Victory Bank
Victory Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Northern Chagos Archipelago of the British Indian Ocean Territory, lying 10½ miles north-north-west of Nelson Island, the only island on the northern rim of the Great Chagos Bank. Île Boddam, one of the Salomon Islands, lies 10½ miles to the north.
This submerged atoll is roughly elliptical in shape, with a size of four miles east to west and two and a half miles north to south, and an area of about 7 square miles. It rises steeply from great depths. The lagoon is up to 108 feet deep, while the depth along much of the rim is only 18 feet.
Biodiversity
In 2021 the Living Oceans Foundation found that the Victory Bank had both a "high coral diversity" as well as high numbers of Millepora. The most common coral found is Acropora. Seagrass was intermixed within the reef, although its mass was less than 1% of the substrate.[1] It was also reported that despite a low diversity of fish, the Victory Bank holds the highest fish density (421.3 individuals/100 m2) and highest ratio of large fish to other fish. This is unlike other areas of the Great Chagos Bank.
Location
- Location map: 5°33’-0"S, 172°13’60"E
References
| Atolls of the Chagos Islands; British Indian Ocean Territory |
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Atolls with land area: |