"text":"This isolated atoll was named for John CLIPPERTON, an English pirate who was rumored to have made it his hideout early in the 18th century. Annexed by France in 1855 and claimed by the US, it was seized by Mexico in 1897. Arbitration eventually awarded the island to France in 1931, which took possession in 1935."
}
},
"Geography":{
"Location":{
"text":"Middle America, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, 1,120 km southwest of Mexico"
"text":"subject to tropical storms and hurricanes from May to October"
},
"Environment - current issues":{
"text":"no natural resources, guano deposits depleted; the ring-shaped atoll encloses a stagnant fresh-water lagoon"
},
"Geography - note":{
"text":"the atoll reef is approximately 12 km (7.5 mi) in circumference; an attempt to colonize the atoll in the early 20th century ended in disaster and was abandoned in 1917"
}
},
"People and Society":{
"Population":{
"text":"uninhabited"
}
},
"Government":{
"Country name":{
"conventional long form":{
"text":"none"
},
"conventional short form":{
"text":"Clipperton Island"
},
"local long form":{
"text":"none"
},
"local short form":{
"text":"Ile Clipperton"
},
"former":{
"text":"sometimes referred to as Ile de la Passion or Atoll Clipperton"
},
"etymology":{
"text":"named after an 18th-century English pirate who supposedly used the island as a base"
}
},
"Dependency status":{
"text":"possession of France; administered directly by the Minister of Overseas France"
"text":"Although 115 species of fish have been identified in the territorial waters of Clipperton Island, tuna fishing is the only economically viable species."