evidence: The islands of Europa and Bassas da India lie in the Mozambique Channel near the southern end of Madagascar. Both are coralline islands, or atolls, and Europa is about 100 km southeast of Bassas da India. Europa, with 30 km2 of land area, is 6–7 km in diameter with a maximum altitude of 6 m. Its shallow lagoon (generally 1 m deep) is open to the sea at one side, and covers about 9 km2, including some 700 km2 of mangrove swamp that is particularly extensive to the south. The mangrove stands are important nursery grounds for sea turtles and sharks. [...] Europa Island is used as a stopover point for numerous bird species migrating between Africa and Madagascar. It is a breeding ground for 8 seabird species and approximately 760,000 breeding pairs of seabirds are found here including the endemic white-tailed tropicbird. Europa is significant as it hosts some of the last colonies of frigatebirds, red-footed boobies, and red-tailed tropicbirds which have experienced severe declines on most other West Indian Ocean islands. Other resident seabird populations include: brown booby, Caspian tern, sooty tern, and Audubon’s shearwater.