List of maritime features in the Spratly Islands



This page features a series of lists of maritime features in the Spratly Islands.

Features by area
Of the hundreds of maritime features in the Spratly Islands, relatively few have land permanently above sea-level that is larger than protruding rocks. There are only 13 islands and cays with a natural area above sea-level larger than one hectare. With the exception of Swallow Reef, prior to 2014 there had been no large-scale land reclamation beyond building breakwaters and piers, and extending runways.

This changed dramatically in 2014 with the PRC embarking on large-scale reclamations of the lagoons of Johnson South Reef (~10ha) and Fiery Cross Reef (~230ha), and other reclamations of then unknown extent at the Gaven Reefs and Cuarteron Reef. Reports of the extent of land reclaimed on Swallow Reef vary. The PRC land reclamations have continued on a total of seven sites. In 2015, Subi Reef, Hughes Reef and Mischief Reef were added. Refer to the table below for the most recently available data. In summary, there have been reclamations of very large areas (>640 acres = 1 sq mile) at three sites by the PRC, reclamations of large areas (10-100 acres) at eight sites (four by PRC, three by Vietnam, and one by Malaysia) and reclamations of lesser areas at a number of sites. There does not appear to have been any reclamation of Philippine occupied areas. There have been small Taiwanese reclamations at Itu Aba, very small but functionally significant reclamations at six Malaysian sites, and a number small but significant reclamations at Vietnamese sites in 2016, most particularly at Spratly Island where the runway has been extended and a sheltered harbour added.

The following table contains the 16 largest "natural" features, (i.e. not including reclaimed land), plus the features with significant amounts of reclaimed land:

Features by major reef/bank, etc.


The boundaries of the Spratly Islands are not firmly defined. West-to-east, the islands range from the coastal waters of Vietnam to the east of Dangerous Ground and the Palawan Passage (approx. 106-117°E), and south-to-north from the coastal waters of Borneo and the southern South China Sea to the north of Dangerous Ground and the Reed Bank (approx. 3-12°N).

The major feature of the area is Dangerous Ground, an oblong area approximately 340 nmi SW-NE, 175 nmi at its widest, with an area of about 52,000 nm² (178,000 km²). It lies approximately between 7.5–12°N, 113–117°E, and US NGA literature  etc. seems to consider its centre as 10°N, 115°W. The remainder of the Spratly Islands are mainly to the west and south of Dangerous Ground, with some features to the east.

The Spratly Islands can be roughly divided into seven sub-areas relative to Dangerous Ground:
 * NW of Dangerous Ground (approx. 10-12°N, 113-115°E)
 * NE Dangerous Ground   (approx. 10-12°N, 115-117°E)
 * SE Dangerous Ground   (approx.  7-10°N, 115-117°E)
 * SW Dangerous Ground   (approx.  7-10°N, 113-115°E)
 * E of Dangerous Ground (approx.  3-12°N, east of 117°E)
 * S of Dangerous Ground (approx.  3- 7°N, 113-117°E) and
 * W of Dangerous Ground (approx.  3-12°N, west of 113°E)

Within these sub-areas there are a number of major reefs and banks, as well as ungrouped maritime features.

Starting in the NW, and progressing in a generally SW direction, the features include:

Features by name
• ;A

• Amboyna Cay

• Ardasier Reef

• Ayungin Reef / shoal (Second Thomas)

• ;B

• Balagtas Reef (Irving Reef)

• Ban Than Reef (Zhongzhou Reef)

• Boji Jiao (Erica Reef)

• Bombay Castle

• ;C

• Calderon Reef (Cuarteron Reef)

• Celerio Reef (Swallow Reef)

• Central London Reef

• Chigua Reef (Johnson South Reef)

• Collins Reef (Johnson North Reef)

• Cuarteron Reef (Calderon Reef)

• ;D

• Dallas Reef

• Dangerous Ground

• Dongmen Reef (Hughes Reef)

• ;E

• East London Reef

• Enola Reef (Erica Reef)

• Erica Reef (Boji Jiao,Enola Reef, Gabriela Silang Reef, Terumbu Siput)

• ;F

• Fiery Cross Reef

• Flat Island (Patag Island)

• First Thomas Shoal

• ;G

• Gabriela Silang Reef (Erica Reef)

• Gaven Reefs / Gaven North Reef / Gaven South Reef

• ;H

• Half Moon Shoal

• Hardy Reef (Hubo Reef)

• Hubo Reef (Hardy Reef)

• Hughes Reef (Dongmen Reef)

• ;I

• Investigator Shoal (Pawikan Reef)

• Irving Reef (Balagtas Reef)

• Itu Aba (Ligao Island, Taiping Island)

• ;J

• James Shoal

• Johnson Reef:

• * Johnson North Reef (Collins)

• * Johnson South Reef (Chigua)

• ;K

• Kalayaan Islands / Kalayaan, Palawan

• Kota Island (Loaita)

• ;L

• Ladd Reef

• Lankiam Cay (Panata Island)

• Lawak Island (Nanshan Island)

• Layang Layang / Layang Layang Island (Swallow)

• Ligao Island (Itu Aba, Taiping Island)

• Likas Island (West York Island)

• Loaita Cay / Loaita Nan / Loaita Island (Kota)

• London Reefs

• Louisa Reef

• Luconia Shoals

• ;M

• Magat Salamat Reef (Pennsylvania South Reef)

• Mariveles Reef

• Menzies Reef

• Mischief Reef (Panganiban Reef)

• Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads

• ;N

• Namyit Island

• Nanshan Island (Lawak Island)

• North Danger Reef

• Northeast Cay (Parola Island)

• ;P

• Pagasa Island (Thitu Island)

• Panata Island (Lankiam Cay)

• Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef)

• Parola Island (Northeast Cay)

• Patag Island (Flat Island)

• Pawikan Reef (Investigator Shoal)

• Pennsylvania South Reef (Magat Salamat Reef)

• Pugad Island (Southwest Cay)

• ;R

• Recto Bank / Reed Bank / Reed Tablemount

• ;S

• Sabina Shoal

• Sand Cay

• Second Thomas Reef / Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin)

• Sin Cowe Island

• Southwest Cay (Pugad Island)

• Spratly Island / Storm Island

• Subi Reef

• Swallow Reef (Celerio, Layang Layang)

• ;T

• Taiping Island (Itu Aba, Ligao Island)

• Terumbu Siput (Erica Reef)

• Thitu Island (Pagasa Island)

• Third Thomas Shoal

• ;U

• Union banks

• ;W

• West London Reef

• West York Island (Likas Island)

• Western Reef

• Whitsun Reef

• ;Z

• Zhongzhou Reef (Ban Than Reef)

Features by occupier and/or claimant


A feature is occupied by a country if one of the following is true:


 * Soldiers and/or civilian citizens of a country are present in the feature, either by building structures over the feature to house the citizens (most features are of this type) or by manning a ship anchored over the feature (Philippine-occupied Irving Reef is of this type).
 * Regularly visited by soldiers of a country, not necessarily having soldiers present in it 24 hours. These features must lie near (within 9 mi) a feature occupied by the country in the way of the first condition. Presence of structures is not necessary. This is the case of Philippine-occupied Flat Island and Lankiam Cay where soldiers stationed at Nanshan Island and Loaita Island respectively, regularly visit on a daily basis.

The effective visible distance of horizon from a 15-meter (typical large structure) height above sea-level is 9 mi. This makes features occupied by the second condition to be also labeled as "occupied" since they can be guarded far away. However, not all features within the 9 mi radius can be considered as absolutely occupied. This is especially true for features that lie between and within 9 mi of two or more features occupied by different countries. (See Virtually Occupied or Controlled table)

Brunei Darussalam
Note that Louisa Reef was controlled by Brunei since 2009.

Malaysia
Note that the Royal Malaysian Navy have established 5 Offshore naval stations (Offshore EEZ Stations) on reclaimed land:


 * 1) 1983: Station Lima (Swallow Reef)
 * 2) 1986: Station Uniform (Ardasier Reef)
 * 3) 1986: Station Mike (Mariveles Reef)
 * 4) 1999: Station Sierra (Erica Reef)
 * 5) 1999: Station Papa (Investigator Shoal)