Snake Island

Snake Island, also known as Serpent Island, is an island located in the Black Sea, near the Danube Delta.The island is populated. A rural settlement of Bile was established in February 2007.The islet was part of border dispute between Romania and Ukraine in 2004 - 2009, during which Romania contested the technical definition of the island and borders around it. The territorial limits of the continental shelf around Snake Island were delineated by the International Court of Justice in 2009.GeographySnake Island is an igneous rock formation located 35 km from the coast, east of the mouth of the Danube River. The island's coordinates are. The island is X-shaped, 690 meters from S-W to N-E by 682 meters from N-W to S-E, covering an area of 0.205 km2. The highest area is 41m above sea level. The island does not have a prominently featured mountain, but rather a low-slope hill.The nearest coastal location to the island is Kubanskyi Island on the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta, located 35km away between the Bystroe Channel and Skhidnyi Channel. The closest Romanian coastal city, Sulina, is 45km away. The closest Ukrainian city is Vylkove, 50km; however, there also is a port Ust-Dunaisk, 44km away from the island.For the end of 2011 in Zmiinyi Island coastal waters 58 fish species (12 of which are included into the Red Book of Ukraine) and six crab species were recorded. A presidential decree of 9 December 1998, Number 1341/98, declared the island and coastal waters as a state-protected area. The total protected area covers 232 hectares.