"Tomas Cloma, owner of a Philippine fishing vessel company, and director of the Philippine Maritime Institute, declared the founding of the new municipality called """"Kalayaan"""" (). He ""found"" the islands while he, with his brothers and 40 crew, were ""adventuring"" in the South China Sea. Observing that there was no human settlement, nor national flag, present on them, he decided to establish the Kalayaan municipality. He posted a document in English, entitled ""Notice to the Whole World"", on all features he claimed. His claim comprises about fifty features among the Spratly group. In September 1956, after the Republic of China"
"the second largest destroyer class in the world after the American Zumwalt-class destroyer. The Spratly Islands dispute is a territorial dispute over the ownership of the Spratly Islands, a group of islands located in the South China Sea. States staking claims to various islands are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and People's Republic of China. All except Brunei occupy some of the islands in dispute. The People's Republic of China conducted naval patrols in the Spratly Islands and established a permanent base. On 14 March 1988, Chinese and Vietnamese naval forces clashed over Johnson South Reef in the Spratly"
"Cornwallis South Reef Cornwallis South Reef is a coral atoll reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. It covers an area of about 10 km by 5 km, and is entirely submerged at high tide. The reef is controlled by Vietnam, but is claimed by China as part of its claim to the entire Spratly Islands. In 2009, Vietnam, in a submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, accepted that its continental shelf did not include Cornwallis and therefore they have no entitlement to exploit it. The reef has been subjected to"
"Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Scotland, named for the River Clyde which empties into it. It encloses the largest and deepest coastal waters in the British Isles, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran. Within the Firth of Clyde is another major island – the Isle of Bute. Given its strategic location, at the"
"Spratly group. Both Malaysia and Vietnam are two of several countries asserting claims over the islands and waters of the area. Because of the uncertainty, no maritime border agreement exists for the area. Malaysia claims a portion of the South China Sea together with 11 islands and other marine features in the Spratly group on the basis that they are within its continental shelf. Brunei, China, the Philippines and Vietnam also have overlapping claims over the entire or a portion of the area claimed by Malaysia. Malaysia currently occupies one island - Swallow Reef or Pulau Layang-Layang - five reefs"
"map dated as early as 1279 is the basis for the claim of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. They argue that the area was historically used by their fishermen. The Spratly Islands are a group of islands, reefs, and rocks located about 300 kilometers West of Aborlan, Palawan. The Philippines, along with the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Brunei expressed claims. The Philippines officially staked a claim to some of the islands during the United Nations convention, although it was first expressed in 1956, when Tomás Cloma, a Philippine"
"Second Thomas Shoal Second Thomas Shoal (also known as Ayungin Shoal in the Philippines, Bãi Cỏ Mây in Vietnam, and 仁爱礁 in China) is a shoal/atoll in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, west of Palawan, Philippines. Claimed by several nations, the shoal is currently militarily occupied by the Philippines. The shoal is one of three named after Thomas Gilbert, captain of the : Located south-east of Mischief Reef (), Second Thomas Shoal is near the centre of Dangerous Ground in the north-eastern part of the Spratly Islands; there are no settlements north or east of it. It"
"the Spratlys, which includes the uninhabited Louisa Reef. The Spratly Islands were, in 1939, coral islets mostly inhabited by seabirds. Despite the Spratly Islands naturally consisting of 18 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, 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 – all of which makes the area dangerous for"
"text, ""Haiyu"" (海語, On the Sea), uses ""Wanli Changsha"" (萬里長沙) for Spratly and noted that it is located southeast of ""Wanli Shitang"" (Paracels). When the Ming Dynasty collapsed, the Qing dynasty continued to include the territory in maps compiled in 1724, 1755, 1767, 1810, and 1817, but did not officially claim jurisdiction over these islands. A Vietnamese map from 1834 also combines the Spratly and Paracel Islands into one region known as ""Vạn Lý Trường Sa"", a feature commonly incorporated into maps of the era () ‒ that is, the same as the aforementioned Chinese island name ""Wanli Changsha"". According"
"arbitrator ruled on 4 April 1928 that the island forms in its entirety a part of Netherlands territory. The ""Spratly Islands"", also known as the ""Kalayaan Islands"", are a group of more than 650 reefs, islets, atolls, cays and islands in the South China Sea between the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam. They comprise less than five square kilometers of land area, spread over more than 400,000 square kilometers of sea. A number of sovereignty disputes regarding these islands have arisen, some of which remain unresolved . ""Sabah"" is a Malaysian state located on the northern portion of the"
"Scapa Flow Scapa Flow ( or ; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. Its sheltered waters have been used by ships since prehistory and it has played an important role in travel, trade and conflict throughout the centuries - especially during both World Wars. A consultation in ballast water management in 2013 measured the commonly used Harbour Authority definition of Scapa Flow at and just under 1 billion cubic metres of water. Since the post-World War I scuttling of the German fleet at"
"Amboyna Cay Amboyna Cay, also known as An Bang Island, (, , ; ) and other names is an island of the Spratly Islands group in the South China Sea located just outside (SW) of the southwest of Dangerous Ground. It is SW of Barque Canada Reef, south of the London Reefs, and NW of Swallow Reef. With an area of , it is the thirteenth largest naturally occurring Spratly island, and the sixth largest amongst those occupied by Vietnam. The island has two parts: the east part consists of sand and coral, and the west part is covered with"
"of the Spratly Islands. Outside the border defined by a 1995 agreement, there is still no formal agreement between Malaysia and Singapore to delimit their common borders and this has resulted in several overlapping claims. Singapore claims a three-nautical-mile (6 km) territorial sea limit, while Malaysia claims a territorial sea limit. Following the International Court of Justice decision on 23 May 2008 on the sovereignty of Pedra Branca which gave the island to Singapore, the new portion of the Malaysia-Singapore maritime border around the island will also need to be determined. The island lies from the easternmost point of Singapore,"
"are claimed as territorial waters by multiple nations including China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. On 23 January 2017, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said ""It's a question of if [the Spratly Islands] are in fact in international waters and not part of China proper, then yeah, we're going to make sure that we defend international territories from being taken over by one country."" On 4 February, on a visit to Japan, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis reaffirmed Washington's commitment under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan to defending Japan, including"
"of the Sea (UNCLOS). However, the Philippines filed claim for another underwater feature, the Benham Plateau, in 2008 in compliance with the requirements of UNCLOS and UN officially approved the claim in April 2012. Macclesfield Bank Macclesfield Bank is an elongated sunken atoll of underwater reefs and shoals in the South China Sea. It lies east of the Paracel Islands, southwest of the Pratas Islands and north of the Spratly Islands. Its length exceeds southwest-northeast, with a maximal width of more than . With an ocean area of within the outer rim of the reef, although completely submerged without any"
"Macclesfield Bank Macclesfield Bank is an elongated sunken atoll of underwater reefs and shoals in the South China Sea. It lies east of the Paracel Islands, southwest of the Pratas Islands and north of the Spratly Islands. Its length exceeds southwest-northeast, with a maximal width of more than . With an ocean area of within the outer rim of the reef, although completely submerged without any emergent cays or islets, it is one of the largest atolls of the world. The Macclesfield Bank is part of what China calls the Zhongsha Islands, which includes a number of geographically separate submarine"
"the Philippines also have overlapping claims over the continental shelf and islands in the Spratly Islands area of the South China Sea. China/Taiwan and Vietnam also claim the entire Spratly Islands area as part of their territory and territorial waters while a small portion of the area of overlapping claim by Malaysia and the Philippines is also claimed by Brunei. Malaysia bases its claim on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea's rule. In 1979, it published a territorial sea and continental shelf map depicting its claim over the area. The Philippines claim results in the boundary"
"Union Banks Union Banks is a large drowned atoll in the center of Dangerous Ground in the Spratly Islands in South China Sea, west of the Philippine coast, containing islands and reefs whose ownership remains disputed and controversial. The closest atoll is Tizard Bank, due north of Union Banks. There are only two natural islands on the rim of the reef, Sin Cowe Island and Sin Cowe East Island. The atoll is long from Johnson South Reef in the southwest to Whitson Reef in the northeast, and up to wide. Its total area measures . The central lagoon is up"
"Celtic Sea The Celtic Sea (; ; ; ; ) is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the south coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as well as adjacent portions of Wales, Cornwall, Devon, and Brittany. The southern and western boundaries are delimited by the continental shelf, which drops away sharply. The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago of small islands in the sea. The Celtic Sea receives its name from the Celtic heritage of the bounding lands to the"
"had caused ""severe harm to the coral reef environment"". It also characterized Taiping Island and other features of the Spratly Islands as ""rocks"" under UNCLOS, and therefore are not entitled to a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. China however rejected the ruling, calling it ""ill-founded"". Taiwan, which currently administers Taiping Island, the largest of the Spratly Islands, also rejected the ruling. South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Karimata and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around . The sea carries"
"have been established in seven localities in the southwestern Spratlys and on the continental shelf at: A total of 20 rigs have been built on the continental shelf in waters of depth from 7m (DK1/3) to 25m (DK1/15), from 1989 to 1998. Currently (2015) there are a total of 15 rigs in use. Facilities include 8 helicopter pads, 4 lighthouses, and a meteorological observatory. There are 14 rigs in the Spratly Islands, and one (DK1/10) in Ca Mau Shoals off the southwest coast of Vietnam. The current (2015) cluster has 3 rigs in use. The current (2015) cluster has 4"
"Fair Isle Channel The Fair Isle Channel, also known as the Fair Isle Gap, is a body of water in northwest Scotland in the North Sea separating the Orkney Islands from the Shetland Islands. It is so named because of the presence of the Fair Isle, one of the Shetland Islands, which is located near its center. The Fair Isle Channel is believed to be one of the bodies of water used by the Spanish Armada in 1588 during its attempt to return to Spain following the Battle of Gravelines. Several of the Armada's ships became stragglers once this channel"
"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"
"Spratly Islands as included in their own territory. On 11 June 1978, President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines issued Presidential decree No. 1596, declaring the north-western part of the Spratly Islands (referred to therein as the Kalayaan Island Group) as Philippine territory. The once abundant fishing opportunities within the region are another motivation for claims. In 2012, the South China Sea was believed to have accounted for 12% of world fishing catches worth $21.8 billion. There have been many clashes in the Philippines with foreign fishing vessels (including those of the PRC) in disputed areas. According to some commentators, the"
"this MPA. The Gully (Atlantic) The Gully is a large underwater canyon in the Atlantic Ocean near the edge of the eastern continental shelf of North America. It is located east of Nova Scotia near Sable Island. The Gully is 40 km long and 16 km wide and reaches depths of over 1 km. It is home to a resident population of Northern Bottlenose Whale, Purple sunstarfish and deep-sea coral. Other species of whales, dolphins, fish, squid and shrimp also live there. In 2004, Canada designated The Gully a Marine Protected Area. Fisheries and Oceans Canada prohibit oil and gas"
"its official sovereignty claim to the disputed territories in the South China Sea. In addition to the People's Republic of China and Vietnam, the Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan), Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines also claim and occupy some islands. Taiwan claims all the Spratly Islands, but occupies only one island and one shelf including Taiping Island. Malaysia occupies three islands on its continental shelf. The Philippines claim most of the Spratlys and call them the Kalayaan Group of islands, and they form a distinct municipality in the province of Palawan. The Philippines, however, occupy only eight islands. Brunei claims"
"Islands dispute and Oil, gas and SC72 below - and exploitation of the hydrocarbon reserves by the Philippines have been suspended for some years. The bank is in the northeast quadrant of the Philippine's Kalayaan claimed territory, which also includes most of the north and east portions of the Spratly Islands. The area is located off the west coast of Palawan, north of Iroquis reef and the Southern reefs, and east of the northern part of the Spratly Islands. The nearest occupied parts of the Spratly Islands are Philippine-occupied Flat Island, Nanshan Island and Second Thomas Shoal, and the PRC-occupied"
"Scotia Sea The Scotia Sea is a sea located at the northern edge of the Southern Ocean at its boundary with the South Atlantic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Drake Passage and on the north, east, and south by the Scotia Arc, an undersea ridge and island arc system supporting various islands. The sea sits atop the Scotia Plate. It is named after the expedition ship ""Scotia"". The Scotia Sea is the area of water between the Drake Passage, Tierra del Fuego, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, the South Orkney Islands, and the Antarctic Peninsula."
"islets it claims in Louisa Reef. Brunei does not practice military control in the area. Brunei's claims to the reef are based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Brunei states that the southern part of the Spratly Islands chain is actually a part of its continental shelf, and therefore a part of its territory and resources. Malaysia claims a small number of islands in the Spratly Islands and its claims cover only the islands included in its Exclusive economic zone of 200 miles as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of"
"However, in the Spratlys, the sea floor drastically changes its depth, and near the Philippines, the Palawan Trough is more than 5,000 metres deep. Also, there are some parts that are so shallow that navigation becomes difficult and prone to accidents. The sea floor contains Paleozoic and Mesozoic granite and metamorphic rocks. The abysses are caused by the formation of the Himalayas in the Cenozoic. Except one volcanic island, the islands are made of coral reefs of varying ages and formations. These islands listed here compose the South China Sea Islands ecoregion, in the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests"
"The Gully (Atlantic) The Gully is a large underwater canyon in the Atlantic Ocean near the edge of the eastern continental shelf of North America. It is located east of Nova Scotia near Sable Island. The Gully is 40 km long and 16 km wide and reaches depths of over 1 km. It is home to a resident population of Northern Bottlenose Whale, Purple sunstarfish and deep-sea coral. Other species of whales, dolphins, fish, squid and shrimp also live there. In 2004, Canada designated The Gully a Marine Protected Area. Fisheries and Oceans Canada prohibit oil and gas exploration within"
"to deep. Union Banks consists of the following islands and reefs, clockwise starting in the southwest corner: Key: yellow = occupied by PRC; violet = occupied by Vietnam <div style=""float:left""> Union Banks Union Banks is a large drowned atoll in the center of Dangerous Ground in the Spratly Islands in South China Sea, west of the Philippine coast, containing islands and reefs whose ownership remains disputed and controversial. The closest atoll is Tizard Bank, due north of Union Banks. There are only two natural islands on the rim of the reef, Sin Cowe Island and Sin Cowe East Island. The"
"Louisa Reef Louisa Reef (also known as ""Nantong Jiao"" () in China and ""Terumbu Semarang Barat Kecil"" in Brunei Malay) is a coral atoll in the southern reaches of the Spratly Islands. The reef is oval in shape, approximately 1.5 km east to west and 0.5 km north to south. While most of Louisa Reef is submerged, some portions emerge at low tide and a few small rocks remain above water even at high tide. The atoll rises as deeply undercut walls and steep slopes from very deep water with extensive stony and soft corals. A navigation beacon is at"