Macclesfield Bank is an elongated sunken atoll of underwater reefs and shoals in the South China Sea. It lies east of the Paracel Islands, southwest of Pratas Island and north of the Spratly Islands. It is about long from southwest to northeast, and about wide at its broadest part. With an ocean area of it is one of the largest atolls in the world. The Macclesfield Bank is part of what China calls the Zhongsha Islands, which includes a number of geographically separate submarine features, and also refers to a county-level administrative division.
History Macclesfield banks reportedly were named after British ship named Macclesfield, though there is some ambiguity which vessel this was. By one account, the vessel was the British East India Company East Indiaman , which mapped and recorded the shoals in early 1701 on her way back to England from China. An alternative origin story attributes the name to an HMS Macclesfield that reportedly ran aground in the vicinity of these shoals in 1804.
In April 1888 , under the command of William Usborne Moore, with Percy Bassett-Smith as Surgeon-Naturalist, mapped the banks. They found a depth of inside the bank, with the rim rising to within of the surface. Dredging found live corals, showing that although entirely submerged, the bank was an actively growing reef.
Geography The broken coral reef rim of Macclesfield Bank, with a width of up to , has depths of at Pygmy Shoal on the northeast end of the bank and depths of 11.6 to elsewhere. Within the lagoon, Walker Shoal marks the least known depth of . In general, the central lagoon is very deep, with depths up to . While the bank is everywhere submerged, with no drying shoals, it is usually visible due to the turbulence it causes, the seas becoming "high and confused" in heavy weather.
The elongated atoll consists of the following shoals, clockwise starting in the northeast, and at the end the six named shoals in the lagoon:
EnglishName RomanizedNameChineseName Coordinatesleastdepth(fathoms)Pigmy (Pygmy) ShoalBiwei Ansha 比微暗沙7Engeria (Egeria) BankYinji Tan 隱磯灘10Howard ShoalWuyong Ansha 武勇暗沙10Learmonth ShoalJimeng Ansha 濟猛暗沙9Plover Shoal Haijiu Ansha 海鳩暗沙10Addington PatchAnding Lianjiao 安定連礁10Smith Shoal Meixi Ansha 美溪暗沙9Bassett ShoalBude Ansha 布德暗沙9Balfour ShoalBofu Ansha 波洑暗沙 or 波伏暗沙8Parry Shoal Paibo Ansha 排波暗沙8Cawston ShoalGuodian Ansha 果淀暗沙10Penguin BankPaihong Tan 排洪灘9Tancred ShoalTaojing Ansha 濤靜暗沙10Combe ShoalKongpai Ansha 控湃暗沙7Cathy (Cathay) ShoalHuaxia Ansha 華夏暗沙7Siamese Shoal Simen Ansha 西門暗沙 9Bankok ShoalBengu Ansha 本固暗沙7Magpie ShoalMeibin Ansha 美濱暗沙8Carpenter ShoalLuban Ansha 魯班暗沙8Oliver ShoalZhongbei Ansha 中北暗沙7Hardy Patches1Shitang Lianjiao 石塘連礁8Hand Shoal1Zhizhang Ansha 指掌暗沙9Margesson Shoal1Nanfei Ansha 南扉暗沙8Walker Shoal1Manbu Ansha 漫步暗沙5Phillip's Shoal1Lexi Ansha 樂西暗沙9Payne Shoal1Pingnan Ansha 屏南暗沙8 1 inside lagoon
Territorial claims
Macclesfield Bank is claimed, in whole or in part, by China and Taiwan (Republic of China).
Jose Zaide, a Filipino diplomat of ambassadorial rank, has written that the Philippines does not claim the Macclesfield Bank. Moreover, Macclesfield Bank is not within UNCLOS 200 or Philippines EEZ.
As the bank is entirely underwater, some scholars have raised questions regarding the legality of territorial claims upon it with regards to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). However, the Philippines filed claim for another underwater feature, the Benham Rise, in 2008 in compliance with the requirements of UNCLOS and UN officially approved the claim in April 2012.UN to decide on Phl claim on 13-M hectare Benham Rise , August 16, 2011, Philippine Star.UN approves PH territorial claim to Benham Rise , April 28, 2012, Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Notes
References
See also Sansha Scarborough Shoal South China Sea
External links Nautical Information ROC's home page Taiwanese List