ABSTRACT
Navassa Island is located in the Jamaica Channel, south of the Windward Passage choke point between Cuba and Haiti. They have potential military significance and, given the size of their potential EEZs, economic importance. There are regular flag-waving landings by the US Coast Guard. Under an Act of Congress of 1860, the USA claimed Navassa as a guano island and, during World War II, a lighthouse was constructed there. Guano results from the concentration of seabird droppings and is a source of phosphate, a key agricultural fertiliser. A crew from the Haitian national television service was in evidence and the Haitian Communications Authority allocated the island a Haitian radio-call prefix, to replace its American prefix. The occupiers were arrested by US marines and flown off the island. The Windward Passage is an important choke point for the movement of strategic materials, particularly bauxite and alumina to the east coast of the USA from the Caribbean.
