Green Antilles

A recent travel article sings the praises of the natural wonders of the Cayman Islands:

A decade ago, there were only 12 blue iguanas left in the wild. Today, precise tracking shows their numbers have now reached 667. Conservation may not be what you first expect from the Cayman Islands. But while these three Caribbean isles – Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac – are perhaps best-known for their tax-haven status, their treasures are natural ones, rather than those stashed in bank accounts.

They claim to have more species of flora and fauna than the Galapagos Islands – and they are certainly home to two of the world’s rarest orchids, the earth’s smallest butterfly (the Pygmy Blue), around 230 species of birds, and wonderful marine life. It’s those blue iguanas though, which steal the limelight. With unblinking red eyes and vivid blue scales – especially apparent during the mating season and in the heat of the day – the reptiles, which grow to more than five feet in length, seem to revel in their fame, slowly turning their jowly heads to the cameras which inevitably surround them (and occasionally investigating pink-varnished toenails in the hope they might be fruit).

They are protected in two reserves on Grand Cayman, the largest of the three islands, and I met them in their third habitat, the breeding centre within the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, which is also home to nearly two thirds of Cayman’s native plants. Close by, in the Heritage Garden, medicinal plants surround one of only 15 remaining traditional wooden Cayman cottages.

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Ann Stafford, a British expatriate who has lived on the islands since the 1970s, runs nature tours of Grand Cayman, between growing ghost orchids in her garden and co-authoring a book on the islands’ butterflies.

“Native plants are part of the history, culture and identity of the islands. They’re what makes them unique,” she explains. “We don’t have large wild animals but we do have an interesting diversity of wildlife.”

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[In Little Cayman] there’s just one local bank – a sleepy place with a single new ATM – and not even the faintest suggestion of global money markets, or complex financial transactions behind closed doors. The islands’ real riches are always on display: butterflies, fish, wild flowers…and those blue iguanas, basking in the sun.

For more, read the complete article from the Independent newspaper.

[Photo: The Real Estreya]

From Compass Cayman, an enlightening and exasperating article about the challenges and frustrations of securing conservation funding in the Cayman Islands:

While the Cayman Islands struggles to find money to protect its indigenous iguanas and parrots, nearly $40 million sits in a specially established Environmental Protection Fund.

The fund was set up in 1997 to acquire land for conservation purposes and other environmental projects. But in the intervening 15 years, it has mostly been used to help shore up the government’s reserve cash coffers, as well as for some infrastructure projects and post-Hurricane Ivan clean-up.

Director of the Department of Environment Gina Ebanks-Petrie said the fund had not been meant to be used [as part of the government reserve], but rather to buy land and support conservation efforts.

“The only way we will ever get conservation land is to buy it at sale market value. We realised some time ago that we would need to get some money in order to do that and for other conservation projects, not just government conservation, but for other conservation organisations, like the National Trust.

“The idea was that you would apply for grant money from the fund if your project met certain criteria. It was also envisaged to be out of the hands of government as a separate trust to be managed by a board of trustees comprising government and private sector. That is not how it has transpired,” she said.

According to the 2011/2012 Annual Plan and Estimates, the Environment Protection Fund contained $39.8 million and receives between $4 million and $5 million a year, gathered through departure taxes charged to travellers leaving Cayman via the airport or the cruise ship terminal.

Instead of being used for environmental projects, the Environmental Protection Fund is mostly used to bolster the reserve funds the government is legally required to have under the Public Management and Finance Law to run Cayman for 90 days.

Fewer grants
Because the Department of Environment and conservation organisations such as the Cayman Islands National Trust have little access to the Environmental Protection Fund, they seek external grants from abroad.

“The Department of Environment over the years has had to rely more and more on grants, particularly as our own operating budget has been cut quite a lot over the last few years,” Ms Ebanks-Petrie said.

However, as conservation efforts worldwide increase, the demand for such grants is growing, meaning Cayman has more competition when bidding for funds. Cayman also finds itself at a disadvantage when asking for these funds because it lacks a national conservation law, Ms Ebanks-Petrie said.

That lack of a comprehensive conservation law, which would protect locally threatened species and land, led the UK’s Overseas Territories Environment Programme to turn down a request for funds from the Cayman Islands Department of Environment to help protect the endangered Cayman Parrot.

In notifying the Department of Environment that it would not be providing funds for the project, the Overseas Territories Environment Programme stated: “The panel liked this strong proposal, but felt that without a conservation law being in place, it would not be worthwhile to fund the work.”

More reactions like that from grant-giving bodies, as well as the possibility that some external grants might not be made available if those bodies determined that Cayman’s own Environmental Protection Fund could be used for the projects it is requesting funding for, concerns Ms Ebanks-Petrie.

I recommend that you read the full article: $40M sitting in unused environment fund.

In the Cayman Islands, trained lionfish hunters are being offered free dives as an incentive to participate in lionfish culls:

As part of the islands collaborative effort to fight the increasing numbers of lionfish in Cayman waters Red Sail Sports are beginning a monthly one tank dive on the last Saturday of the every month for volunteers who are already trained to catch the marine invader. Starting this month (28 January) the dives will be free of charge and the fish caught will be cleaned and delivered to the fish market at Foster’s Food Fair on Monday morning where the supermarket hopes it will become a regular choice for local cooks. “If weather conditions permit, the first dives will hunt for Lionfish on the lesser-dived reefs of the island’s North Side and East End where they have thrived,” said Rod McDowall Red Sail Sports Operations Manager.

“For some time now operators have been culling the reefs on the West Side where Grand Cayman’s most popular dive sites are located,” he added.

Lionfish arrived in Cayman waters about three years ago and they continue to multiply and threaten smaller reef fish. Originally from the Pacific Ocean and popular as aquarium fish, lionfish are colorful with venomous spikey tentacles. First spotted in Florida waters in 1985, the population of the voracious predator has exploded in recent years and spread throughout the Caribbean.

To control this marine pest, conservation groups are encouraging fishermen and divers to catch lionfish and eat them as the filet is light, delicately flavored and very good eating. Fosters Food Fair has contributed $20,000 to the cause for dive expenses and a portion of the fish sold at the market will go back into an operational fund to keep the lionfish dives going. A lionfish cookbook featuring 45 recipes is now available.

Get more information, including information on how to participate in the lionfish dives, in the full article from the Cayman News Service.

[Photo: Motti Horesh]

Scientists exploring the Cayman Trough, location of the world’s deepest known undersea volcanic vents, have found several new marine species:

It sounds like a medieval vision of hell: in pitch darkness, amid blazing heat, rise spewing volcanic vents. But there are no demons and devils down here, instead the deep sea hydrothermal vent, located in the very non-hellish Caribbean sea, is home to a new species of pale shrimp. At 3.1 miles below (5 kilometers) the sea’s surface, the Beebe Vent Field south of the Cayman islands, is the deepest yet discovered.

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Researchers … took samples and photos of a new species of deep sea shrimp, named Rimicaris hybisae, which lacks eyes, instead the shrimp have light-sensing organs on their backs, allowing them to “see” the glow of the vents. White-tentacled anemones were also found.

“Studying the creatures at these vents, and comparing them with species at other vents around the world; will help us to understand how animals disperse and evolve in the deep ocean,” said Jon Copley with the University of Southampton.

A new vent field was also discovered on the top slopes of a nearby undersea mountain, Mount Dent. This surprised researchers as undersea vents are not expected on mountainsides.

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The Mount Dent vents sported the same shrimp species as the Beebe Vent Field, but scientists also found possibly new species of a serpentine fish, a snail, and an amphipod.

Read more in the full article from Monga Bay and in this report from the BBC.

Both articles mention that the fluids from the vents are rich in minerals, particular copper, and that there is growing interest in mining deep-sea hydrothermal sites.

From the BBC:

Understanding how these [deep-sea] species evolve and move is crucial, says Jon Copley, to being able to manage the vents should commercial exploitation of the minerals they contain ever be contemplated.

“Last year China was granted one of the first licences for exploratory mining along a section of undersea volcanoes in the Indian Ocean, so we are starting to see interest in chasing these resources,” he explained.

All the more reason we need to understand their patterns of life if we are going to make responsible decisions about how to manage these resources.”

And Monga Bay:

Although located in one of the most extreme environment on Earth, hydrothermal vents are facing a sudden and new threat: deep sea mining. Deep sea vents do not only harbor extremophiles (life surviving in extreme conditions), but are also rich in minerals deposits. Already Nautilus Minerals of Canada plans to be the first corporation to attempt mining deep sea hydrothermal vents off the coast of New Guinea in 2013, in this case for copper.

“Interest in mining deep-sea hydrothermal vents is likely to increase. Indeed, the International Seabed Authority approved, in July this year, four new applications for exploration of polymetallic sulphides associated with hydrothermal vents. The applicants will restrict activity to inactive sites, which do not play host to typical, living vent communities, but much concern has been expressed about the potential for damage to sites in international waters in the absence of an agreed and effective conservation policy,” Steven L. Chown with Stellenbosch University writes in a primer on the new discovery in the Southern Ocean.

Previously on Green Antilles: Surprising sea life discovered in the Caribbean deep and World’s deepest undersea vents discovered in the Caribbean.

[Photo: University of Southampton/National Oceanography Center via news.mongabay.com]

The Nassau Grouper fishing ban in the Cayman Islands has been extended for eight more years:

The ban on fishing Nassau grouper from aggregate sites around the Cayman Islands has been extended another eight years.

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“Currently the fishing of spawning aggregations can be likened to going to a hospital’s maternity ward and killing half of the pregnant women and their spouses annually,” the [Marine Conservation Board] says in [a] statement. “While an immigration policy can arbitrarily be adopted to make up for the inevitable shortfall in the local labour force (no pun intended), no such measure can be adopted for the Nassau grouper.”

Members of the board and Caribbean conservationists believe that if the Nassau groupers aren’t protected, they will become extinct.

“They are worth more alive than dead,” not just for their importance to the reef but also for the tourist dollars they can generate,” said conservationists Guy Harvey.

The groupers are considered an icon of the Caribbean because of their colourful personality and size. Many divers pet and name them.

Department of Environment Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie said Nassau groupers are normally solitary and only aggregate when spawning, pointing out that it is possible that the odd one may be caught on the reef by someone who is out fishing in areas where there are no restrictions. In such cases, Mrs. Ebanks-Petrie said there would be no penalty.

The penalty for catching the Nassau grouper in an aggregation spawning site between November and March is up to one year in prison or up to $500,000 in fines.

During the last 25 years, marine parks, conservation and enforcement efforts have led to the Cayman Islands being an example to the rest of the Caribbean of how sincere efforts in this regard can be successful. As a result, the Islands still have places where Nassau Grouper gather and spawn.

For more information see the original article from the Caymanian Compass, as well as other Green Antilles articles about Nassau Grouper protection in the Caymans.

[Photo: timandkris]

Recent research has found that shark diversity in the Cayman Islands is surprisingly low:

International marine scientists working in the Cayman Islands over the last few years studying local populations of mega marine fauna, in particular sharks and rays, have found far fewer species of sharks in local waters than they would have expected. Dr Mauvis Gore revealed that although researchers have counted sixteen different types of sharks and rays the scientists had expected to see more than a dozen other species in Cayman. Speaking at a special presentation hosted by the department of the environment, summarising their work the scientists said there was a strong case for Cayman to introduce protection for sharks in local waters.

Dr Gore explained that shark populations are under tremendous pressure all over the world as a result of fishing driven by the fin and other shark product trades as well as for the flesh. Up to 73 million sharks are caught every year which is why “populations are collapsing” and at least 20 of the 360 species worldwide face extinction in the next five years. She explained that the loss of sharks threaten ocean eco-systems as these top predators help maintain healthy reefs.

With no protection against shark fishing in Cayman it is not known how many are killed in local waters each year. “We just don’t have that information,” she added.

Pointing to a history of shark fishing and export from 1935 the doctor said this had an impact on the local populations. “Sharks mature late and have very few young so they are vulnerable to fishing,” Dr Gore added as she pointed to the modest numbers of sharks and species in Cayman waters.

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Professor Rupert Ormond explained the studies that have been undertaken to demonstrate the economic value of sharks in the ocean versus being fished. He said that the consumptive value of sharks was around $1.6million a year while the tourism value when they are protected was as much as $60million.

Researchers found around half of the fishermen in Cayman said they rarely or never fish sharks and few admitted to actually deliberately fishing them as most said they caught sharks by accident. Dr Ormond noted however with the lower than expected count there was a strong case for the Cayman Islands to introduce some form of sanctuary or protection and to try and work with neighbouring countries to introduce wider regional protections. He pointed out that mega marine fauna can bring in significant tourist dollars as there is enormous interest among visitors for swimming and diving among local shark species.

For more information see the complete article from the Cayman News Service.

Previously on Green Antilles: In the Cayman Islands, a retailer takes a pro-shark stance and Shark research in the Cayman Islands.

[Photo: Mark F]

See below two videos that present the results, so far, of the recent review of the Cayman Islands Marine Park system.

Previously on Green Antilles: Reviewing the Cayman Islands’ marine protected areas after 25 years.

In related news, residents of the Cayman Islands are being invited to share their views about the future of the Islands’ marine parks:

The Department of Environment has launched an online survey to ask the public if it thinks the marine environment in he Cayman Islands is worth saving.

The survey follows a series of public meetings in which the department outlined the threats to the Islands’ marine parks and measures taken to protect them.

The results of the online survey, along with other public feedback, will be included in a full report due out in April, which will be based on the findings of a three-year Darwin Initiative research project conducted by the Department of Environment with Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences and the Nature Conservancy in the United States.

Laura Richardson, a research support officer with the Department of Environment, said people have until February, 2012, to fill out the short survey, but encouraged participants to complete it as soon as they receive it while it is still fresh in their minds.

“The responses will certainly help inform the options we present to the public next April on how the parks and marine protection may be enhanced through this project.

The survey is available online.

In support of the growing global shark conservation effort, a Caymanian supermarket has stopped selling shark meat and all other shark products:

Foster’s Food Fair has removed all shark products from its shelves.

The supermarket had previously sold shark meat and has now taken shark cartilage pills off the shelves.

The store has also sponsored a tag for Coco the Tiger Shark, who is being tracked to give Marine Conservation International, the Cayman Islands Department of Environment and the Guy Harvey Research Institute a better understanding about the movement of sharks in local waters and around the Caribbean Sea.

Marine Conservation International’s Mauvis Gore said, “I am delighted that Foster’s Food Fair has taken such an important step for Cayman’s marine environment.”

Ms Gore said the store had sold shark meat in the past.

Tim Austin, deputy director of the Department of Environment, said, “Sharks are a vital part of the ocean’s food web, which in turn helps to keep our reefs healthy”.

However, sharks are being lost at an alarming rate locally and globally, mainly due to the Asian shark fin trade, but the demand worldwide for alternative health products, such as shark cartilage, is adding to the problem, conservationists say.

Shark cartilage has been thought to help treat cancer, but scientific studies have shown shark cartilage is not effective in halting the growth or spread of cancerous tumours. There is no published data to suggest unprocessed shark cartilage supplements are effective in treating other conditions.

Sharks are more vulnerable to exploitation than bony fish because they mature slowly, reproduce late in life and often only have pups every two years.

Ms Gore said that by taking shark products off the shelves, Foster’s Food Fair is helping the reefs return to an ecological balance.

See the original article from Compass Cayman.

Previously on Green Antilles: Shark research in the Cayman Islands and Endangered shark “butchered” in the Cayman Islands; no law against it.

[Photo: Andrew d'Entremont]

Work to save the critically endangered Grand Cayman blue iguana continues at the Anne and Kenneth Griffin Reptile Conservation Center, operated by the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

Previously on Green Antilles: A conservation success story: the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana.