The Aldabra Island, the Lagoon and the Sea

Aldabra Island is one of the most beautiful islands of the Seychelles. This curious island is the most picturesque and a popular destination for photographers and nature lovers.

Aldabra Island in thousands of shows we can find the true nature of the region. The island is actually one of the largest coral atolls surfaces, in whose center is one of the largest lagoons in the world. Therefore, the circular island gives the impression that earth is a circle in the middle of a sea in the middle of a tropical ocean. The beauty of the region is enough to leave you breathless and in love with this little paradise on earth.

The island is famous for preserving one of the most interesting ecosystems. Thousands of species of wildlife roam the island, and even some animals are unique. This island is the last natural habitats for giant Aldabra tortoises, of which there are still about 150,000, who coincidentally is considered the unofficial symbol of all the Seychelles. The island was even proclaimed “the only living natural museum” by the renowned biologist Sir Julian Huxley, and the island was well preserved until, in 1991, finally opened to the public. The island is also a World Heritage Site.

Aldabra Island is the ideal place for those who are interested in diving or snorkeling, for biologists and ornithologists and naturalists and photographers. Here one can stroll around the island, swimming in the enormous gap that lies within the island, see the curious and almost unique in the world “coral trees and swim in the clear waters of the tropical ocean. Moreover, one can see thousands of animals, including Aldabra tortoises like the green turtle and hawksbill turtles, fish such as barracuda and others in their natural habitat. To reach the island, one must hire a boat for tourists and visitors from the biggest island of Seychelles, Mahé, and you can surf the Indian Ocean to reach this gem of the ocean.

American Samoa

American Samoa (Samoan: Amerika Sāmoa or Sāmoa Amelika) is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa (formerly known as Western Samoa). The main (largest and most populous) island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll, and Swains Island also included in the territory.
American Samoa is part of the Samoan Islands chain, located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group. The 2000 census showed a total population of 57,291 people.[1] The total land area is 200.22 km2 (77 sq mi), slightly more than Washington, D.C. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States.

Micronesian Island

Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines and Indonesia lie to the west.
The name Micronesia derives from the Greek mikros (μικρός), meaning small, and nesos (νῆσος), meaning island. The term was first proposed to distinguish the region in 1831 by Jules Dumont d'Urville.


HISTORY

The only empire known to have originated in Micronesia was based in Yap. Much of the area was to come under European domination quite early. Guam, the Northern Marianas, and the Caroline Islands (what would later become the FSM and Palau) were colonized early by the Spanish. These island territories were part of the Spanish East Indies and governed from the Spanish Philippines from the early 17th century until 1898. Full European expansion did not come, however, until the early 20th century, when the area would be divided between:
the United States, which took control of Guam following the Spanish-American War of 1898, and colonized Wake Island;
Germany, which took Nauru and bought the Marshall, Caroline, and Northern Mariana Islands from Spain; and
the British Empire, which took the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati).
During the First World War, Germany's Pacific island territories were taken from it and became League of Nations Mandates in 1923. Nauru became an Australian mandate, while Germany's other territories in Micronesia were given as a mandate to Japan and were named the South Pacific Mandate. This remained the situation until Japan's defeat in the Second World War, when its mandate became a United Nations Trusteeship ruled by the United States, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
Today, most of Micronesia consists of independent states, with the exceptions of Guam and Wake Island, which are U.S. territories, and the Northern Mariana Islands, which form a U.S. Commonwealth.

French Southern and Antarctic Lands

The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, abbreviated TAAF), full name Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Territoire des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises), consist of:

1. group of volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa, approximately equidistant between Africa, Antarctica and Australia;

2.Adélie Land, the French claim on the Antarctica continent;

3.the Scattered islands in the Indian Ocean.

The territory is also often called the French Southern Lands (French: Terres australes françaises) or French Southern Territories, which excludes Adélie Land where French sovereignty is not recognized internationally.[2] The lands are not connected to France Antarctique, a former French colony in Brazil.

The territory has no permanent population ; the population consists of military personnel, civilian officials, scientific researchers and support staff. Some of the territory's exclusive economic zone is of great importance for fishing.

northern mariana islands

\

The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), is a commonwealth in political union with the United States, occupying a strategic region of the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of fifteen islands about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines, at 15°1′2″N 145°4′5″E. The United States Census Bureau reports the total land area of all islands as 179.01 square miles (463.63 km2).
The Northern Mariana Islands has a population of 80,362 (2005 estimate). The official 2000 census count was 69,221.[2] More than 90% of the population lives on the island of Saipan. Of the fourteen other islands, only two - Tinian and Rota - have a significant population. The islands of Agrihan and Alamagan have fewer than ten residents each, and the remaining islands are unpopulated.
The Commonwealth's center of government is in the village of Capitol Hill on Saipan. As the island is governed as a single municipality, most publications name Saipan as the Commonwealth's capital.

Hamoa Beach

All are fine Hawaii beaches worthy of the top spot.

But because they made the top spot, each is now ineligible for inclusion on future Dr. Beach lists.

The result of these exclusions, of course, is an annual America's Best Beaches list that grows more irrelevant and inaccurate with each passing year.

Hanalei and Hamoa were the only two Hawaii beaches included on Dr. Beach’s Top 10 list last year, as well. Does that mean the doc’s running out of Hawaii beaches eligible for the list? Will Hamoa be the only Hawaii beach on the 2010 list?

We’re happy Hanalei was recognized as one of the best beaches in the U.S.—its two-mile crescent of white sand cradling Hanalei Bay is truly one of the most beautiful in the state.