Qualla: Nosy Boraha https://qualla.com/nosy-boraha en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/m/h/g/r/nosy-boraha-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Nosy Boraha https://qualla.com/nosy-boraha Nosy Boraha: Introduction https://qualla.com/nosy-boraha/ Photo credit Lemurbaby, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 2015, divers pulled a 55-kilogram ingot from the seafloor off Nosy Boraha and announced they had found part of Captain Kidd's legendary treasure. UNESCO tested the metal. It was 95 percent lead -- a broken piece of the old Sainte-Marie port construction. The episode captures something essential about this 60-kilometer sliver of island off Madagascar's northeast coast: the line between pirate legend and historical reality has always been blurred here, and the treasure people find is rarely what they expected.

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Image: Lemurbaby | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/m/h/g/r/nosy-boraha-wp/mhgr-nosy-boraha-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Nosy Boraha: The Pirate Shore https://qualla.com/nosy-boraha/ Photo credit Rod Waddington from Kergunyah, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0. Between 1691 and 1719, Nosy Boraha -- known to Europeans as Ile Sainte-Marie, or St. Mary's Island -- served as one of the most active pirate bases in the Indian Ocean. The location was ideal. Ships returning from the East Indies, their holds heavy with silk, spices, and precious...

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Image: Rod Waddington from Kergunyah, Australia | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/m/h/g/r/nosy-boraha-wp/mhgr-nosy-boraha-the-pirate-shore.mp3 0:06 2 full Nosy Boraha: Kingdom and Colony https://qualla.com/nosy-boraha/ Photo credit Public domain. The Betsimisaraka people, the island's largest ethnic group, have inhabited Nosy Boraha for centuries, and their history with European arrivals was anything but passive. In 1750, the ruler of the Betsimisaraka kingdom, Queen Bety, ceded the island to France by treaty. Two years l...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/m/h/g/r/nosy-boraha-wp/mhgr-nosy-boraha-kingdom-and-colony.mp3 0:06 3 full Nosy Boraha: Giants in the Channel https://qualla.com/nosy-boraha/ Photo credit Lemurbaby, CC BY-SA 3.0. Each year between July and September, substantial pods of humpback whales migrate from Antarctic feeding grounds to the warm, sheltered waters of the Baie de Tintingue, the channel separating Nosy Boraha from the Madagascar mainland. The conditions here -- calm seas, shallow sand...

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Image: Lemurbaby | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/m/h/g/r/nosy-boraha-wp/mhgr-nosy-boraha-giants-in-the-channel.mp3 0:06 4 full Nosy Boraha: An Island Ecology Under Pressure https://qualla.com/nosy-boraha/ Photo credit Anai171, CC BY-SA 4.0. Nosy Boraha's isolation and coral-rich soil have fostered distinctive plant and animal life. Several species of lemur inhabit the island's remaining forests, and among its orchids grows Eulophiella roempleriana, known locally as the Queen of Madagascar. But the island also carrie...

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Image: Anai171 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/m/h/g/r/nosy-boraha-wp/mhgr-nosy-boraha-an-island-ecology-under-pressure.mp3 0:06 5 full Nosy Boraha: Reaching Sainte-Marie https://qualla.com/nosy-boraha/ Photo credit Lemurbaby, CC BY-SA 3.0. Nosy Boraha covers 222 square kilometers and is home to roughly 30,000 people spread across 17 villages and the main town of Ambodifotatra. An international airport inaugurated in 2015 sits at the island's southern end, and ferries connect to the mainland from Soanierana Ivongo a...

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Image: Lemurbaby | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/m/h/g/r/nosy-boraha-wp/mhgr-nosy-boraha-reaching-sainte-marie.mp3 0:06 6 full