The Archipelago

Fernando de Noronha is an example of environmental preservation, surviving side by side with the tourist activity. Unfortunately, with an inadequate infrastructure for tourism.

After a campaign led by environmentalist Jose Truda Palazzo Jr. in 1988, most of the archipelago was declared a National Park, with approximately 5.000 square miles, for the protection of a diversity of species. One animal is special: the spinner dolphins. They gather daily in Dolphin Bay - the best place in the world to observe these mammals.

This volcanic archipelago belongs, since 1988, to the state of Pernambuco and consist of 21 islands, islets and rocks, occupying an area of 14 square miles, situated in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Rio Grande do Norte. It is managed by a general manager appointed by the state government.

His main island, whose name is the same as archipelago, is the visible part of a submerged mountain chain, with an area of 10 square miles, lying 294 miles from Recife (PE) and 194 miles from Natal (RN). The base of this enormous volcanic formation is more than 4,000 meters deep and is 91% of the total area. Remarkable, also, the islands of Rata, Sela Gineta, Cabeluda (hairy), São José (St. Joseph) and the islets of Leão (Lion) and Viúva (widow). Studies indicate that the formation of the islands date from 2 to 12 million years ago.

The island had been discovered probably in 1500 by Gaspar de Lemos, or by an expedition which Duarte Leite mistakenly assigned command Fernão de Noronha, in 1501-1502. However, the first to describe the island was Americo Vespúcio, who participated in the expedition of Gonçalo Coelho.

The name (Fernando de Noronha) comes from the name of the archipelago's first owner, Fernão de Noronha, after donating from the Portuguese king D. Manuel I on February 16, 1504.

The place was raided a few times, notably in 1534 by the British, from 1556 until 1612 by the French in 1628 and 1635 by the Dutch, returning to the Portuguese control in 1700, to be regained by the French in 1736, and ultimately occupied by the Portuguese in 1737.

Read more...