 In 1982, at the United Nations Convention, there was an Exclusive Economic Zone Act passed. This meant that each country owned mineral and fishing rights going at least 200 miles from the shoreline. So basically at the edge of each country's border facing the sea, the country had the right to go 200 miles out for resources. However, there was a catch. If the country owned islands that extended out past the 200 mile mark, well then that line was changed to the land mass of the island owned by the country. So if you owned islands, let's say, in the Caribbean, if you're the United States, then your land mass for oil rigs go out past the islands, not past the coast of the United States. Now, if you've been on this channel for a while, you know that I probably like you and not a fan of the UN. However, this 1982 act is what makes this story today so interesting. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Please hit that subscribe button and give us a like. Also, a very, very, very special thank you to all of our patrons and our producers on this channel. You guys are the true rock stars, and without you, this channel would not be possible. If you would like to join our Patreon community, there is a link down in the description box below. Welcome to Esoteric Atlanta. My name is Bryce, and today on Mystery Monday, we are gonna be talking about the missing island of Bermeja. You were a child who grew up in America. You probably learned the rhyme in school. That goes in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. History teaches us that Christopher Columbus was funded by the Spanish Empire under the rule of Isabel and Ferdinand. History also claims that Christopher Columbus was one of the first big explorers on this expedition to discover the new world. However, we do know the Vikings were here before. And if you've also been on this channel for a long time, you know that my personal belief is that the European powers that be already knew that this continent existed and were using it for a very long time. However, the 1492 story is the narrative that they teach children today. Nonetheless, Spain was a huge power that was then involved for the race for the new world. Alonso de Santa Cruz was a Spanish cartographer, historian, and teacher. He was born in Seville in 1505, dying in Madrid in 1567. Alonso de Santa Cruz worked on the Page-Drawn Reel. This was, and I quote, the official and secret Spanish master map used as a template for the maps present on all Spanish ships during the 16th century. It was made by the Casa de Contracción, which translates to the House of Trade. You see, when I say the race for the new world, that was what it was. Once this new world was found, all these European empires were racing to claim territory for their country. France, England, and Spain would all duke it out over the years to decide who controlled the resources found in this new continent. As you know, eventually England would take a stronghold until the Americans kicked England out during the American Revolution and took over our own country. The Mexicans would go on to also do the same in claiming their own independence. But during this race for the new world in the 16th century, many, many empires had secret maps. When the Spanish explorers would get back to Spain, they would have to go to the Casa de Contracción to turn over all their findings of new land. These explorers would have to swear under oath that the land they found was really there. And in 1539, Alonso de Santa Cruz added Bermeja to the list of islands that were located off of the coast of Mexico. In fact, this group of islands was right off of the Yucatán Peninsula. Now the Yucatán Peninsula is a peninsula that juts off of Mexico that divides the Gulf of Mexico with the Caribbean Sea. As you know, there are many islands in the Caribbean Sea and today in modern times, many of us flock to these islands for vacation. So what was so special about Bermeja? Well, first of all, Bermeja got its name because of its reddish tone that these sailors and the explorers claimed the island possessed. And this island existed on maps from the 16th century all the way to the 20th century. In fact, the last publication we have with this island included was in 1946. This was in a book called Los Islas Mexicanas which again included a list of Mexico's islands. But in 1982, with the UN's passing of the Exclusive Economic Zone, Bermeja all of a sudden became super important Mexico because you see the position of this island being at the northernmost point meant that Mexico technically had rights to all of the oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. More oil meant more money for Mexico. And in the 1990s, a Mexican senator named Jose Angel Conchello insisted that Mexico needed to go and claim that island so they could then claim the resources from the oil rigs. There was one problem though. The island was missing. Without Bermeja, Mexico could not extend its 200 mile radius and the United States kept control over the oil rigs. So where did this island that had been on maps for four centuries go? Jose Angel Conchello, well he believed that the three-lettered alphabet owned by the United States blew up the island. Now in the 90s, that would have been a crazy conspiracy but nowadays this might be a leading contender as to where the island actually went. As much as I agree with this Mexican senator that the three-lettered agency isn't the greatest thing in the whole world and is actually quite problematic, I don't think that's what happened to the island. I believe there's a little bit more of a logical explanation behind the island's vanishing. Because you see, this isn't the first time the island has gone missing. The island's existence was first challenged in 1775 by a Spanish expedition. They had gone to the coordinates and found that there was nothing there but sea. This now brings us all the way back to the 16th century, to the Casa de Contracción and the Pedro Real. Again, as I said, there was a race for territory in the New World and cartographers, especially good cartographers were hard to come by. As I said in the beginning, this Spanish map, this template, was kept in secrecy. These empires did not want each other seeing what was on each other's maps and the only way for these empires to know if there were spies within their privy councils of explorers was to occasionally draw fake land. Then they would know if other maps showed up with these fake islands and fake lands, then they had a problem. There was a spy or perhaps a colleague with loose lips on their committees. Many people believe that this was the case with Bermeja. After all, there is no photography of the island in existence. And as I said, the island was on maps up until the 20th century. So there should be at least one photograph of this island somewhere. So if Bermeja was a made up landmass to see if there were spies within the Spanish expedition fleet, well, they got their answer because many, many maps then contained this island of Bermeja. And only those in the top echelon of this map making empire of Spain knew that that island did not actually exist. But they were able to then suss out who was sharing their top secret information. Since so many maps were copied with Bermeja on it, it would make sense then that in 1775, this information would have been passed down leading Spanish explorers to believe there was an island and being massively surprised when they got to the coordinates and no such island existed. However, this isn't the only theory of what happened to Bermeja. There are others that think the island's disappearance was just that of mother nature. That the ocean slowly ate the island away. Some people speculate that the island was made up of coral and that's why it disintegrated into the ocean. In 2010, a group of Mexican researchers wanted to get to the bottom of what happened to Bermeja Island. They wrote a book called Donde Está La Isla Bermeja. Basically, where is the island Bermeja? These scientists came up with two conclusions. Their first conclusion was that yes, the island never existed to begin with. It was just a sleight of hand in the 16th century by the original Spanish explorers. But their second conclusion was that the island does exist. But it's just not where it originally was supposed to be. That the coordinates are off. They explained that this would have been easy to do in the 16th century. Being on a boat using magnets, not totally sure where you were, meant that a lot of times these coordinates were the best guess possible. So there is an idea that there is a Bermeja floating out there somewhere in the sea, nowhere near the original spot it's supposed to be. Or is it something else altogether? Was there a timeline shift? Was there something more spiritual that happened that pushed Bermeja into another dimension? All right guys, let me know your opinions down in the comments sections below. Do you think the three letter agency blew it up so that the Mexicans would not be able to get to the oil rigs? Do you think that this was just a sleight of hand done by the original Spanish explorers in the 16th century? Meaning that this island never existed in the first place? Or do you think that there is an island somewhere out there called Bermeja? That isn't where it's supposed to be because the coordinates were wrong. Thank you again to Josh McKay for doing our opening song. If you would like to purchase the opening song, again there is a link down in the description box below. And thank you so much to Todd Roderick for helping me get this video out to you guys today. I hope that you're having a fantastic day and I will talk to you soon. Bye.