[1] The archipelago is low-lying and is prone to substantial submersion in severe weather, but also by annual tropical cyclones in the Mascarene Islands.

[3] Thirteen of the thirty islands were subject to a legal challenge from 1995 until 2008 between a certain Mr. Talbot (acting with the government) and the Raphael Fishing Company, this being resolved by Mauritius's highest Court of Appeal in 2008[4] which converted the erstwhile permanent lease into a permanent grant for the resident fishing company.

[citation needed] The name Cargados Carajos, which refers to the "loaded crow's nest" of a Portuguese caravel that was required to successfully sail through the dangerous atoll, remains in use as well.

The eastern border has reefs with a greater diversity of corals, in particular, enormous hillocks of Pavona spp.

These patches have expanded and fused to provide the numerous, large coral banks found in the Bay.

This complex of low islands, coral reefs and sand banks arises from a vast shallow submarine platform.

The main structure is a large, 100 km (62 mi) long crescent-shaped reef whose convex side faces towards the south-east trades and the South Equatorial Current.

Down to at least 20 m (66 ft) depth the substrate is swept clear of attached biota, although on the sides of spurs or buttresses a few corals exist.

Given the total isolation of the atoll and the low level of investment and scientific research carried out to date, there is the possibility of the discovery of new species.

It is a very rare species of large sea snail (a marine gastropod mollusc in the Strombidae family) endemic to Saint Brandon.

It was named Cargados Carajos in 1506 by Portuguese sailors who went ashore for provisioning after having been blown off course from their attempted passage through the Mozambique Channel (the shortest and safest route) on their way to India.

On 12 February 1662, the East India Ship Arnhem ran aground on the Saint Brandon Rocks.

[13] Volkert Evertsz, the captain, and other survivors of the wreck survived by piloting a small boat to Mauritius, and are thought to have been the last humans to see living dodos.

On 9 June 1806, the French general Charles Decaen ordered the corsair Charles Nicolas Mariette to send a spying mission to Saint Brandon and to leave six men on the most prominent island and, on his return trip to Mauritius, to ascertain once and for all that Cargados Carajos and Saint Brandon were the same shoal.

The frigate Piemontaise under the command of Louis Jacques Eperon le Jeune departed on 11 June 1806.

From October to November 1917, the Saint Brandon Islands and, in particular, the lagoon of L'Île Coco, were used as a base by the German raiding vessel Wolf, commanded by Karl August Nerger.

[20] On the island, Wolf transferred stoking coal and stores from the captured Japanese ship Hitachi Maru which took three weeks.

To do so, Wolf had to run a gauntlet of Allied warships from near the Cape of the Good Hope to the North Atlantic.

On 7 November 1917, the Germans scuttled Hitachi Maru 26 km (16 mi) off shore and Wolf departed.

The Saint Brandon archipelago was surveyed by British colonial authorities on 31 March 1911 as part of the Census of Mauritius.