Chinese 1986 source, the Spratly Islands consist of 14 islands or islets, 6 banks, 113 submerged reefs, 35 underwater banks and 21 underwater shoals.

The northeast part of the Spratlys is known as Dangerous Ground and is characterised by many low islands, sunken reefs, and degraded sunken atolls with coral often rising abruptly from ocean depths greater than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) – all of which makes the area dangerous for navigation.

The islands are all of similar nature; they are cays (or keys): sand islands formed on old degraded and submerged coral reefs.

The Spratly Islands contain almost no significant arable land, have no indigenous inhabitants, and very few of the islands have a permanent drinkable water supply.

Natural resources include fish, guano, oil and natural gas. Economic activity has included commercial fishing, shipping, guano mining, oil and gas exploitation, and more recently, tourism. The Spratlys are located near several primary shipping lanes.

In 1987, China installed a small military structure on Fiery Cross Reef on the pretext to build an oceanic observation station and install a tide gauge for the Global Sea Level Observing System. After a deadly skirmish with the Vietnamese Navy, China installed some military structures on more reefs in the vicinity of the Philippines and Vietnamese occupied islands and this led to escalating tensions between these countries and China over the status and "ownership" of reefs.

The islands and cays, listed in descending order of naturally occurring area, are:

#	Island name	in Atoll	Area (ha.)	Location	Currently occupied by	Reclaimed area
1	Itu Aba Island	Tizard Bank	46.00	10°23′N 114°21′E	Taiwan (Taiping Island)	~6ha
2	Thitu Island	Thitu Reefs	37.20	11°03′N 114°17′E	Philippines (Pagasa Island)
3	West York Island	West York Island	18.60	11°05′N 115°01′E	Philippines (Likas Island)
4	Spratly Island	Spratly Island	13.00	08°38′N 111°55′E	Vietnam (Trường Sa Island)
5	Northeast Cay	North Danger Reef	12.70	11°28′N 114°21′E	Philippines (Parola Island)
6	Southwest Cay	North Danger Reef	12.00	11°26′N 114°20′E	Vietnam (Song Tử Tây Island)	~8ha
7	Sin Cowe Island	Union Banks	08.00	09°52′N 114°19′E	Vietnam (Sinh Tồn Island)	~1ha
8	Nanshan Island	Nanshan Group	07.93	10°45′N 115°49′E	Philippines (Lawak Island)
9	Sand Cay	Tizard Bank	07.00	10°23′N 114°28′E	Vietnam (Son Ca Island)	~2.1ha
10	Loaita Island	Loaita Bank	06.45	10°40′N 114°25′E	Philippines (Kota Island)
11	Swallow Reef	Swallow Reef	06.20	07°22′N 113°50′E	Malaysia (Layang-Layang Reef)
12	Namyit Island	Tizard Bank	05.30	10°11′N 114°22′E	Vietnam (Nam Yet Island)
13	Amboyna Cay	Amboyna Cay	01.60	07°51′N 112°55′E	Vietnam (An Bang Island)
14	Grierson Reef	Union Banks	01.60	09°51′N 114°29′E	Vietnam
15	West London Reef	London Reefs	01.10		Vietnam
16	Central London Reef	London Reefs	00.88		Vietnam
17	Flat Island	Nanshan Group	00.57	10°49′N 115°49′E	Philippines (Patag Island)
18	Lankiam Cay	Loaita Bank	00.44	10°43′N 114°32′E	Philippines (Panata Island)

The total area of the archipelago's naturally occurring islands is 177 ha (440 acres) and 200 ha (490 acres) with reclaimed land.

Images for kids

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  A geographic map of Spratlys.

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  An 1801 map of the East Indies, South China Sea and area

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  An 1838 Unified Dai Nam map marking Trường Sa and Hoàng Sa, which are considered as Spratly and Paracel Islands by Vietnamese scholars; yet they share different latitude, location, shape and distance.

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  A striking large black and white British chart of the sea in northern Borneo, first issued in 1881 and corrected to 1935.

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  Territorial monument of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) on Southwest Cay, Spratly Islands, defining the cay as part of Vietnamese territory (tp Phước Tuy Province). Used since 22 August 1956 until 1975, when replaced by another one from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (successor state after the Fall of Saigon)

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  An ancient Heliotropium foertherianum on Spratly Island

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  Young Vietnamese residents of Spratly Island

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  A military cemetery for Vietnamese soldiers on Central London Reef

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  A view from Amboyna Cay

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  The Pearson Reef dock under Vietnam's administration