Where Cortez angelfish has been recorded
GBIF occurrence records for Pomacanthus zonipectus, mapped and tabulated by country.
1,016 georeferenced occurrence records with coordinates are published for Pomacanthus zonipectus through GBIF, from 15 countries or marine areas. This page maps those records and lists where they come from. Occurrence records reflect where people have looked as well as where the species lives, so well-surveyed coastlines are over-represented.
- Georeferenced records
- 1,016
- Countries / areas
- 15
- Mapped locations
- 86
- Records sampled for the map
- 1,016
- Inland records omitted
- 51
- Gbif taxonkey
- 2396396
Geological Uniqueness in the Eastern Pacific
Clipperton Island occupies a singular position in Pacific geology. Situated at roughly ten degrees north and one hundred and nine degrees west, this 8.9-square-kilometre coral formation is the only point along the East Pacific Rise that has broken the ocean's surface. It is likewise the sole feature within the Clipperton fracture zone to emerge as land, and it stands among the very few Pacific islands that lack a surrounding underwater apron of connected seamounts. Because the island includes Clipperton Rock—a 29-metre outcropping that represents the remnant rim of an extinct volcano—scientists classify it as a near-atoll rather than a true atoll. The rest of the land ring sits at a mere two metres above sea level on average, with scattered grasses and a handful of coconut palm clumps as its only vegetation. Despite sitting relatively close to the Mexican coast, Clipperton is administratively tied to France's Indo-Pacific territories, and its marine communities more closely resemble those found around Hawaii and Kiribati's Line Islands than those of nearby Central America.
A Contested Rock and a Colony's Tragedy
French merchant-explorers first recorded the island in 1711, and by 1858 it had been formally incorporated into the French protectorate of Tahiti. American guano miners arrived in the early 1890s, and Mexico soon pressed its own claim, citing Spanish navigational records from the 1520s that may have identified the atoll. In 1905 Mexico established a small military colony on the island. The Mexican Revolution severed regular contact with the mainland, and starvation and disease killed most of the settlers. Lighthouse keeper Victoriano Álvarez seized power and ruled with brutal severity, styling himself king of the island. In 1917, eleven survivors were finally rescued, and Clipperton was abandoned. The sovereignty dispute between Mexico and France was submitted to binding international arbitration in 1909; King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy served as arbitrator and, in 1931, ruled the island French territory.
The Enclosed Lagoon and Its Strange Ecology
The atoll's ring completely encloses a lagoon that stretches twelve kilometres in circumference and covers roughly 720 hectares. Remarkably, this body of water is stagnant and nearly fresh at the surface, yet highly eutrophic, and it contains no fish at all. Seaweed beds blanket approximately forty-five percent of the lagoon floor, while a handful of deep basins plunge to between 43 and 72 metres. One of these, called Trou Sans Fond, holds acidic water at its base. Ten small islets dot the lagoon, six of them carrying vegetation, including a pair known as the Egg Islands. The land rim that separates the lagoon from the open sea averages 150 metres in width but narrows to just 45 metres in the north-east, where waves occasionally spill inward. Outside the lagoon, the 3.7-square-kilometre reef supports abundant coral life and hosts significant colonies of masked and brown boobies, making the site a focal point for ornithological and marine research.
Decades of Scientific Expeditions and Strategic Visits
Since the 1800s, researchers have returned to Clipperton to catalogue its wildlife and study its marine environment. The SURPACLIP expedition in 1997, a joint effort between Mexico's National Autonomous University and the University of New Caledonia, produced extensive ecological data. French geographer Christian Jost extended that work in 2001 through the French Passion expedition, examining how the island's ecosystem had shifted over time. In 2003, cinematographer Lance Milbrand spent forty-one days on the atoll, producing a GPS map for the National Geographic Society. A four-month mission led by Jean-Louis Étienne in 2005 completed a full inventory of mineral, plant, and animal species and investigated pollution effects down to 100 metres below sea level. In 2008, University of Washington oceanographers collected sediment cores from the lagoon to reconstruct a millennium of climate history. Beyond science, the island has hosted amateur radio DX-peditions, periodic French Navy visits, and—during World War II—a U.S. Navy weather station that operated from 1944 until late 1945.
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