Guana Cay Controversy - get the latest news on RSS Feed
Read up on the issue by the locals themselves
Jean Michel Cousteau
Speaks up on Bakers Bay Development
Bimini Bay Sawfish
Video on Bimini Bay

Great Guana Cay is a thin, six mile island in the Northern Bahamas.

The island's inhabitants, who settled here 200 years ago, are employed in fishing and cottage industry tourism.

The island's coral reef is of international importance as one of the most intact surviving elkhorn/staghorn coral communities in the world.

The inhabitants began fighting tooth and nail to save their island's coral reef and mangroves from destruction after hearing of plans for a golf megadevelopment on their tiny barrier reef island.

Hundreds of the world's most revered coral reef scientists and marine ecologists, as well as almost every single Bahamian environmental organization, have banded together to try to stop the Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club (Discovery Land Company) from realizing completion.

The proposed 585 unit, 180 slip marina, tennis courts, hotel, destination spa and championship golf course were pushed through the Bahamian central government with no local consent and without proper permits in a land grab (including of local public land designated for use by Bahamians) of unbelievable proportion. In one of the most amazing and unique environmental stories in history, the islanders have brought the developer, and the Bahamian government, to task. The small island is now waging a bitter legal battle with the government and the developers.

Rise Up Sweet Island compiles the viewpoints of the Bahamian and international marine conservation community and presents documents, evidence and history for all interested parties.

Notes from the Road is a travelogue which covers environmental and cultural issues around North America, the Caribbean and Europe.

National Geographic
National Geographic Magazine supports anti-Megadevelopment movements in Abaco and Bimini in new article on shark conservation.

ReEarth
SharkLab
Restrict Bimini Bay
Mangrove Action Project
Global Coral Reef Alliance
Caribbean Conservation Corps
Notes from the Sea

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Petition

75% of Bahamians on Great Guana Cay signed a petition this winter against Baker's Bay Club. Three years later, resistance is strong.
Olive Ridley Turtle

Olive Ridley Turtle

Olive RidleyThe Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) is a small sea turtle that grows to about 90 pounds. The Olive Ridley is the world's most abundant. It exists throughout the tropical oceans.

The females swarm beaches en masse, forming an assault called the Arribada. These Arribadas occur on the West Coasts of Mexico and Central American countries.

The Kemp's Ridley turtles is very closel y related to the Olive Ridley, but it is believed that the closing of the Panama isthmus (read about the Panama Isthmus here) about four million years ago jumpstarted the process of differentiation between the two species.