Cachoro Beach, Fernando de Noronha

Several hundred kilometers off the eastern coast of Brazil, an east-west chain of volcanic mountains breaks the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The equatorial islands thus formed are known as the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago and Atol das Rocas.

Atol das Rocas is a biological reserve visited only by researchers. Fernando de Noronha has a small human population that welcomes a limited number of tourists. Both are important for migrating seabirds and nesting marine turtles.

Discovered by Portuguese explorer Americo Vespucio in 1503 and granted to its Portuguese lord namesake a year later, Fernando de Noronha has been used as a fort, a prison, a weather station and a military base. In 1839, it was a port-of-call for the historic Beagle expedition of Charles Darwin, which led to other researchers visiting the area.

The archipelago’s main island is long and narrow, approximately eight kilometers by three kilometers. It has an undulating profile rising to 321 meters above the waves at Morro do Pico, an isolated rock near the center of the north coast. Along the west coast, smooth rock cliffs drop onto sandy beaches rimmed with deep blue water.

Once forested, the island was cleared during the 19th century to prevent prisoners from building rafts. Secondary growth now blankets portions of the island. It is supplemented by vines and shrubs, making Fernando de Noronha green once again.

The main harbor is a beautiful bay filled with multicolored fishing boats. The road away from it climbs a small hill where it divides. To the right is Morro do Pico and the island’s largest community, Vila dos Remedios. To the left is a small church overlooking a sheltered bay, Buraco da Raquel, noted for its lemon sharks. Another bay, Baia dos Golfinhos, has the largest concentration of spinner dolphins in the world.

Fernando de Noronha Marine National Park, established in 1988, covers 113 square kilometers of the archipelago. It is home to various other sea creatures, including stingrays and mantas, jacks, barracudas, angelfish, squirrelfish and hammerhead sharks.

Often called the only atoll in the Atlantic, Atol das Rocas is considered by some experts to be misnamed because it is formed primarily by vermetids (tube worms) and coralline algae rather than by true corals. The reef is elliptical, having developed around the crater of a volcano. Its only permanently exposed sections are the two small islands of Farol and Cemiterio.

Taking its name from a series of large rocks, the atoll is low and barren in contrast to Fernando de Noronha. However, at low tide, it reveals a spectacular seascape of lagoons and tidal pools teeming with sea life. In 1979, it was the first site designated as a Brazilian Marine Protected Area.

Because of their distance from mainland Brazil and the presence of endemic species, Atol das Rocas and Fernando de Noronha have been classified as their own ecoregion. Among the plants and animals found only there are two lizards (mabuia and worm lizard), a wasp, a shrimp, a fish (sand stargazer), and a land bird (Noronha vireo).

However, it is the vast number of migratory seabirds for which the islands are known. The archipelago is home to the largest number of breeding birds in all the islands of the tropical South Atlantic. The atoll specifically shelters the largest breeding colonies of masked boobys and brown noddys in Brazil and the largest breeding colony of sooty terns in the South Atlantic.

Other seabirds that visit the islands include the black noddy, which builds its nest on the cliffs of Fernando de Noronha using algae collected from the surface of the ocean, and the fairy tern, a pure white bird that lays its eggs in the forks of tree branches.

The islands aren’t just for the birds, though. They are important for the conservation of endangered and threatened species of marine turtles. Atol das Rocas is Brazil’s second largest reproductive area for green turtles. Green turtles also reproduce at Fernando de Noronha, while juvenile hawksbill turtles use the archipelago for feeding and growth.

Based on their distinctive features and their importance as breeding grounds for seabirds and marine turtles, the Brazilian Atlantic Islands: Fernando de Noronha and Atol das Rocas were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.