San Benedicto Island

San Benedicto (Spanish: Isla San Benedicto ) is an uninhabited volcanic island located in the Pacific Ocean, 386 km south of the southern tip of Baja California. It is the third largest and easternmost of belonging to Mexico Revillagigedo Islands and 51.5 kilometers from the neighboring island of Socorro. Politically, the island is a part of the Mexican state of Colima, whose coast it is far away than 600 km.

The second of the Revillagigedo Islands San Benedicto was first sighted on December 25, 1533 by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Grijalva on board the San Lázaro and baptized Inocentes. In 1542 she was discovered by Ruy López de Villalobos again and was named La Anublada. Especially in the 19th century, the island was visited by numerous researchers, including in 1811 by Alexander von Humboldt.

The island is 4.8 km long, 2.4 km wide and has an area of ​​6.124 km ². The entire southern part of the island is occupied by the 332 m high volcano Barcena, whose date last eruption began on August 1, 1952 and ended only on 24 February 1953. Since this outbreak, which almost destroyed the entire vegetation of the island, including the endemic San Benedicto Rock Wren ( Salpinctes exsul obsoletus ) is considered extinct.

San Benedicto is part of the Biosphere Reserve, created in 1994 Reserve of the Biosphere " Archipelago de Revillagigedo " and popular with divers because of the numerous there occurring hammerheads ( Sphyrnidae ) or particularly large manta ray (Manta birostris ).

San Benedicto came several times for illegal net fishing - environmental groups also speak of the massacre of sharks and manta rays - in the headlines. In March 2002, therefore, an absolute ban on fishing for the entire archipelago was imposed and mandated the Socorro stationed on naval units to the enforcement of the ban.