Caribbean

A little wind has turned into constant and strong wind, which translates into more days without whale watching. You can watch for whales from land here, in fact every day a few people tell me they saw a whale breaching right in front of their house. However, I never seem to be looking in the right place as I have yet to see a whale from shore. There is a high bluff where I have gone unsuccessfully to look for blows on rough days. What you can spot from extraordinarily far distance are the huge cruise ships that have for the past year been coming into Grand Turk, the island just eight miles to the north of Salt Cay. An entire mini-resort town call Margaritaville has been built to accommodate these cruise ships. Right now two cruise ships can dock on the pier at Margaritaville. The increased shipping traffic was one of the reasons WDCS wanted to get some baseline data on how the humpbacks utilized the waters around the Turks Islands.

It has always been thought that humpback are traveling by on their way to their Dominican Republic breading grounds. Yet we know of many populations of migrating whales in which a subset of the population will not make the entire migration, so the area around Salt Cay could be an important breading and calving ground. In fact, one of the old time fishermen here in Salt Cay has been reported to witness a birthing – which has never been documented in the wild. This makes the increases in cruise ship traffic even more worrisome.

WDCS is also concerned over possible development on Salt Cay; a substantial proportion of Salt Cay has been sold by the government for a proposed Four Season’s resort and golf course. Salt Cay islanders’ opinions over this proposed project seem to be split: some believe it will be good for the local economy while others believe that outside labor will be brought in and locals will not benefit as they should. Still others, knowing how difficult it is to get construction materials to the island, cannot imagine that a large resort will be built any time soon due to a lack of infrastructure and machinery on Salt Cay. However, where there’s a will there’s a way and if the resort is built there is the very real potential for increased threats to the whales due to increased pollution, acoustical disturbance and harassment if more boats begin operating within the area. Thankfully, the majority of coastline around Grand Turk has been designated as natural parks so no jet skies are found on the island. But Salt Cay does not have the same protections, so if the Four Seasons is constructed we will be advocating to keep boating during whale season to a minim.

Onto every experience a little rain must fall, except when working on the water it is usually a little wind that will blow. Today we were what is call blown out, meaning that the seas were too rough to take the boat out due to strong Northeast winds of 20 mph. So I thought I would tell you a little about the Turks and Caicos. Geologist believe the Turks and Caicos Banks, like the Bahamas, are remnants of continental crust from when North America separated from West Africa that then grew larger with the deposit of limestone rock. Of course this growth took millions of years and is in constant flux. The islands and underwater banks that support them are constantly, imperceptibly being built, eroded and reshaped by natural forces.



Not knowing anything about Turks and Caicos before coming here, it was interesting to learn that Turks and Caicos in named for two different underwater banks. There are eight major islands in all: Salt Cay, Grand Turk, South Caicos, East Caicos, Middle Caicos, North Caicos, Providenciales and West Caicos. The larger Caicos bank supports six islands, going left to right (or east to west): West Caicos (semi-private island), Providenciales (largest population and where you will fly into when visiting the Turk and Caicos), North Caicos (the farming island), Middle Caicos (the largest island and least populated Caicos island), East Caicos (uninhabited), and South Caicos (conch, lobster and scale fish exportation and bone fishing destination).



The Turks bank supports two main islands, going north to south: Grand Turk and Salt Cay. Grand Turk is the governmental capital of the Turks and Caicos and recently has turned into a cruse ship destination.



Salt Cay is where I am. Salt Cay was the center of the Bermudan salt industry, the mainstay of the Turks and Caicos economy from the late 1600's until the early 1960's. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Salt cay is a time capsule from the days "when Salt was king." Being from New England, another interesting fact I learned was that most of the Turks Island Salt went to cod-fishing industries of New England and the Maritime Provinces of Canada.

Today the main industry on Salt Cay is tourism. People come here to fish, dive, whale watch, and rest and relax. Salt Cay is a great place to unplug, a place to get away from our information-overdrive society. Days are spent biking the island, visiting the different white sandy beaches all the while traveling among wild donkeys and cows. After experiencing the island for a few days now, I firmly believe that everyone should have donkeys.

After two full days on the water, we have had about 15 documented sightings, lots of activity and even a few flukes. Humpbacks fluke up considerably more in their feeding grounds then they do here in their breeding grounds, which will make our photo identification a little more slow going. However, I am not complaining, as I have never had such a beautiful field location. It took me about 15 minutes to realize that whale watching in a bathing suit is preferable to soaking your few clean clothes with salt water. Whale watching occurs here in small boats so no matter how calm the day, you are assured of getting wet to some degree. And drying off in a bathing suit is so much faster and comfortable then wearing wet clothes, so work feels very much like vacation.

This picture shows how clear the water is, and how fantastic it is to be able to see these magnificent creatures; very different from my home waters of Massachusetts.

WDCS has sent me, Sue Rocca - one of their research biologist, down to the Caribbean to conduct research on humpback whales that are seen in the Turks and Caicos. We are concentrating on Salt Cay where 2 local businesses are taking people out what whale watching. Salt Cay is a 3 square mile island in the Turks and Caicos which is at the southeast end of the Bahaman Archipelago. Salt Cay was first inhabited in the 17th century when a salt making industry was establish on the island in which canals were dug to overflow shallow ponds where the sea-water would evaporate, leaving salt.

Salt production on the island has been abandoned in favor of tourism. Salt Cay's crystal clear waters is a favorite diving spot, and now that people are traveling to see whales, a great place to whale watch as well.

Today was my first full day here on Salt Cay and even though the wind is blowing about 20 mph, creating some rough seas, there was a hardy group of 12 whale watchers that I went out whale watching with. We went to a beautiful island, called Great Sand Cay, and snorkeled in the calm seas of the lee-ward side of the island while looking for whale blows. Once we spotted a mother and calf we spent a few minutes with them before we had to start making our way back. However we were rewarded for braving rough seas on the way home when two adults were spotted beaching in the distance.

I will be here until the 20th of Feb., so stay tuned for more stories and pictures of whales, wild donkeys, wild cows and chickens that are all part of one's day here in Salt Cay.