I am sure that many of you following my blogs over the past 6 months will have noticed that I bite my tongue when it comes to our island’s environmental policies. I am and have always been passionate about the Antigua and Barbuda environment because living the kind of life I do, one is part of the natural environment everyday. The only way to not go insane is to understand that change is inevitable and that the change isn’t always for the best. In fact almost all change here on the island in my lifetime has taken a negative toll on the islands’ environment. Just about eight years ago I carefully designed my eco tour in a way that the most exciting and interesting childhood experiences could be shared with visitors to the area. Just like on any other eco tour, I tried to ensure that guests learned about the North Sound’s history and ecology and how the many different relationships interact.
Of course, most of the interacting was 100% natural and positive, but there were many aspects of my tour which described the not so positive relationship between the natural world and that of mankind’s.
Anyway, since I started my eco tour I have seen so many drastic changes in the coastline around Antigua and even in The North Sound where the main part of the eco tour is based. Maiden Island was even a stop off point and a major part of my tour. Mr. Allen Stanford “purchased” Maiden Island somehow from the ALP government and proposed in his Antigua Sun news paper that he’d spend US $95 million on the construction of his home there. After spending $9 million in mangrove destruction, heavy dredging of the flats eco systems, laying infrastructure, and building a barrier “reef” to block the traditional landing of boats on the shore there, he decided that he didn’t want his home there. I wrote an article and sent it to the papers about this whole story, but it was never printed. A version of it is here. These photos were taken during the construction/destruction at maiden island. One can only expect the same or similar at antigua's largest island... Guiana Island once he gets that.
In fact, he wanted Guiana Island, Antigua’s largest off-shore island, and home to the most wonderful mangrove, flats, and reef habitat in the area. By the way, both he and the government called what he did at Maiden Island “eco friendly” and suggested that if he got Guiana Island, his US $800 million project would be of the low impact and eco friendly variety. We shall see about that I guess. Anyway, for now it’s still beautiful and interesting and a big part of our eco tour. There have been other changes too which have frustrated me greatly. Spear fishing, trap fishing and gill net fishing is more rampant now that I ever remember and in the same spots that we do our snorkeling it is common to find people doing the sorts of fishing I just spoke about. Imagine how you would feel seeing a gill net right across the very reef that you take guests to on a daily basis. After an assault of net or spear fishing it takes weeks for larger fish to come back to the area. This photo shows two spear fishermen on wednesday with large strings of speared fish trailing behind them.
Spear fishing is supposed to be illegal and net fishing inside or on top of a reef is supposed to be illegal, but it happens every single day around Antigua. Bird Island is the most visited by tourists of all off shore islands and these sorts of fishing practices go on without any government regulation. In fact, as long as you don’t rip up any coral you can lay any amount of gill net. Gill nets are the ones with tiny holes which are able to catch anything. Turtles, dolphins and even whales have been known to be caught around the world in gill nets which is why most of the world has incredibly strict laws regarding such nets and the rules are enforced. Most other Caribbean islands ban all types of gill nets with the exception of surface gill nets used to catch bait fish like ballyhoo.People often wonder why I don’t run the eco tour, and there are many reasons why, but one of them is that I have a hard time being out there seeing the negative changes slowly happen. Even on the Xtreme tour we see this sort of thing happen too. There are countless areas around Antigua that have been changed within the past 2 years and while out on the tour we see many things that make our stomachs turn. Illegal sand mining from the beaches is another practice that frustrates the heck out of me and my crew and it still happens. The crazy thing is that sometimes sand is actually taken by the Public Works Authority as it was after waves from Hurricane Dean pushed the sand up on to the land next to Darkwood Beach. Government trucks took all this sand and instead of pushing it back on the beach they took it away to be used in construction. This happened after hurricane Luis and Georges when thousands of tons of sand were trucked away. People now sit and try to figure out why the beaches there are having such terrible erosion. I wonder why they wonder.
Anyway there is some good news to all this gloom and doom. Thankfully the old farts that are doing such an awful job of running the environmental aspects our tourism, environment, and fisheries divisions area being helped by a few bright young people. I’ll give you an example. On Wednesday, we were out on a private charter with people who wanted to do some good snorkeling. We got to Green Island and found that there were very few large fish at our regular snorkeling site. A short walk with the guests to the top of a lookout spot there are we saw the problem. Three spear fishermen with dozens and dozens of speared fish (mostly parrots) attached to lines behind them. Anyway, this is nothing new so on we went to my favorite snorkeling spot when the waters are clear. Pillars of Hercules at the entrance of Nelson’s dockyard is within the National Park and there are several dive and snorkeling moorings there so that you don’t have to anchor. Anchored there was a small fishing boat and in the water were several spear fishermen swimming in between the moorings. This is the most visited dive site on Antigua and our Xtreme tour stops there to show tourists fish every day.
Recently there have been net fishermen there monthly setting nets along the dive site. After seeing the guys at Green, I guess the sight of these guys harvesting fish in this particular area upset me even more. I spoke with one of the dive operators who was on his way to the mooring there and the Ministry of Environment was called. We wouldn’t waste time calling the Ministry of Tourism or the National Parks Authority because those organizations wouldn’t be able to do anything at the moment. Ministry of Environment told us to call the fisheries department…..same old story of nothing getting done. …..or not. The well spoken man who answered the phone apparently said that they would launch their boat and investigate as soon as possible. Their boat!!!???!! I was surprised to hear this and very impressed. Imagine that only now in 2007 the fisheries department has gotten a boat. This boat was not provided because of foreward thinking form the government, but actually was part of a international grant. Thank god people outside of Antigua and Barbuda care that much. Of course there are people within the fisheries ministry and here in Antigua who have been urging the Gov to set fisheries up with a boat. Finally it has arrived and is in use! Apparently, the boat did arrive 2 hours later as it’s quite far from St. Johns, and inspected the boat. The boat had gill nets too and told the fisheries boat that they were not spear fishing but in fact only setting nets (across the dive and snorkeling site). Since nets are legal, the boat turned around and sped back to st. Johns without doing a complete of the fishing boat or inspecting the speared fish. I guess one could be upset and frustrated with the outcome of this story, but to me it’s a giant step in the right direction and one that will send a clear message to fishermen. Our fisheries department has new blood inside it and they want to make a difference. The only way for a fishery to survive in this day and age is through careful management and enforcement of regulations. Up until now there has been almost no management or enforcement, but I have a feeling that this may slowly begin to change. Next time I hope that the fisheries boat will check to see the net’s hole size and check the fish for holes too! Nets don’t cause holes in fish. Also, it would be nice for Ms. Appleton who is in control of the Fisheries dept. to read up more on gill nets and how damaging they are. It is her opinion that they do no damage at all and she is unaware that they are banned in many islands all over the Caribbean. This photo shows an extemely endangered hawksbill turtle that was killed as happens very very often here in Antigua inside gill nets. The little turtles can not escape when they meet the nets. On my tours we have freed live turtles from nets like this one and seen many that didn't make it. This photo was taken by my sister Fran, who by the way has just started working with the Environment Ministry. Another positive step for sure. I just hope she can be more patient than i am being. 
It is hard to fathom why Ms. Appleton, the person in charge of fisheries here in Antigua, can not see how the rampant and unregulated use of net fishing is a problem. She thinks and says its fine and dandy. This type of net: http://www.cccturtle.org/velador.php?page=velart68 is being used extensively here in our waters at depths of up to 70 feet. An interesting report on gill net fishing can be found here. Other islands nearby have had proper scientific studies done on gill net fishing and the world wide concensus is that gill net fishing is extremely harmful in shallow waters. A complicated but scientific report on St. vincent's fishery can be found here. The tall and short of it is that unless something is done both the fishery and the tourism industry will continue to face problems.I hope also that I can get Ms. Hodge from National Parks to help get something done to protect the Pillars of Hercules site. Let’s not forget the Hon. Mr. Lovell minister of Environment as you would think that he would be interested in speaking with the relevant people about helping to protect a few key areas for Antigua’s visiting snorkelers and divers. For that matter we should think that our Prime Minister Hon. Baldwin Spencer would be interested in protecting a few tiny areas as fishing free zones so that our tourism product could be enhanced without a big investment. That’s the thing that I can never understand. It doesn’t cost much to protect the few key snorkeling and dive sites, but no Gov. Official wants to do anything about it. What a difference it would make for our tourists and tour operators. Maybe there would even come a day when video and photos of Antigua’s reefs could be used in promoting our country instead of using video and pics form St. Lucia and the like…..
If you are in contact with people “in high places” please urge them to do something to help protect our key tourist snorkeling and dive sites. It won’t take much and it will help all involved in the long run…even the fishermen since anyone who knows about fishing and regulations knows that almost always its the fishermen who benefit most in the long run.
If you are in contact with people “in high places” please urge them to do something to help protect our key tourist snorkeling and dive sites. It won’t take much and it will help all involved in the long run…even the fishermen since anyone who knows about fishing and regulations knows that almost always its the fishermen who benefit most in the long run.
There are no national beach clean up programs and its up to the general public to do the job. 
Unfortunately the general public isn’t that good at cleaning up the beaches themselves and there is a huge amount of garbage around our coastline that has ended up there because of careless people here on the island. Saturday September 15th is International Coastal Cleanup day and there is a growing group of people here on the island that plans on making a big difference on that day. What I have been telling people to do is to use it as an excuse to have a beach day. Just take your buckets and spades, fishing rod, cooler of beer, or whatever it is that you take to the beach when you go, and enjoy a lovely day at the beach with the goal of taking home more than you brought with you.
Just pack an extra garbage bag and scoop up a few bits and pieces. That way you had a great day at the beach and helped clean up a bit of our planet’s coastline. I am not 100% sure what our 
For more info on the whole thing please check out 
Leni Miras and Bruno De'Oliveira are department managers at the lovely hotel and were kind enough to get a night there for us. Mykl also does environmental consulting for the hotel helping it to be recognized as "green" by the international organization 
I have seen the hotel described as being "new age" but as a friend remarked on my facebook page the other day....... "Carlisle Bay, sweet, asian minimalist. bold and refined." haha well i am not sure if they like it described that way but it isn't your typical Caribbean resort and although not what you would expect to find down here, its unique modern style and chic character enhances our tourism product without a doubt. If you think you have seen it all and done it all here in the Caribbean then a holiday at this place would change your mind. Antigua's hoteliers have been re-inventing the tourism product over the past ten years and couragous concepts like Carlisle Bay, Coco Bay, and Hermitage Hotel are helping Antigua attract a new generation of holiday makers. Anyway enough of that kinda writing. You guys may start to think that they are paying me.
However, dinner at East wasn't to be missed. At the main Pavillion bar, we met up with Bruno and Leni who was the MOD that evening. Of course we thanked them again for the lovely birthday gift and let Bruno pick a drink for us. 
The bar man was the same young man who had come up with the lovely welcome drink and Bruno suggested that we try his specialty, The Barbuda Smile. This rum based drink had all sorts in it but the basil gave it a lovely unique flair. The bar man was talented and friendly and didn't just mix the usual suspects (or thats what it felt like anyway). I bet he invented new drinks as often as the check in and check outs came and went. Perfect!
Lets not forget about the desserts with things like "the molten chocolate lava" or the "salty caramel ice cream"... lets move on shall we as i haven't had dinner yet tonight.
By the end of it all we felt very relaxed and grateful to have been given the chance to stay at this very luxurious resort even if it was down the road. 
The hotel closes this weekend for the usual end of season "fix up" and Leni and Bruno will be leaving the island after four years of service. They move on to more of the Campbell Gray properties abroad and Mykl and i will not be the only people on Antigua that will miss them. The rest of the management and staff at the luxury Carlisle Bay resort will miss them for sure too. 
This has been bothering me for a few days now and i have looked online quite a bit to get a better idea on how dangerous the average bottle of sunscreen is. What a bunch of garbage there is written about the possible health effects of sunscreen and their chemical ingredients....OMG. BUT.... if you pick your way through the garbage there are some sensible articles which help to clear up the down side of protecting your skin with the average sunscreen. Many of the most common chemical sunscreen ingredients are "possible" carcinogens. "POSSIBLE"....... Hmmm.....an ingredient in the stuff that i cover my face in may give me cancer. GREAT!!!! Read this article to find out more: 
Although very simple in its approach and quite old, this BBC article is quite interesting 
When I started my tour 
I have at least 10 versions of answers to that one just so the crew doesn’t get annoyed with the same answer each day. One of them may be silly like “there are loads of sharks, but they are all walking around on two legs in St. Johns.” The answer could be more serious like… “Yes, but there has never been a shark attack in Antigua’s recorded history.”
It’s not a joke at all and is the core of today’s blog. Each year in the USA over one million people get skin cancer with over eight thousand deaths a year because of the disease. This 
Now I am no scientist so I don’t know which of these chemicals are better for you than the other, but there are loads of articles on the net that you can research the topic more. I know that many people think that some of these chemicals may do more harm than good. A good start explaining the benefits is found on this link where i took the quote below from: 
You want to find high factor, broad spectrum UVA and UVB sunscreens that say something like “all day waterproof” or even “6 hour waterproof”. This is where I think the USA does a better job that the UK. Most of the UK stuff washes off as soon as you get in the sea and unless you are always putting the stuff back on you will get burnt. 
My sunscreen of choice for years has been Bullfrog since I can put it on once in the morning as I am leaving the harbour and that’s it for the day. The stuff stays on after loads of snorkeling too. Epicurean in Jolly Harbour has it for sale.
There are more and more waterproof sunscreens on the market and recently someone left us some Coppertone kids 50 waterproof spray which is so good that I think you only need to apply it once a holiday!! My mom and brother have had more serious skin cancers than I have had and it’s no joke at all. Buy the right stuff and put it on. Even the people with nice dark skin can get skin cancer so be prepared. It’s a lovely place to be and it can be safe with the right preparations. I think that good education about sharks, 
We took a group of people out on a private birthday charter and so many were moaning about how awful the British weather had been. And apart from a few days in August it has been an incredibly sunny summer here in Antigua and Barbuda with drought on the islands being a big problem until recently. People all over the world are so obsessed with weather and when you have put up with rain, snow, cold and clouds for most of the year I guess you would be kinda worried that your Antigua holiday may not be sunny. I always see people on the internet forums worrying about the possibility of rain and clouds ruining their upcoming Antigua and Barbuda vacation. Way way way too many people look at the animated forecasts which I have spoken so much about on other blogs (
I think this weekend will be a chilled out one with possibly a little fishing and windsurfing. I am thinking of doing several blog reports with photos about learning how to windsurf so that people can almost have a lesson during their lunch brake back in the big city office. 
Keep checking for updates and have a good weekend.
Of course the beaches will get back to normal in no time, but many Hawksbill turtle nests have been washed into the sea. At 1 in 10000 eggs reaching maturity this species could do without hurricane season. My sister Francis Fuller just started working with Antigua's Environment Division and called me yesterday telling me about a nest they found partially washed into the sea at Jabberwock Beach. She said it had recently hatched out so the little guys had already got into the sea. Turtles have evolved in ways which help them in so many situations, but for some reason they haven’t figured out that hurricane season isn’t a good time for beach nesting. I dunno there are other factors possibly which make hurricane season good for nesting. After all, this type of beach erosion from storms only happens once in a blue moon. In fact, the seas are way rougher in the winter months than they are on average in the summer. As long as a hurricane doesn’t pass that close the little eggs will be fine while they sit tight in that sandy nest for 60 nights. If the females are the lucky ones of the season they will return to nest on these beaches twenty years later. With all the changes mankind is bringing upon planet earth there is much uncertainty about what they may find when they come back to nest. For now though, the turtles coming in to nest this next week will be fine on many of our 365 beaches.
I was doing a walk on the beach checking for fresh nests as we are part of the Antigua Turtle Study run by the EAG and Mykl Clovis, when I came across the nest. The usual tell tale signs of the recent hatch were on the surface. Little white folded over egg shells were scattered around a small indentation in the sand. We were running a bit late, but I quickly started digging up the old nest to check for stragglers. It was slow as the sand on Rendezvous is so fine and it kept falling back into my excavation. I found many successfully opened shells and two or three that seemed to have been unfertilized. I found one that contained what felt like a turtle that didn’t make it. Leatherback turtles are the largest of all turtles and incredibly endangered. Of course there are some beaches on the planet where they come up to nest in large numbers, but in general their numbers are dangerously low. Anyway, the egg was half way between a golf and tennis ball in size and was fairly soft. I opened it worried about the possible smell. To my surprise the dead baby leatherback inside was very fresh and had no smell at all. The nest must have just hatched the night before and the poor little fella looked as if it were just sleeping. It was curled up as if still inside the eggs protection. I guess that’s the turtle fetal position, but it was holding the egg yoke which never got a chance to be its final sustenance before it began its journey into the Atlantic. 
I know the odds are such that it’s very common to find little unfortunates like this but it still was sad to see it like that. Time was running out for our time at Rendezvous and I had to get back to drive the boat back along the remainder of the tour. The rum punch stop, our last stop was at an end. I took the turtle to show the guests and Mykl as well. The photo shows the poor thing in my hand. I guess the good news is that although I didn’t dig up the entire nest, it seemed as though most of the eggs had successfully hatched out. The next day I had a private charter which went to Rendezvous on its first stop. I decided to go and finish digging up the nest with Tony. Some of the guests came along with me and within minutes we pulled out a hatchling. To my surprise is moved, but I could tell immediately that it wasn’t in good shape at all. Its soft shell looked a little out of shape and the movements were so slow that I was sure it was about to die and even said so. The two guests said that we should put it in the water and it did seem to get a little more active once in the sea where it belonged. IT wasn’t strong enough to swim though and I wasn’t sure about its chances. The guests kept it trying to see if it would get stronger and while Tony and I finished digging up the nest and another one near it the little straggler appeared to waken up a bit more. We took it back to the boat putting it into a dark bucket with a little water so that it would be wet but relaxed in the darkness. I got on the phone with Mykl and then Sarah at the Jumby Bay turtle project. They agreed that we should keep it for Jebson a turtle volunteer who has had quite a bit of luck rehabilitating turtles that didn’t make it out of their nests. By the time the sun set, the turtle was looking much better and although I still wasn’t convinced the weak creature would pull through I was beginning to think that against all the odds, it just may be ok. Later we delivered it to Jebson who said that he thought it looked pretty good and thought that he could release it in a few days. He had some special food that he would give it the next day. Unfortunately as if destined to become part of the statistics, the baby leatherback took its last breath that night. Sitting alone in that nest out of the protection of its egg for days was just too much for Rene as we ended up calling her. Her brothers and sisters are now out in the Atlantic trying to be the lucky few that make it back to Rendezvous bay in the distant future. The study that I spoke about which is taking place here in Antigua is finding out so many things about Antigua’s nesting turtle population and the threats that it faces on a daily basis. There is plenty more to find out and although there is currently only funding for this summers study, I hope that it may continue next year. Turtles around the world need all the help they can get. Maybe I will try to set up some sort of donation thing on this blog so that the EAG’s study may continue. The one over at Jumby Bay has been going on for over 20 years and is now one of the world’s leading studies.
I hope it weakens but at the moment its been undergoing rapid growth and strengthening. I don't think Antigua had any damage from Dean at all except possibly some beach erosion. I drove around this morning and took a few photos. This one was Curtain Bluf's outer reef above Cades.
This link shows a sequence at Half moon bay.