Realising the potential of the Outermost Regions for sustainable blue growth : annex 11 to the final report : the blue economy in the South West Indian Ocean Sea Basin

The Indian Ocean is the world's third largest, covering around 70 560 000 km² (approximately 20 % of the water on the Earth's surface). It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, and on the south by the Southern Ocean. The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) includes a number of coastal states along the south-east, east and north-east of Africa, as well as the Indian sub-continent. It also includes a number of small-island states, including (for north to south), the Maldives, Seychelles, Comoros, Mayotte, Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion. All four countries have a colourful history of colonisation, immigration, trade and more recently independence. Mauritius and the Seychelles have both developed tourism as a core economic activity, although fisheries and in Mauritius' case, sugar cane and more latterly IT and banking have become increasingly important. Madagascar, by far the largest island of the four in terms of size, is more of an agricultural economy, although it exports considerable volumes of unrefined ores and other natural material. At 1 660 km² (excluding the contested island of Mayotte) the Comoros is the third-smallest African nation by area and is also mainly agriculture-based. The proposed geographical area of the Indian Ocean sea basin is globally from Somalia to South Africa from the North to the South and from the Eastern African coasts up to Mauritian waters from West to East. This sea basin would then be under broader influences of blue economies of other countries in the Indian Ocean such as Iran and India for instance (two countries influencing the policy of tuna management in the Western Indian Ocean as an example). Our proposed name is the South West Indian Ocean sea basin.