Declared, Then Corrected: The Chagos Reserve on Its Own Government's Website

The Traveler's Panel · checked 25 August 2026

Changing information. Prices, permits, seasons and road access change, sometimes at short notice. Everything here is a starting point for your own confirmation — not a quote, and not a guarantee. Verify with the operator and the relevant official body before you book.

Getting there — There is no gateway. Private yacht under a BIOT mooring permit, outer islands only — and permit consideration has been paused since 31 March 2026

1. There is no commercial flight to any island in the British Indian Ocean Territory and no civilian port. The BIOT Administration states plainly that the territory is not a tourist destination and that access to Diego Garcia is permitted only to those with connections to the military facility or to the Administration. Everything below concerns the outer atolls, which is the only part any visitor has ever lawfully seen.
2. The single civilian route is a mooring permit issued to a private yacht in transit. Permits cost GBP 250 per week from 1 July 2024, run for a maximum of 28 days, cover the outer islands only, take up to six weeks to process, cannot be extended or amended once issued, and cannot be transferred to a different crew. Charter vessels and cruise ships are not eligible at all.
3. Five anchorages are authorised in the entire archipelago: Ile Boddam and Ile Fouquet/Takamaka in Salomon atoll, and Ile Diamante, Ile du Coin and Fouquet in Peros Banhos. Each is defined by a bounding line rather than a point, and mooring elsewhere is an offence. Applicants must carry medical evacuation insurance of at least USD 100,000 per person plus wreck recovery and clean-up cover, documented in English.
4. Eight places are closed outright as Strict Nature Reserves under the Strict Nature Reserve Regulations 1998 — the Three Brothers and Resurgent Islands, Eagle Island, Cow Island, Danger Island, Nelson's Island, Petite Ile Bois Mangue, Ile Parasol, Ile Longue and Barton Point on Diego Garcia. It is an offence to approach within three nautical miles, to land or to anchor. The eastern portion of Peros Banhos is similarly restricted.
5. None of this is currently on offer. Since 31 March 2026 the Administration has paused substantive consideration of new applications for permits to enter the territory except in exceptional circumstances, because of ongoing litigation about the circumstances in which it may issue them at all. Applications made for the purpose of settlement will not be entertained until an appeal is determined.
6. Anyone still minded to plan should treat the whole question as unsettled rather than merely difficult. The treaty of 22 May 2025 would transfer sovereignty to Mauritius; its implementing bill has fallen; and until that is resolved neither the permit regime nor its successor can be relied on.

Indicative costs — verify before booking

What to pack

• A vessel genuinely capable of the passage, and the paperwork to match: the permit, the insurance documents in English, and the crew list exactly as approved, because crew changes after issue are not permitted.
• Satellite communications. Entry to and exit from the BIOT maritime zone and arrival at and departure from each anchorage must be reported in a set format by email or satellite phone.
• Complete self-sufficiency in water, fuel, food and medicine. There is no shop, no fuel dock, no clinic and no settlement on any island a permit holder may visit.
• Biosecurity discipline. Rats reached most of these islands from ships, and the eradication programme now under way exists to undo that; arriving with a stowaway would undo it again.
• The charts and the reserve boundaries together. The three-nautical-mile exclusion around each Strict Nature Reserve is a criminal boundary, not advisory.

Where to stay

There is nowhere to stay. Every island a permit holder may approach is uninhabited, and has been since the removals of 1967 to 1973; the only accommodation in the territory is on Diego Garcia, which is closed to anyone without a connection to the military facility or the Administration and which holds around 2,000 people, mostly UK and US personnel, officials and contractors. In practice a visitor lives aboard the yacht that brought them, within one of five authorised anchorages, for no more than 28 days, and leaves. The ruins at Ile Boddam and Ile du Coin — plantation settlements, a church, a cemetery, a jetty — are the nearest thing to a village anyone will see, and they are the physical record of the removals rather than a facility. The Administration protects such places by ordinance under the Environmental Protection (Historic Sites and Monuments) Ordinance 2019, which is worth reading as what it is: a conservation statute governing the remains of a community that was moved.

Safety & responsible travel

• Do not describe the reserve as an uncomplicated conservation success without the 2015 finding attached. The administering government publishes that finding on its own conservation page; repeating the triumph and omitting the correction is a choice, not an oversight.
• Do not use the reef science to settle the legal question, or the legal question to dismiss the science. The seabird and bleaching results are robust and were obtained inside this reserve; the tribunal's concern, on the words BIOT itself publishes, was with the manner of the declaration rather than its substance.
• Keep the Chagossians in the account. The Administration holds the registers of births, marriages and deaths on these islands from 1878 to 1971, and the reason the series stops is that the people it recorded were removed.
• Respect the Strict Nature Reserves absolutely, including the three-mile approach limit. Eleven rat-free islands hold over ninety per cent of roughly half a million breeding seabirds; those are the islands that are closed.
• Do not attempt to visit Diego Garcia, and do not photograph it from seaward. Unauthorised vessels and persons are prohibited, and the island is a working joint military facility.
• If a permit is refused or unanswered in 2026, take that as the answer. The pause is a legal position, not an administrative backlog.

Nearby, and quieter

Nothing is nearby. The archipelago sits alone in the central Indian Ocean; the Maldives lie to the north, and the maritime boundary between Mauritius and the Maldives across these waters was settled by a Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in judgments of 28 January 2021 and 28 April 2023 — proceedings in which a Law of the Sea court treated Mauritius, not the United Kingdom, as the relevant coastal State. Mauritius itself, which is where the sovereignty now formally sits on the unratified treaty of 22 May 2025, is roughly 2,000 kilometres to the south-west and is the only place from which any of this can be approached as a matter of ordinary travel. The Chagossian community, meanwhile, is not near the archipelago at all: it is in Mauritius, in the Seychelles and in Crawley, and the UK Government publishes a pre-departure information pack for British citizens of Chagossian descent considering relocation to the United Kingdom. That is the geography this story actually has.

Getting there, in order

• 1Diego Garcia (Ramsar Site No. 1077)
• ↓
• 2Nelson's Island (Strict Nature Reserve)
• ↓
• 3Three Brothers and Resurgent Islands (Strict Nature Reserve)
• ↓
• 4Eagle Island (Strict Nature Reserve)

Each leg is a separate booking and a separate chance to be weathered out. Build spare days into the chain, not onto the end of it.

Where it is

Chagos Archipelago and the BIOT Marine Protected Area, central Indian Ocean · 6.2000°S 71.8000°E · Open in Google Maps · OpenStreetMap

Key locations

• Diego Garcia (Ramsar Site No. 1077) — Ramsar coordinate 07 18 S 72 28 E; 35,424 ha designated 4 July 2001; closed to visitors
  7.3000°S 72.4667°E
• Ile Boddam, Salomon atoll — first coordinate of the BIOT authorised anchorage line, 5S 21.05 / 72E 12.51
  5.3508°S 72.2085°E
• Ile Diamante, Peros Banhos — first coordinate of the BIOT authorised anchorage line, 5S 15.17 / 71E 46.63
  5.2528°S 71.7772°E
• Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos — first coordinate of the BIOT authorised anchorage line, 5S 26.30 / 71E 45.52
  5.4383°S 71.7587°E
• Nelson's Island (Strict Nature Reserve) — BIOT published position 5 40.9 S 72 19.0 E; no approach within 3 nautical miles
  5.6817°S 72.3167°E
• Three Brothers and Resurgent Islands (Strict Nature Reserve) — BIOT published position 6 09.4 S 71 31.4 E; Great Chagos Bank
  6.1567°S 71.5233°E
• Eagle Island (Strict Nature Reserve) — BIOT published position 6 12.0 S 71 19.0 E; Great Chagos Bank
  6.2000°S 71.3167°E
• Danger Island (Strict Nature Reserve) — BIOT published position 6 23.3 S 71 14.4 E; Great Chagos Bank
  6.3883°S 71.2400°E

Coordinates are for orientation and are accurate to roughly the width of the feature named, not to a doorway. Several of these points are inside protected areas or need a permit, a guide or a boat — read the access notes above before you plan a route to any of them.

Sources & further reading — checked 25 August 2026

1. BIOT Administration — 'Marine Protected Area' (British Indian Ocean Territory, undated, consulted 25 August 2026). The administering government's own conservation page: the 640,000 km2 no-take MPA declared by the Commissioner on 1 April 2010; the March 2015 tribunal finding that the declaration 'was not in accordance with the provisions of the Convention'; that the UK 'should have consulted the Republic of Mauritius more fully'; that the Tribunal's concern was with 'the manner in which the MPA was established, rather than its substance'; and 220+ corals, 855 fish and 355 mollusc species
2. Permanent Court of Arbitration — case page, Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration (Mauritius v. United Kingdom), PCA Case No. 2011-03. The procedural record: proceedings commenced 20 December 2010, final award 18 March 2015, a five-member Annex VII tribunal administered by the PCA, and the document inventory including memorials, eleven days of hearings, procedural orders and the dissenting and concurring opinion
3. WorldCourts — Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration, Award of 18 March 2015 (text as far as Chapter VI). Case name, date and tribunal composition: Professor Ivan Shearer AM presiding, with Judge Sir Christopher Greenwood, Judge Albert Hoffmann, Judge James Kateka and Judge Rudiger Wolfrum. The table of contents places Chapter VIII, the dispositif, at page 215; that chapter is not reproduced in the readable text
4. WorldCourts — Dissenting and Concurring Opinion of Judges James Kateka and Rudiger Wolfrum, 18 March 2015. At paragraph 85 the 1965 Lancaster House undertakings: good offices on navigational and meteorological facilities, fishing rights, landing rights on an airstrip still to be built, mineral benefits, and the right to have the islands returned. At paragraph 90, that the UK 'hastily went ahead and declared the MPA on 1 April 2010' and that Mauritius learnt of the proposal from The Independent on 9 February 2009. At paragraph 86, their view that the MPA is 'legally invalid'
5. International Court of Justice — Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, Advisory Opinion of 25 February 2019 (bilingual text). The 23 September 1965 Lancaster House agreement; the establishment of BIOT on 8 November 1965 by the British Indian Ocean Territory Order 1965; that between 1967 and 1973 the entire population was prevented from returning or forcibly removed, the main removal from Diego Garcia taking place in July and September 1971; and that the fifty-year period of the 1966 UK-US Agreement ended on 30 December 2016 and was extended twenty years
6. International Court of Justice — Press Release 2019/9, Advisory Opinion of 25 February 2019. The operative findings as issued: by 13 votes to 1 that 'the process of decolonization of Mauritius was not lawfully completed when that country acceded to independence in 1968'; by 13 votes to 1 that the UK is under an obligation to bring its administration to an end as rapidly as possible; and by 13 votes to 1 on the duty of Member States to co-operate
7. International Court of Justice — case file 169, Chagos Archipelago advisory proceedings. The document inventory for the advisory proceedings, including the opinion of 25 February 2019 in English, French and bilingual editions, the official summary, and the twelve separate opinions, declarations and the dissent of Judge Donoghue
8. UK Treaty Series No. 81 (1999) — United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Convention as published by the UK: Article 2(3), that sovereignty over the territorial sea is exercised subject to the Convention and to other rules of international law; Article 56(2), the coastal State's duty of due regard in the exclusive economic zone; and Article 300 on good faith and abuse of right. In force for the United Kingdom from 24 August 1997
9. UK Government — UK/Mauritius: Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia, CS Mauritius No. 1/2025, CP 1334 (treaty text, 22 May 2025). Article 1: 'Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago in its entirety, including Diego Garcia.' Article 5(2): the UK 'agrees to provide support and assistance to Mauritius in the establishment and management of its Marine Protected Area', on terms to be agreed by a separate written instrument. Article 13: ninety-nine years, extendable by forty. Article 18: entry into force on notification that internal procedures are complete
10. UK Government — publication page for the 22 May 2025 Chagos Archipelago agreement. The treaty's formal identity: presented to Parliament on 22 May 2025 as Command Paper 1334, Country Series Mauritius No. 1 (2025), under the full title 'Agreement ... concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia'
11. House of Commons Library — CBP-10273, '2025 treaty on the British Indian Ocean Territory/Chagos Archipelago' (8 September 2025). That Article 5 commits the UK to support and assist the creation and management of an MPA but 'does not specify any detail about the support'; that terms will follow in a separate written instrument, expected to be technical assistance rather than payments; the 99-year term plus 40; the payment schedule of GBP 165m, then GBP 120m a year and GBP 45m annual development grants; and that the UK and Mauritius 'disputed what action to take' after the 2015 UNCLOS arbitration
12. House of Commons Library — CBP-10327, briefing on the Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill (13 October 2025). That 'between 1968 and 1973, the UK Government removed the entire population from the Chagos Archipelago' — a different span from the ICJ's 1967 to 1973 — and that there are 'some uncertainties around the future of the marine protected area', the agreement not guaranteeing environmental protection
13. House of Lords International Agreements Committee — 9th Report, 'UK-Mauritius Agreement on the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia' (ordered to be printed 24 June 2025). That Article 5 has the UK support and assist Mauritius in establishing and managing an MPA; that UN General Assembly resolution 73/295 was adopted by 116 votes to 6 with 56 abstentions and demanded that the UK end its administration; the ICJ's obligation finding; and the Committee's regret that the agreement 'does not provide a clear route to resettlement'
14. UK Parliament — Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill, bill page (session 2024-26, last updated 30 April 2026). The long title — a Bill to give effect to the agreement between the UK and Mauritius concerning the Chagos Archipelago — and the database's record of the bill's status as 'Fell', awaiting consideration of Commons amendments and reasons in the House of Lords
15. UK Parliament — stages of the Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill. The dated sequence: Commons first reading 15 July 2025, second reading 9 September 2025, committee of the whole House and third reading 20 October 2025; Lords first reading 21 October, second reading 4 November, committee from 18 November, report 5 January 2026, third reading 12 January 2026; Commons consideration of Lords amendments 20 January 2026
16. UK Parliament — publications for the Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill. The paper trail: seven printings of the bill from Bill 285 (15 July 2025) to HL Bill 163 Commons Reasons (21 January 2026), five sets of explanatory notes, two delegated powers memoranda, four select committee reports and a human rights memorandum
17. UK Parliament — Explanatory Notes to the Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill, Bill 285 EN (15 July 2025). That 'on 8 November 1965, the UK created BIOT by detaching a number of islands from the colony of Mauritius and the colony of the Seychelles'; that the Treaty agrees Mauritius is sovereign; and that the Bill dissolves BIOT while preserving existing Diego Garcia law by a general saving
18. The National Archives, Find Case Law — R (Bancoult No 3) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2018] UKSC 3 (8 February 2018). The cable of 15 May 2009 by US political counsellor Richard Mills recording a meeting of 12 May 2009; Commissioner Colin Roberts summarised as saying former inhabitants 'would find it difficult, if not impossible to pursue their claim for resettlement ... if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve'; paragraph 7's 'establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims'; the November 2009 consultation closing in early March 2010; Vienna Convention articles 24 and 27(2); and the dismissal of the appeal
19. The National Archives, Find Case Law — R (Bancoult (No 2)) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2016] UKSC 35 (29 June 2016). The 1 April 2010 MPA declaration described as prohibiting commercial fishing in BIOT waters; the Government's confirmation that 'the MPA does not preclude resettlement'; and Lord Hoffmann's description of a population of about a thousand in 1962 removed 'between 1968 and 1973 by various non-forceful means with a callous disregard of their interests'
20. UK Supreme Court — press summary, R (Bancoult (No 2)) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2016] UKSC 35. That the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal by a majority of three to two on 29 June 2016, Lord Mance, Lord Neuberger and Lord Clarke holding the withheld documents would not have changed the 2008 outcome and Lord Kerr and Lady Hale holding that they might well have
21. UK Government — 'Resolution on the British Indian Ocean Territory', statement by Ambassador Karen Pierce to the UN General Assembly, 22 May 2019. The UK's explanation of vote: that advisory opinions 'are not legally binding'; that the opinion failed to take account of 'the 2015 legally binding UNCLOS Tribunal Arbitration Award'; that the resolution 'goes beyond the advisory opinion'; and that 'the United Kingdom is not in doubt about our sovereignty ... It has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814'
22. UK Government — 'Citizenship rights for Chagossians: update 15 July 2025' (published 15 July 2025, last updated 5 June 2026). Written in the future tense more than a year after signature: that 'after entry into force of the Treaty, Mauritius will be sovereign' and BIOT 'will no longer be a British Overseas Territory'; that changes to UK law are required first; and that existing British nationality held by Chagossians is unaffected while future BOTC claims through BIOT will lapse
23. UK Government — British Indian Ocean Territory, FCDO organisation page (last updated 14 April 2026). The department's live description of the territory as 'constitutionally distinct and separate from the UK, with its own laws and Administration', carrying no reference to the 2025 agreement and none to the marine protected area
24. BIOT Administration — 'Visiting' (notice last updated 24 April 2026). That the territory is not a tourist destination; that access to Diego Garcia is limited to those connected to the military facility or the Administration; that yacht permits allow safe passage through the outer islands only; that since 31 March 2026 substantive consideration of new entry permits is paused except in exceptional circumstances because of 'ongoing litigation'; and that the BIOT Supreme Court's order has been stayed, so section 9 of the Constitution Order remains in force
25. BIOT Administration — 'Mooring Permits'. GBP 250 per week from 1 July 2024; permits valid for a maximum of 28 days and for the outer islands only; up to six weeks to process; no extensions, no crew changes, no charter vessels or cruise ships; medical evacuation cover of at least USD 100,000 per person; and the Strict Nature Reserves with their coordinates and three-nautical-mile approach ban
26. BIOT Administration — 'Mooring Site Plots'. The five permitted anchorages with their bounding coordinates: Ile Boddam and Ile Fouquet/Takamaka in Salomon atoll, and Ile Diamante, Ile du Coin and Fouquet in Peros Banhos — for example Ile Boddam southwest of a line from 5S 21.05 / 72E 12.51 to 5S 21.45 / 72E 13.17
27. BIOT Administration — 'BIOT Guidance For Yachts' (May 2024). The five authorised anchorages; the 28-day maximum; the closure of Diego Garcia to unauthorised vessels or persons; entry, exit and anchorage reporting by email or satellite phone; and penalties of three years' imprisonment and/or a GBP 5,000 fine for mooring without a permit and six months and/or GBP 5,000 for entering a Strict Nature Reserve
28. BIOT Administration — Fisheries (Conservation and Management) Ordinance 2007, revised edition as at 1 September 2020. Ordinance No. 5 of 2007. Section 7(1) prohibits fishing in the fishing waters otherwise than under a licence granted by the Director; section 7(2) sets a fine of GBP 500,000 on the master, owner and charterer of a commercial boat. 'The Marine Protected Area of the British Indian Ocean Territory' appears in Schedule II, in an acknowledgement form
29. BIOT Administration — 'About'. That BIOT 'was formed on 8th November 1965'; that it comprises approximately 58 islands, the number changing with the atolls, over around 50 square kilometres of land, Diego Garcia being 44; that the EEZ is 'some 640,000 square kilometres'; and that there are ordinarily around 2,000 people on Diego Garcia, mostly UK and US military, officials and contractors
30. BIOT Administration — 'Governance'. The Commissioner as head of the executive and legislature, appointed on UK ministers' advice; the Administrator, in post since January 2025, responsible for enforcing the Marine Protected Area; a Royal Navy Commander as Commissioner's Representative on Diego Garcia; about forty staff; and four tiers of court up to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
31. BIOT Administration — Orders in Council. The complete published set of Orders in Council on the territory's legislation site: one item, the British Indian Ocean Territory (Immigration) (Amendment) Order 2022 of 12 October 2022. Neither the 1965 Order nor the 2004 Constitution Order is posted
32. BIOT Administration — Gazettes. The gazette archive as published: issues for 2020 through 2026 only, with nothing from 2010 or earlier, so the instrument declaring the marine protected area is not available on the territory's own legislation pages
33. BIOT Administration — Revised Ordinances. The environmental statute book: Protection and Preservation of Wild Life 1970, Ozone Layer Protection 1994, Diego Garcia Conservation (Restricted Areas) 1994, Prevention of Oil Pollution 1994, BIOT Waters (Regulation of Activities) 1997, Trade in Endangered Species 2007, Fisheries 2007 and Historic Sites and Monuments 2019 — with no ordinance named for the Marine Protected Area
34. BIOT Administration — 'Terrestrial Protected Areas'. The Strict Nature Reserves — Three Brothers, Danger Island, Cow Island, Nelson's Island, Petite Ile Bois Mangue, Ile Parasol, Ile Longue and Barton Point on Diego Garcia — established under the Strict Nature Reserve Regulations 1998; ten Important Bird Areas; eighteen seabird species breeding in internationally important numbers; and the 2001 extension of the Ramsar Convention to part of Diego Garcia
35. BIOT Administration — 'Environment'. The territory's own headline figures: the largest no-take MPA in the Indian Ocean, approximately 4,000 square kilometres of shallow coral reef, reefs supporting over six times the fish found on other Indian Ocean reefs, and breeding sooty terns and brown and red-footed boobies on the outer islands
36. BIOT Administration — 'Chagossian Records'. That the Administration holds and has digitised the births, marriages and deaths registered on the Chagos Archipelago between 1878 and 1971, searchable by name, with older entries downloadable and recent ones released only on request
37. Ramsar Sites Information Service — Diego Garcia, Ramsar Site No. 1077. Designated 4 July 2001; 35,424 hectares at 07 18 S, 72 28 E; meeting seven of the eight Ramsar criteria as 'a relatively unpolluted coral reef system in a near-natural state', with hawksbill and green turtles and regularly more than 20,000 waterbirds including greater frigatebirds and red-footed boobies
38. Nature — Graham, Wilson, Carr, Hoey, Jennings and MacNeil, 'Seabirds enhance coral reef productivity and functioning in the absence of invasive rats', 559: 250-253 (11 July 2018). Work done in the Chagos Archipelago: seabird densities 760 times higher on rat-free islands, nitrogen deposition 251 times higher, 48% greater fish biomass on adjacent reefs, grazing 3.2 times and bioerosion 3.8 times higher
39. Coral Reefs — Head, Bayley, Rowlands, Roche, Tickler, Rogers, Koldewey, Turner and Andradi-Brown, 'Coral bleaching impacts from back-to-back 2015-2016 thermal anomalies in the remote central Indian Ocean', 38: 605-618 (2019). That reefs in the Chagos Archipelago 'suffered severe bleaching and mortality in 2015, causing a 60% coral cover decrease from 30% cover in 2012 to 12% in April 2016', with a further 29% decline at Peros Banhos from 14% in March 2016 to 10% in April 2017
40. Chagos Conservation Trust — homepage and charity description (registered charity 1155836). The Trust's description of the archipelago as one of the largest marine protected areas in the world at 640,000 km2 and a no-take reserve; its conserve, educate and inspire objectives; and its engagement with the Chagossian community and training of Chagossian scientists through the Chagos Connect project
41. Chagos Conservation Trust — 'Healthy Islands, Healthy Reefs'. The rat-eradication programme: 30 rat-infested islands targeted for an approximately 350% increase in seabird nesting habitat; only 11 rat-free islands today, 7% of the land area, holding over 90% of about 500,000 breeding seabirds; Ile Vache Marine cleared in 2014 and declared rat-free in 2017; and nearly GBP 1 million of Darwin funding awarded in 2025
42. Chagos Information Portal — Chagos Conservation Trust science hub. The Trust's own figures, which do not match the Administration's: five atolls and 66,000 km2 of shallow reef against BIOT's approximately 4,000 km2; 'at least 300 types of coral' against BIOT's 220-plus species; more than 175,000 pairs of birds a year; the 640,000 km2 MPA of 2010; and ten Important Bird Areas designated in 2004
43. Chagos Information Portal — publications index. The published literature on the archipelago gathered in one place: the 2015-2016 bleaching papers by Head and colleagues, carbonate-budget work by Lange and Perry, Turner, Sheppard and Pothin on strengthening the world's largest MPA, and the Graham, Wilson and Benkwitt seabird-subsidy papers
44. International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea — Case No. 28, Delimitation of the maritime boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean. The Special Chamber's judgment on preliminary objections of 28 January 2021 and its judgment on the merits of 28 April 2023 — the proceedings in which a Law of the Sea court treated Mauritius as the relevant coastal State for Chagos waters
45. United Nations — General Assembly, seventy-third session, list of resolutions. The formal identity of resolution 73/295, adopted 22 May 2019 under agenda item 88: 'Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965'
46. UK Government — the Blue Belt Programme. The FCDO and Defra marine programme, first published October 2017 and funded through the FCDO International Programme Fund for 2022-2025, which has 'supported the UK Overseas Territories to enhance marine protection across more than 4 million square kilometres'

Official and scientific bodies are the authority for safety, regulatory and scientific claims. Commercial operators are used only for practical detail such as tour length, meeting points and indicative pricing — never for a safety or scientific statement.