Bahamas
Perciformes - Perches
Siluriformes - Catfishes
Centrarchiformes - Basses and sunfishes
Gadiformes - Cods
Spariformes - Breams and porgies
Anguilliformes - Eels and morays
Carangiformes - Jacks
Labriformes - Wrasses
Beloniformes - Needlefishes
Scombriformes - Mackerels
Acanthuriformes - Surgeonfishes
Mulliformes - Goatfishes
Tetraodontiformes - Puffers and filefishes
Istiophoriformes - Barracudas
Scorpaeniformes - Mail-cheeked fishes
Elopiformes - Tarpons and tenpounders
Clupeiformes - Herrings
Albuliformes - Bonefishes
Blenniiformes - Blennies
Pleuronectiformes - Flatfishes
Aulopiformes - Grinners
Gobiiformes - Gobies
Acropomatiformes - Oceanic basses
Holocentriformes - Squirrelfishes
Beryciformes - Sawbellies
Lampriformes - Lamprids
Syngnathiformes - Pipefishes and Seahorses
Dactylopteriformes - Flying gurnards
Lophiiformes - Anglerfishes
Cyprinodontiformes - Toothcarps
Batrachoidiformes - Toadfishes
Carcharhiniformes - Ground sharks
Lamniformes - Mackerel sharks
Orectolobiformes - Carpet shark
Squaliformes - Sleeper and dogfish sharks
Ophidiiformes - Cusk-eels
Myliobatiformes - Stingrays
Saccopharyngiformes - Swallowers and Gulpers
Myctophiformes - Lanternfishes
Stylephoriformes - Tube-eyes
Notacanthiformes - Spiny eels
The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic.
It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago’s land area and is home to 88% of the archipelago’s population.
The archipelagic state consists of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and northwest of the island of Hispaniola (split between the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the U.S. state of Florida, and east of the Florida Keys.
The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes The Bahamas’ territory as encompassing 470,000 km2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space.
The Bahama Islands were inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taíno, for many centuries. Christopher Columbus was the first European to see the islands, making his first landfall in the New World in 1492 when he landed on the island of San Salvador. Later, the Spanish shipped the native Lucayans to and enslaved them on Hispaniola, after which the Bahama islands were mostly deserted from 1513 until 1648, nearly all native Bahamians having been forcibly removed for enslavement or having died of diseases that Europeans brought to the islands.
