The Los Roques islands are a federal dependency

Federal dependencies of Venezuela

The Federal Dependencies of Venezuela encompass all of Venezuela's off shore islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Venezuela...

 of Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, consisting of about 350 island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s, cay

Cay

A cay , also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island formed on the surface of coral reefs. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans , where they provide habitable and agricultural land for hundreds of thousands of people...

s or islet

Islet

An islet is a very small island.- Types :As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of "isle", use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability....

s. The archipelago is located 80 miles (128 km) directly north of the port of La Guaira

La Guaira

La Guaira is the capital city of the Venezuelan state of Vargas and the country's chief port. It was founded in 1577 as an outlet for Caracas, to the southeast. The town and the port were badly damaged during the December 1999 floods and mudslides that affected much of the region...

, and is a 40-minute flight, has a total area of 40.61 square kilometres.
Being almost an untouched coral reef

Coral reef

Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...

, it attracts many "high-end" visitors, especially from Europe, some of whom come in their own yachts and anchor in the inner, protected shallow waters. However, development and tourism are controlled.

Because of the wide variety of seabirds and rich aquatic life

Aquatic ecosystem

An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem in a body of water. Communities of organisms that are dependent on each other and on their environment live in aquatic ecosystems. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems....

, the Venezuelan government declared the Islas Los Roques a National Park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 in 1972.

Demographics

It is scarcely populated, having about 1,500 permanent inhabitants; however it receives approximately 70,000 visitors a year, many of them day-visitors who come from Caracas

Caracas

Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

 and the mainland.

Geography

The Islas Los Roques have an atoll structure, with two external barriers formed by coral communities, too, an inner lagoon and sandy shallows. This park consists of 40.61 km ², 1500 km ² of coral reefs, 42 coral cays of origin surrounding a central lagoon of 400 km ² and shallow waters, 2 barrier reef (24 km east and south of 32 km) and 300 sand banks, islands and cays, ranging from a considerable area, as Cayo Grande de 15,1 km ², to the Gran Roque is only 1.7 km ² (170 hectares) in extent.

Infrastructure

The most important island is El Gran Roque. It is the only populated island in the group and has an airport suitable for small or STOL

STOL

STOL is an acronym for short take-off and landing, a term used to describe aircraft with very short runway requirements.-Definitions:There is no one accepted definition of STOL and many different definitions have been used by different authorities and nations at various times and for a myriad of...

 aircraft, Los Roques Airport

Los Roques Airport

- Incidents and accidents :*On 4 January 2008 at 14:08 UTC a Transaven airlines Let L-410UVP-E3 on a scheduled domestic flight from Simón Bolívar International Airport, serving Caracas, to Los Roques Airport, reported that it had lost power in both engines at and was descending...

, with freshly repaved RWY 07/25 (1000 × 26 meters). The airport is controlled from the Maiquetía

Maiquetía

Maiquetía is a city in the Vargas state of Venezuela, near Caracas.Simón Bolívar International Airport, which handles both international and domestic flights, is located in the city....

 airport on the mainland. Other important islands are Francisqui, Nordisqui, Madrisqui and Crasqui.

Area attractions

Activities include fishing (bonefish

Bonefish

The bonefish is the type species of the Albulidae family, or bonefishes in order Albuliformes. It is amphidromous, living in inshore tropical waters, moving onto shallow mudflats to feed with the incoming tide, and retreating to deeper water as the tide ebbs...

, barracuda

Barracuda

The barracuda is a ray-finned fish known for its large size and fearsome appearance. Its body is long, fairly compressed, and covered with small, smooth scales. Some species could reach up to 1.8m in length and 30 cm in width...

, tarpon

Tarpon

Tarpons are large fish of the genus Megalops. There are two species of Megalops, one native to the Atlantic, and the other to the Indo-Pacific oceans.They are the only members of the family Megalopidae.- Species and habitats :...

, jack (Carangidae

Carangidae

Carangidae is a family of fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, and scads.They are marine fish found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans...

) and Spanish mackerel

Spanish mackerel

Spanish mackerel may refer to:* Chloroscombrus chrysurus* Elagatis bipinnulata* Schedophilus maculatus* Scomber japonicus* Scomberomorus brasiliensis* Scomberomorus cavalla* Scomberomorus commerson* Scomberomorus guttatus...

), birding, snorkeling

Snorkeling

Snorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn...

, diving, paddling, windsurfing

Windsurfing

Windsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a...

 and kitesurfing

Kitesurfing

Kitesurfing or Kiteboarding is an adventure surface water sport that has been described as combining wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport. Kitesurfing harnesses the power of the wind to propel a rider across the water on a small surfboard or a...

, and there is a sea turtle research center located on Dos Mesquises. Accommodations include Pez Raton Lodge, a property primarily used to host fishing guests, and Posada Mediterraneo, a five-room inn which accommodates non-fishing guests and dozens more like El Canto de la Ballena and Posada La Terraza..

History

These islands had been sighted by early European navigators and in 1589 the then governor of the Venezuelan province ordered the formal takeover of these islands on behalf of the colony.
The Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 considered Los Roques to belong to their island territory of Curaçao

Curaçao

Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

 because of its proximity to Bonaire which also belonged to the Dutch. The author M.D. Teenstra in 1836 still writes (in his book "The Dutch West Indies"): The Government of Curaçao also includes the uninhabited islets and rocks Little Curaçao, Aves, Roques and Orchilla. In 1871 the then president Antonio Guzmán Blanco

Antonio Guzmán Blanco

Antonio Leocadio Guzmán Blanco was President of Venezuela for three separate terms, from 1870–1877, from 1879–1884, and from 1886–1887....

created by decree the Territorio Colón (Columbus territory) which included Los Roques and other adjacent islands. The island of Gran Roque was named as the center of territory government.

External links

National Park Institute, Venezuela