Reef geology and biology of Navassa Island

Navassa is a small oceanic island (5.2km² in size) located ~30km west of the southwest tip of Haiti, 160km south of the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in the heart of the Windward Passage. Navassa was claimed in 1856 by the United States. Navassa has also been claimed by Haiti since its independence in 1825 and, prior to that, was considered part of colonial Haitian territory. The current Haitian constitution (1987) claims Navassa by name as Haitian territory (Wiener 2005). This disputed sovereignty is a basis of much resource management challenge.