Morant Cays
Encyclopedia
SSE
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off Morant Point
Morant Point
Morant Point in the Parish of St. Thomas is the easternmost point of mainland Jamaica and the site of Morant Point Lighthouse.-History:It is called Cape Morante on several early maps including one dated 1572. It has had the name Morant Point since at least 1671.-External links:*...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. They are one of two offshore island groups belonging to Jamaica, the other ones being the Pedro Cays. They are located at 17°24′N 75°59′W and consist of four small islets grouped closely together along the southeastern rim of Morant Bank a comparatively extensive crescent-shaped bank of coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
, over 7 km long, rising from 1000 m. The area of Morant Bank is about 100 km². The aggregate land area of the four cays is only 16.0 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s or 39.5 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s. Morant Cays are low-lying, mostly uninhabited, seasonally visited by fishermen, and fronted by highly exposed reefs over which the sea constantly breaks. The islands have sparse vegetation and are a seabird rookery and turtle nesting area.
The cays were annexed in 1862 by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and added to Jamaica in 1882.
Seabird eggs and guano are collected periodically.
Islets
North-East Cay , at 17°25′N 75°59′W, is sometimes divided into three parts, the sea washing over the connecting sand spits. There is a fishermen's camp, established by the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture, with several huts and a water tank on the south side of the cay. There is a lighthouseLighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
at Breezy Point, the easternmost point of the cay and of Jamaica.
North-West Cay
South-East Cay, at 17°23′N 76°00′W, lies 1.9 km SSW
SSW
SSW is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to:* South-SouthWest compass direction, see: Boxing the compass* SSW, the callsign of a TV station in the South West and Great Southern regions of Western Australia* St...
of North-East Cay. Sand spits, which extend from its ends, alter in shape with the seasons of the year; in summer the SW spit is washed away and deposited on the W side of the cay.
South-West Cay (South Cay), at 17°23′N 76°01′W, lies 1.6 km southwest of South-East Cay. A rocky ledge extending from the cay is used as a pier.