The vanished island

biko

Lawmakers in Mexico are trying to determine the whereabouts of island central to the country's oil claims, which appears literally to have dropped off the map about 10 years ago.

Bermeja island in the Gulf of Mexico -- a strategic marker defining US and Mexican maritime and subsea rights -- has disappeared along with documents backing up a bilateral treaty on major oil reserves in the area, fueling rumours of a CIA plot.

"There are two stories about how it disappeared: one is that global warming raised the sea level and it is under water," said Mexican lawmaker Elias Cardenas, of the Convergence Party.

"The other is that ... it was blown up by the CIA so that the United States would get the upper hand in Hoyos de Dona" -- the oil reserves area.

Low-lying Bermeja, a smallish 80 km2 (31 sq miles), until 30 years ago was the official land point from which Mexico set its 200 nautical-mile economic zone.

The Alacranes islands now are being used as the marker, sharply reducing Mexico's economic zone.

Would you like to know more?

bonkey

I've had a quick look around on the web and can't find anything verifying that this island ever existed.

The closest I got was here where there are some comments from various sources back to the early 1800s saying that although the island's position is supposedly known, no-one could find it when they looked for it.

Given that the CIA is the successor to the OSS, which itself was only founded in WW2, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that an island which has been missing for over 200 years was not blown up by an organisation founded just over 60 years ago.

I'd also point out that if you know where the island is supposed to be, then it would be trvial to go there and find out if:

a) There was a submerged island
or
b) There was a submerged mass, showing signs of explosive excavation.

I have a suspicion that this story is a load of hot air, even though its been picked up by some of the mainstream media.

I'm open to correction though...I'd love to see some evidence of the island's existence which post-dates 1800.

destroyer

Rockall could be next

KTRIC

Watching too much "Lost" ??

biko

According to Cuba's Communist Party Newspaper* the island has later documentation

"He stated that the island is situated 100 nautical miles north of Sisal, near the Arenas Cay, and can be found in the catalogue of Mexican islands written by Manuel Muñoz Lumbier in July of 1946 and edited by the Secretary of Public Education. Bermeja appears on Page 110 of this catalogue, with the latitude of 22º 33′ North and a longitude of 91º 22′ West.

It has also appeared in other documents, including Dr. Domingo Orvañanos’s 1889 Republic of Mexico’s Climatological and Medical Geography Essay, edited by the Promotion Secretary, which notes textually: "The islands of Alacranes, Bermeja, Arenas, Triángulo, Banco Nuevo and Arcasa are located between the most notable coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico, in the vicinity of the Yucatan Peninsula."

*I'm sure this alone will discredit anything in the eyes of many here.

bonkey

biko wrote: »

According to Cuba's Communist Party Newspaper* the island has later documentation

Agreed...and for those who don't like the source, please consider that all it is doing is reporting on teh existence of other sources which can themselves be independantly verified.

In these cases, however, it doesn't seem clear whether the authors of the works in question actually verified the existence of the island, or simply reported what was on earlier maps.

The cases on the site I linked to are accounts of people who actually failed to visually verify the island's existence for themselves....people who reported going to the noted latitude and longitude and finding nothing.

I'm not saying that the cases you mention didn't visually verify its existence....I'm merely questioning whether or not they did, as it offers a simple way to reconcile the differing accounts.

On one hand, we have seamen saying "we went there and didn't find anything". On the other hand we have authors saying "It is there", without clarifying whether they went there or just took their information from an older map.

At the very least, it offers a completley non-sinister possibility which cannot (yet) be ruled out.

Mahatma coat

A cursory glance at Google Earth reveals a lot of 'underwater?' features in that area on what seems to be a ridge line before an ocean shelf, tis feasible that there may have been a sand bank there at some point

I also found this

Cayo Arenas



about 28 Miles away from those coordinated


My Spanish is fairly sketchy but dosent that mean 'Sandy Island'