Foulness Island passing of the Ministry of Defence Act 1946 and the subsequent rationalisation of five agencies in 1971, ownership of the island passed from the War Office to the Ministry of Defence. In 2003, a contract to manage the testing of munitions was awarded to the defence contractors QinetiQ, and they also control access to the island. In the 1850s, the South Essex Estuary and Reclamation Company proposed a grand scheme to reclaim around of land on the Essex coast, which would have included most of Foulness Sands and Maplin Sands. The civil engineer Sir John Rennie produced the plans, and
Geography of the Falkland Islands Speedwell Island (51 km), and George Island (24 km). Other islands off the Lafonia coast include Bleaker Island (21 km), Sealion Island, Lively Island (56 km), Barren Island. In addition, Beauchene Island, a rocky outcrop lies some from the Lafonia coast. Many of the islands are nature reserves, either in whole or in part. The Patagonian Shelf, which in ancient geological time was part of Gondwana and which broke from what is now Africa, drifted westwards relative to Africa. It is now the widest continental shelf in the world covering . It protrudes some into the South Atlantic Ocean from