Marine resource profiles: Solomon Islands

Abstract

Solomon Islands consists of many islands extending over 1,400 kilometers of ocean in the western equatorial Pacific between 5 and 13 degrees south and 155 and 158 degrees east. It has an estimated total land area of 29,000 square kilometers, a 12 mile territorial sea and approximately 1.3 million square kilometers of ocean within its 200 mile exclusive economic zone. The total coastline has been estimated to be 4,023 kilometers long. The islands have little or no continental shelf area but support some of the world's largest lagoons and extensive fringing and barrier coral reefs.