Anguilla

Anguilla (/æŋˈɡwɪlə/ ang-GWIL-ə) is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territory consists of the main island of Anguilla, approximately 16 miles (26 km) long by 3 miles (5 km) wide at its widest point, together with a number of much smaller islands and cays with no permanent population. The island's capital is The Valley. The total land area of the territory is 35 square miles (90 km²), with a population of approximately 13,500 (2006 estimate).

Anguilla has become a popular tax haven, having no capital gains, estate, profit or other forms of direct taxation on either individuals or corporations. In April 2011, faced with a mounting deficit, it introduced a 3% "Interim Stabilisation Levy", Anguilla's first form of income tax.

Name

The name Anguilla is an anglicised or latinate form of earlier Spanish anguila, French anguille, or Italian anguilla, all meaning "eel" in reference to the island's shape. For similar reasons, it was formerly known as Snake or Snake Island.

Anguilla (disambiguation)

Anguilla is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean.

Anguilla may also refer to:

See also

Anguillidae

The Anguillidae are a family of ray-finned fish that contains the freshwater eels. The nineteen species and six subspecies in this family are all in the genus Anguilla. They are elongated fish with snake-like bodies, their long dorsal, caudal and anal fins forming a continuous fringe. They are catadromous fish, spending their adult lives in fresh water but migrating to the ocean to spawn. Eels are an important food fish and some species are now farm-raised but not bred in captivity. Many populations in the wild are now threatened and Seafood Watch recommend consumers avoid eating anguillid eels.

Characteristics

Members of this family are catadromous, meaning they spend their lives in freshwater rivers, lakes, or estuaries, and return to the ocean to spawn. The young eel larvae, called leptocephali, live only in the ocean and consume small particles called marine snow. They grow larger in size, and in their next growth stage, they are called glass eels. At this stage, they enter estuaries, and when they become pigmented, they are known as elvers. Elvers travel upstream in freshwater rivers, where they grow to adulthood. Some details of eel reproduction are as yet unknown, and the discovery of the spawning area of the American and European eels in the Sargasso Sea is one of the more famous anecdotes in the history of ichthyology. The spawning areas of some other anguillid eels, such as the Japanese eel, and the giant mottled eel, were also discovered recently in the western North Pacific Ocean.