"Gill netting" the biggest threat to Antigua and Barbuda's waters.

Almost every day people contact me one way or another to discuss some horrible environmental threat to our world. In Antigua I am known by some as an environmental "activist" these days and because of that i get people calling me about mangrove being cut or about turtles being harmed or about waste oil being discarded. You name it i get calls about it if it is remotely related to the environment. Of course Antigua is no different than anywhere else these days with regard to the buzz about Global Warming and Climate Change. Because of the type of business i am in I have to have a pickup truck. On any given day i am carrying something that nobody in their right mind would put into a regular car and so for the business I do need it. I would be heavily taxed to drive something like that in the UK and lords knows i would rather be driving something more economical most of the time which is why I have an ATV to do plenty of my moving around. That's a whole other story and i am getting a bit off track here as you would imagine after reading the above title. All of these environmental concerns that are brought to me on a daily basis are important and will have impact on our lives here on this little island, but to me there are more important things to worry about. Global Warming is happening and will mean all sorts of things. Reefs will die, habitats will change, and all sorts of bad things will happen, but I can't help think that while the majority of people are all yelling and screaming about Global Warming there are things that are being ignored that are more urgent.

You see, when someone says I have to stop driving my truck because it's impact on global warming will mean higher temperatures for oceans which will lead to coral reef bleaching I get so frustrated. I feel like asking them if they have ever seen a reef in Antigua. While people are jumping up and down trying to save the reefs by controlling emissions, they are missing the fact that they and most of the ocean is being killed by things not related to Global Warming at all and it's happening fast. Global Warming is an issue which in my opinion has taken way too much focus away from the nuts and bolts of environmental protection and preservation. Now I can just see people getting super frustrated after reading my last sentence, but let me make something pellucidly clear...... Climate Change is real as is global warming and we all have to be concerned and we have to do our part to slow it down. Many scientists believe it's all too late and even if we all stopped driving today the wheels of climate change are going to fast to be stopped. Some scientists believe that the only way to stop it is by taking drastic measures. This BBC article shows several bold measures that could make a difference or could make things worse (check here). Who knows? What i do know is that while Rome burns some people are messing about in my humble opinion. Our government here in Antigua is sending people (including my super smart sister Fran) all over the planet because Antigua chairs the G77 which is the largest intergovernmental organization of developing states. You can read more about them here. One of the main things they have been doing this year is discussing climate change and trying to come up with binding agreements. All very complicated to me, but i am sure that eventually good things will come of it even if the Saudi's get financial aid when their oil runs out????!!!???!!??!?!?! However! While our government chairs the G77 talks and sends its diplomats and technocrats all over the planet with the goal of trying to save it, our reefs and waters which are the live blood of our little twin island state are perishing and perishing so fast that in the last few years i have seen certain fish become extinct here in Antigua. In my blogs you will read about (do a search up on the left top corner) sand mining, reef protection, mangrove protection and the like and off of these things seem to go on unnoticed by our country's leaders. It's almost as if they don't care. There are some within the government's departments who understand the big issues and the big picture, but for whatever reason they can't seem to get the message across to the fat cats at the top.

To me, the decimation of our marine life over the past 5 years due to the huge increase of gill net use within the continental shelf (a.k.a "shallow waters") has been so horrible that all talk of global warming seems so petty and annoying to me. A healthy reef fish population is related to a healthy reef, which is related to a healthy shoreline and beach, which is related to a healthy fishery, which is related to a healthy tourism product, which is related to a healthy economy. The big picture is so simple to see if you just take the time to look and are willing to be educated ever so slightly. Antigua and Barbuda sit together on a large shelf and our reef systems although terribly damaged by storms in the 90s are large and cover a big area. The numbers of fish though are very low because of very little fishery regulation (or very little fishery enforcement). Fish traps are all over and none are regulated or monitored properly. Gill nets which have been in use here for decades are more prevalent now than ever and are being used at various depths on the shelves. Some are being used off the shelves too in depths of up to 1000 feet. Very little escapes a gill net and there is no proper species targeting which is why they are banned in most countries. Read this little blurb about banning nets in New Zealand. There is so much fish being taken at the juvenile stage that I am sure that a collapse of certain species is immanent. History repeats itself over and over on this topic which is another thing that drives me crazy. Gill nets are banned in most 1st world countries as well as in many 3rd world nations to protect the environment, but more importantly to protect the fishery. Most fishery regulations are made to make sure that the fishermen can keep catching fish at a sustainable level. There is no concept of sustainable fishing here at all, and the main reason for that i suppose is that the people at the top just don't have an idea about our own fishery. I have met many people within our Ministry of Fisheries over the past two years and think that most of the people working within the department care about our country's fishery and understand the need for controls which work toward sustainability, but for some reason the people at the very top are not getting the message or the right info. One head of the department went on record saying that there is no problem with gill net use in Antigua and that there is more damage being caused to our fishery from recreational fishing. To hear that point of view coming from someone at the top of the department is very scary to put it mildly. It means that they don't spend any time at all on the water around Antigua and Barbuda at all and therefore don't know what's going on. Unless gill nets are banned or heavily regulated my unborn children and grandchildren will only know of reef fish from stories. This goes for the people using the nets too. The sad reality is that it isn't just fish that are being killed by gill nets. When an endangered sea turtle swims into a net it usually is killed within twenty minutes. Conch, lobster, dolphins, sharks, rays, corals both soft and hard, anemones, birds, whales and all sorts of other life can be killed in nets which have either been set or discarded. I just can't understand how our fisheries bosses can think that they don't cause much damage. Here are just a few pics of gill nets in Antigua. I am going to take more photos and make more noise about this cause because this has to be stopped in order to protect our future fishermen and to protect our island as a whole:

Great weather for fishing

On Sunday the sky was clear and the sea very calm so we had to go fishing even though none of the full time fishermen had been catching fish. This time we went out with my cousin David on his Boston Whaler. The first challenge was catching "sprat" which are a type of pilchard that school up pretty tight at this time of the year. It all happens at the time when pelicans are feeding their young chicks and you will usually find sprat and other small schooling fish where the pelicans are diving. We found some after searching for longer than we had anticipated. Anyway, i had to catch them using a cast net. I am not very good at casting a net, but luckily the fish were schooling so tight that it was easy to get enough bait before long. They were stored alive in the bait well at the back of the boat where we could easily get them later once we had arrived at "the bank". The bank is a spot which isn't on the charts for some strange reason and happens to have great tuna fishing. Tuna love live bait so that's the spot we were speeding off to with rods, hooks and baits. The sea was slightly choppy but without white caps and it was an extreme dark but clear blue. We arrived at the bank at about 10 am and saw the flocks of birds that always are a signal that you are in the right spot. Noddies fly around the bank looking for feeding tuna that chase small fish up to the surface and provide the fast birds with a fresh catch of their own. As soon as we dropped what we call a "french man" over the side we were hooked up onto a black fun tuna. These guys usually don't get much bigger than about 10 pounds but do occasionally get twice as big. As we got the fish to the boat we used a long needle and some dental floss to rig the small tuna to a larger hook in a way that it would stay alive and healthy until a much bigger fish took it. We were hoping to catch a very large tuna with this live bait method. The other rods were quickly hooked and baited with the small live sprat from the live well and scoops of small sprat were thrown over to attract predators. Before long we had a bite on the live tuna, but it didn't hook up. When we got all the line to the boat we saw that it had been cut off by a large fish that had big teeth. When fishing for tuna we don't normally use wire leaders before the hook and prefer to use a short "leader" of heavy nylon which tuna can't bite through easily. The clear leader works well for tuna but doesn't work well when there are sharks or wahoo around. Anyway, we caught more small tuna but never found the big yellowfin tuna that we were trying to target. The current was very strong despite the sea being so calm. It was hot too, and we spoke quite a bit about the poor people who had floated across the Atlantic to their deaths recently. After some lunch we moved over to a different spot where we anchored to do some more live baiting with sprat again hoping to find where the yellowfin were hanging out. Very quickly Mahi Mahi (aka dolphin fish) arrived and started attacking our live sprat. These were very small mahi and I wasn't that interested in them. David was as he said he hadn't had fresh fish in a while. The little dolphin fish would be delicious later and they managed to catch four or five of them before the school figured out something was not right. Again the current at this spot was very strong and was taking the chum and the live bait into the shallows which was not where we wanted them to be going... the tuna would be in the deep. After catching a few other small black fin tuna we decided to call it a day and powered up the engines bound for home. The day before i had seen a small school of sprat at the entrance of Jolly Harbour so when we arrived there we let the remaining sprat in our live bait well go at that spot. It had been a fun day out but we didn't end up with the big yellowfin that i had hoped to catch as we did last year. (seen in this vid):

Of the two common fishing sayings i hear often, i am not sure which one i like better. The first is "Every day is a fishing day, but every day isn't a catching day", and the second is "Some men go fishing all their lives not realizing that it's not fish that they are after".

African migrants lost at sea found dead off Antigua.

A very sad story two days ago surfaced after a 40 foot open boat was found with dead bodies on board. Eight bodies were found terribly emaciated inside the boat with at least one having an African (Mali) ID card. Here is the very simple theory about what many of us think happened. The African refugees piled into the boat and set off from somewhere in North West African with the Canary Islands as their destination and their hope of a better life, broke down or went off course and started the deadly drifting passage across the Atlantic. It generally takes somewhere between 60 and 100 days to drift across to the Caribbean along the stream of currents i spoke in great detail about in this blog. According to official reports out of Spain, 30,000+ people a year arrive in the Canary Islands each year from Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Cabo Verde, Mauritania and Morocco. This map (forget the red line) shows the Atlantic just for reference. Estimates gathered from newspaper reports all over the central Atlantic suggest that somewhere around 600 people perish each year and another 300 go missing trying to get to the Spanish islands off . In June of 2006 a smaller boat was found just off Barbados in a similar state. The boat was half the size and had 11 bodies on the boat with papers of 36 people in total. An international investigation was started and eventually a Spanish man who had taken money to tow the boat to the Canaries was charged after it became apparent that the line was deliberately cut. Usually there wouldn't be only 8 people in a 40 foot boat and i have a terrible feeling that there were originally more in the boat found here. The boat is one of many models designed by the Japanese. "Over 30 years ago a Japanese Motor Company was given the task of designing a hull to help promote fishing in third world countries. The hull would have to withstand the rigors of daily commercial fishing, carry very heavy loads as well as be extremely power & fuel efficient. Primarily manufactured in Japan, there are more than 100 thousand "Panga" boats in use around the world with many of the original first year production hulls still in use today." from panga.com You can actually see the model (same colour too) in this website from Columbia. Here in Antigua, Robert Shoul is the dealer for these boats through his company "Outdoor World". The boat can carry 8,800 lbs.
If anything is drifting free anywhere near Western Africa within that huge circular current it will end up passing or drifting up here in the Caribbean. We have the garbage on our windward beaches to prove it. That blog i mentioned speaks in detail all about that current.
One of the first books apart from Old Man and the Sea that I really enjoyed was "Adrift" which tells a story of a yacht race gone wrong where single racers compete sailing their boats by themselves across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean. The author's boat hit something at night and went down very quickly off western Africa. He only has time to throw over his inflatable life raft and grab his small emergency abandon ship bag. He drifts for 76 days and ends up just off Guadeloupe. It's an amazing story of a man's will to survive and the way he succeeded by using his knowledge of the ocean. He was lucky enough to have that grab bag which was prepared for such a disaster. The Africans who possibly piled into the 40 footer after sunset one fateful evening didn't take much with them as I am sure they had expected to be in Fuerteventura before sunrise. The trip from point to point is just 60 miles as seen in the google earth photo i took seen here. Even with 8000 pounds of people (50 people) on board as is possible according to the specs of the boat they could make the trip from the closest bit of Morocco with just under 10 gallons of gasoline in about six hours. The last thing they expected was to be adrift and floating for months across the great ocean which is why it is so easy to see why they would have perished without water or food. In the boat found off Barbados they found a note: “I would like to send to my family in Bassada (Senegal) a sum of money. Please excuse me and goodbye,......This is the end of my life in this big Moroccan sea”.
Someone called in to the Daily Observer Radio yesterday and said that we should all be thankful of how lucky we are here on this little island. I tend to agree with him.
For more info you can read this report on this type of migrant issue.

Boat in Antigua for sale

Back in the autumn of 2006 I made a decision to get a replacement engine for Xtreme just in case we had problems. I looked around and couldn't find one that didn't cost the earth. I knew that using Xtreme to go fishing with a few friends just cost too much to realistically do it often. Even going snorkeling on Adventure Antigua days off was expensive with Xtreme so after searching and searching I found a boat that had two of the same engines that were on Xtreme. The boat was old and the engines were new. Together they were not that expensive and I thought that buying the boat would be a great idea. It was smaller and would burn far less fuel with just the two engines and if Xtreme had a problem we could just pull the one giving problem off and replace it with one from the smaller boat while the engine was fixed.

I made a trip up to Florida to check the boat out and paid a deposit. The boat arrived in my control in December and I wrote about it back then here. After a few runs fate sailed into town in the form of an engine problem on Xtreme. Back in January of 2007 the smaller boat became an organ donor as Xtreme's faulty engine was taken into the shop. I was told by the mechanic that they would quickly fix the engine, put it back on the Xtreme, and give the smaller back its engine too. Since then Xtreme has gotten that engine back two times and each time it broke down almost immediately. So since January 2007 I have been waiting for the mechanic who has on of Xtreme's engines to fix it and return it to me. In the meantime, the boat i had planned on going fishing with and also fixing up with the idea of doing inexpensive private charters has sat disabled.

I have finally come to the conclusion that that boat will never have two working engines for any consistent length of time and I'd be better off selling it and getting something even smaller that will run on one engine for those calm fishing days. So if you know of anyone who wants a fast sports fishing boat with all the fishing rod holders you could ever want with a nice trailer and no engines.... i have that boat for sale. Here is a pic of the boat for sale here in Antigua. Click on the link here for a bigger image of the ad.

"blistering sunshine"

Had a nice few days "holiday" in San Juan, Puerto Rico this past week while Adventure Antigua was quiet. This is the time of year when most tourism related business slows down to the point where many businesses shut down all together. Many people ask why the the main off season happens at this time of the year and it has to do with the fact that most of our visitors come from areas that have miserable winters and save their vacation time for when their own weather is at its worst. Summer time in many European and North American places isn't that bad. (I can hear the Brits laughing after reading this last piece). People there want to escape to somewhere with good weather during the winter. The Caribbean is an ideal place for a winter holiday as the weather is just so nice at that time. The reality is that the weather here in Antigua and Barbuda is better than most places on earth with warm sea and air temperatures all year long with highs almost never as high as 90 degrees F (32C) and never lower than 78 F (25.5C). Rainfall is a funny one as most of our rain each month can come in a single day and sometimes we go without any rain for months. It's not uncommon for a high percentage of our annual yearly rainfall to come down in about a weeks worth of rainy days. I say this is a funny one because the weather men here say on the most sunny days that the weather will be "fair to partly cloudy" and that's as good as it gets here for them. You have never heard them say "tomorrow will be sunny and hot". That just won't happen and a cloudless day where the most tanned person will probably get the worst skin cancer causing sun burn of their lives will be forecast as "fair to partly cloudy". If they are really expecting a few clouds to roll across the brilliant sky then they will include "with a chance of scattered showers" in their forecast. For over 10 years i have been moaning about this because the international forecasters who use the simple animated forecasts interpret this "fair to partly cloudy with a change of scattered showers" in a slightly different way than the average Antiguan does. This pic shows a "fair to partly cloudy day with a chance of scattered showers":

This one shows a "fair to partly cloudy day":

I am not sure what a "sunny day" would look like as i have never heard anyone giving a forecast here in Antigua say it would be a sunny day. That would have the country dazed and confused I think. Not to mention scorched off the face of the earth probably too. The reason i have been so frustrated about this is that I know for a fact that people take one look at the UK/US interpretation of the "fair to partly cloudy" (seen here today):

and pick a different place to visit for their much needed vacation. I have had people tell me that they would have cancelled their trip here after seeing the 10 day forecasts but couldn't get any money back from cancelling flights. One day the forecasters here will figure it out i guess but for now you will just have to trust me: We don't get rain 365 days a year like yahoo weather says and we are sunny as hell most of the time. I have the skin cancers to prove it! A great place to see how much rain we are actually getting in Antigua is from a radar which shows in real time time where the rain is falling. This link: shows rainfall measured by Radars in Guadeloupe and in Martinique. If you are worried that this Yahoo weather and others with those silly forecasts may be right... just keep an eye on this link to see how badly they do at forecasting rain in Antigua and Barbuda. By the way, you kind of have to know where Antigua is on the map. It's the one just above Guadeloupe which is the one looking like a butterfly. You can also animate this link which will give you the motion of the rainfall showing you where it's going. If you are looking for a lush tropical jungle feel on your island holiday do not come to Antigua. I can recommend many islands in the Caribbean to go and find your little piece of Jurassic Park but Antigua is far to dry to be placed into that category.

hurricane season peaks

The picture on the National Hurricane Center's website looks like this is in fact September. There can be no doubt that this is the most active month in a year's summer hurricane season. There are six systems that are being followed by the NHC. Thankfully only one looks like it could possibly be a storm threat to the Eastern Caribbean at the moment. The terrible Gustav which killed people in Jamaica, DR, Haiti, Cuba and probably in the USA today is now moving inland to meet it's own fate. Tropical Storm Hanna moved on well to the north of Antigua and Barbuda giving us some much needed rain before making landfall over the Turks and Caicos islands yesterday. Thankfully it is only a tropical storm. That will change according to forecasts from the NHC and it looks like it may end up as a hurricane as it hits North Eastern Florida. Let's hope it doesn't get too strong. Then there are two other systems in the Atlantic at the moment that people are checking. Invest 97L which is a strong tropical wave looks like it will pass to the north of the Caribbean as did Hanna did, but we will keep looking at it. There is another wave way north up by Bermuda but that's no threat down here either. What I am concerned about at this early stage is the one that is still coming off Africa. Invest 99L is a big area of disturbed weather that we here in the Eastern Caribbean will have to watch carefully over the next few days. Antigua and Barbuda has not been hit by a hurricane since 1999, but this season is looking active and I am worried that our good luck may get tested. Will keep you posted.

New engines and propulsion systems for Eco Boat

Up until November 2003 we were using a Wellcraft Scarab Super Sport to do our "North Sound Eco Historical Tour" as it was called in the early days. We started with a much smaller boat but fairly quickly moved to the Wellcraft which was a 34 foot center consol boat with two big outboards on the back. Even with a full boat we were not making any money and with engine problems now and then it just wasn't the right boat. As you know if you have read the history of AA blogs featured on the right side of this blog in the links section, you will know that another problem we had in 2002 is that we were too busy to keep the customers happy. Anyway, in the end we found our Cooper Marine 52 foot tunnel hull which is also known as a power catamaran. The boat was one of two made so they didn't have much experience with the design. The engines were made by the Japanese company Yanmar and were high power and very light aluminum engines which as it turns out are not very durable for commercial use. The propulsion systems called stern drives are made by Mercruiser and are specially designed diesel units. As it turns out these also are not that durable for commercial use. So far we have spent somewhere in the region of about US $120,000 in new engines, drives, parts and labour over the past 5 years to keep the boat running. Apart from the huge financial cost there has been several other costs including environmental costs and mental health costs!!!!!! To see huge chunks of metal just thrown away because the stern drive or engine is not worth fixing has disgusted me. There were other environmental concerns as well. Since 2005 I have been constantly bothered by the nagging problem of what to do. Repowering a boat is a huge task and very expensive indeed. This October we are going to be making our final payment on the boat as it will have been five years since we got the loan for it and I think that it's now time to take another big step. We are going to completely change the way the boat is powered. We have dozens of options available to us at the moment. We have people from Yamaha working the numbers to see if we will get the right performance and we have people from Iveco Marine and Pulse Drive doing the same thing. I am going to be making my final decision within a few days. The boat will probably be out of commission for the month of October while we install the new engines and propulsion systems and the Eco Tour will be done using the Xtreme boat just for that month. Come the first of November we will be back in business with a newly designed boat. I am excited and will let you know more info soon.

"I dont wanna grow up..."

Recently i went to see a doctor after having some bad sinus problems. The very nice nurse made me fill out a very long form. When I gave it back to her she checked it carefully and then asked me with a puzzled look, "how old are you". I thought it was a strange question because not only did i write my date of birth in the right section of the form but i also wrote my age in it's proper section too. I said to her that like i wrote on the form, I am 34 years old. She smiled and said, "but Mr. Fuller you are 35 years old." I smiled and said "no I am actually 34." She then put it to me very kindly that if I was born on August 23rd 1972 then i was in fact 35 years old and proceeded to do the math for me. As if I had just been told i have a terrible disease, I took the news and accepted the reality solemnly. Why had i thought i was still 34 years old? Have I been telling people this lie all year? And why? Was it because as i was reminded yesterday that its because a 36th birthday is closer to the big 4 0 than a 35th birthday? I think that may have something to do with it. Subconsciously I wanted to be closer to 30 than to 40. Jeez! I guess if the nurse hadn't given me the reality check I would have been very embarrassed this week. Either way the day has come and I have past the half way mark and am closer to FORTY than anything else. How could it be that i am soooo..... hmm (don't want to offend anyone out there) .... much older than i was just the other day? I was just catching ''conya" (squirrel fish) off the rocks on the beach with my cousins and brother. It seems like just the other day I was going to compete at my first international windsurfing regatta.... Weird how life just flies by at a rate of knots sometimes huh? While in the shower this morning listening to the winds blowing hard outside I remembered the days when strong winds would have me rushing to the beach to go windsurfing. Three knee operations later my knee hurts sometimes just hearing the winds:) Anyway, in the shower I decided that its time to get some work done on it again. I had put it off several times this year but before this 2008 is finished I think I am going to try to get it fixed up a bit. Before I finished my shower I even thought about how fun it would be to get into windsurfing again properly. I even thought about how fun it would be to race for Antigua at the 2012 Olympics. I will be turning 40 then and it would have 24 years since I represented Antigua in the Olympics back in South Korea.

They say time flies when you are having fun...... if that's the way it has to be then I hope it never slows down.

Back to turtles and fun stuff

Of course when i started writing this blog I never thought I would be writing about issues other than sun sea and sand fun stuff, and the recent disaster at Cocos Hotel really has messed me up. I know that sounds silly, but I can tell you that my emotions have been all over the place. I guess i am not alone and most people i speak with here are borderline obsessed with the whole ordeal. This has shaken Antigua, and I hope with the arrest and charging of the two youth yesterday we may start to feel a bit better.

On sunday we went to check on a few turtle nests at Rendezvous Bay. According to the books these nests were due to hatch out last week, so we wanted to make sure that all was well there. This photo was taken on the road a few years ago after some rains.The road down to Rendezvous was terrible and worse than it has been for a while which was strange as there had been very little rain lately. Anyway, by the time we got to the beach we were feeling all shook up. Don't attempt it unless you don't care too much about your jeep/truck or if you have back or neck problems. This is the worst ride in Antigua for sure. There were some other people just leaving as we arrived and within minutes we had the beach to ourselves.

We walked down to where I had seen a turtle track some 65 days ago when I made a stop while running the Xtreme Tour. Our boats report nestings whenever we spot tracks. Sure enough the tell tale signs of a hatching were evident at the spot. High up inside the sea grape vegetation we saw tiny broken shells which had been brought up from beneath the sand as the little hawksbill turtles scrambled out. I guess scrambled isn't the best word when talking about turtle eggs and nests, but these little guys made it all the way into the water. We dug up the nest to make sure that all had gotten out and it looked as if all were successful. Good news. What usually happens is after about 60 days of being cooped up inside little ping pong ball eggs a foot below the surface they know its time to get out. I would too. Anyway, inside those little eggs the little turtles feel the temperature drop and by instinct know its time to get out. The temp dropping indicates that it's night time and the right time for them to head to the water. You see, somehow this thing works so that they do it under the cover of darkness so as to avoid getting spotted by birds. Anyway, they wait until all the rest of their siblings have broken free of the little soft shells and they start digging for the surface. Once they come out of the nest they look for the brightest thing around and start moving towards it. Again, by instinct they know they need to move to the brightest thing which on a natural beach is always the water. On a beach with a hotel this isn't the case and many little buggers get killed by heading towards the bright shiny dining room or bar. Bright lights on beaches kill little turtles every year all over the world. This beach I guess is an endangered species too then as it is one of few that still is dark at night leaving the glistening water with all the natural reflections form the night's sky for the little turtles to follow. Once they finally make it to the water they swim for about two weeks non stop trying to get far into the Atlantic currents. I guess we can talk about what happens next for the little guys on another blog.

Back to the beach. Many times big momma hawksbill turtles like to lay their eggs under the cover of natural beach vegetation, which is why i get so upset when hotels and others clear or ''beautify'' beaches that this vegetation. Why? Well one of the best reasons for having vegetation on a beach going up to the high water mark is that it helps to stop beach erosion during high winds, unusual waves or heavy rains. If you want the sand to stay on a beach leave the natural plant life! Another important thing is that it provides shelter to an interesting beach habitat. Due to studies carried out here in Antigua by the University of Georgia, scientists found out that turtles nesting in shaded areas produce a higher percentage of male turtle offspring. I always thought it was the other way around, but no i was wrong. Higher temperatures mean more females. Cooler more shady areas more females. There are so many things making it tough for female turtles out there that it's no wonder that they are endangered. One big reason is that they are more likely to be killed than the males who never come ashore and of course since they are the ones laying eggs we need plenty of them to help the species survive.

We found 8 hatched nests along the beach which was fairly good for this time of year. Last year several nest were damaged after huge waves unearthed them. This season is looking much better so far. fingers crossed.

As a side note. I just was emailed this by a friend.

Another excellent source of info on our island's turtles is the EAG Turtle Blog.

Two charged with the cocos murder

Two boys have been charged with the Cocos Murders. The accused are Kaniel Martin who is 20, and Avie Howell who is just 17. The similarities between this murder and the other famous tourist murder from back in Jan 1995 just off Barbuda are something we need to consider here on island. Young stupid kids making huge assumptions and mistakes, and then taking lives. There is plenty more to say and debate, but i dont think my blog is the place for it. Most of Antigua and Barbuda are extremely sad and disturbed by all of this and although we are relieved that the cops have found their ''men'' if they could ever be called that, we like the family and friends of the Mullany's are still feeling pain and sadness. The police and prosecution department feel that justice will be carried out and this is great news. It can't come fast enough! I want much more though and think that change is happening in this country and there is more to come. The view from above is from Cocos and was one of many photos i took recently for a magazine cover. It's what Ben and Catherine would have been enjoying here on the island prior to their horrific deaths, and it makes me soo mad that it wasn't that simple in the end. Anyway, changes to Cocos hotel were taking place as i took the photos to make sure nothing like this happens again. All hotels on the island have made changes to their security as a result of this terrible event, and the police who had been making changes are continuing to make advances in crime fighting here on the island. Read here to see what i said originally on why i think this happened.

More arrests in Antigua on the Cocos shooting

Staff at the beautiful Cocos resort seen above as well as most of the country and all of the surviving victims in this horrible shooting are eagerly awaiting more news today after 10 people were arrested. The first proper arrests made were of two women from the Dominican Republic mid week. After questioning these women eight more were arrested on Thursday and Friday. Police are trying to get a slam dunk on this one and are trying to be extremely quiet about what's going on. Word on the street is fever pitched with numerous stories and leads being leaked left and right. Nobody is 100% sure what's going on but one story which keeps getting repeated is that the main man being suspected of being the shooter is a Jamaican who runs a barber shop near the market in St. Johns. This may be just talk, but there is no doubt that he is one of the eight arrested.

Edit 17/8/08

The barber was arrested recently on unrelated gun charges it seems. So that one was not correct.

Our papers don't come out until Monday here, but there is plenty of info in the UK media. Another thing that happens here I think is when someone is arrested on Friday they don't have to be charged until Monday. We may have to wait until Monday to find out more. I hope that as one person commented on yesterday's blog.... the mounties got their man.

Shooting arrests

In news being reported around the world two women have been arrested on charges ''related to the murders'' of two Cocos hotel guests. The honeymoon couple were staying at Cocos Hotel when one or more gunmen killed them in what seems to be a robbery gone wrong. This was the first hotel shooting in Antigua's long tourism history and the nation has been eagerly waiting for people to be brought in, charged and convicted. Nobody is breathing a sigh of relief but many are elated at the prospect of justice in this case. Some people are smelling blood too. There are many who are calling for the death penalty, an ultimate punishment which seems to have been retired from the court's arsenal over the past twenty years. When and if they charge a person or people for the murders the death penalty will surely be a huge bone of contention. The UK who has sent personnel and expertise to aid in the unsolved murders outstanding here in Antigua and Barbuda is totally against capital punishment and has suggested that their men and women will not take part in such cases that are calling for death to the convicted murderers. I spoke with a lawyer yesterday here who said that despite the Prime Minister's calls for the death penalty, it was not going to be likely as several people have been convicted over the years for other murders without being put to death.
I have been following my web tracker since the terrible shootings at Cocos and there have been many people googling all sorts of ''shooting'' and ''murder'' searches which end up at my blog. I keep seeing people typing in whatever hotel they are due to come and stay at with ''shooting'' or murder at the end of it. For example, I saw today someone google ''Galley Bay Shootings" and a few days ago it was "Shooting at St. James Club". I suppose it's good that people are trying to get info about where they are staying and it's natural for them to be worried. I just hope they get to my blogs which will show them that this Cocos shooting was the first one at a hotel and was the first murder ever within a hotel here. The police aided by the Canadians and the UK have made huge changes within the force and are going to add 200 new officers as well. Crime in Antigua is being attacked and as the Canadian Commissioner told criminals in a public address and now has proved ''its time for us to hunt you''. I do know more about these recent arrests in connection with the Cocos double murder but I can't say at this time. There is no doubt that there will be more arrests as the info the police has seems to be very good indeed. Imagine being a young woman caught with stolen goods taken from a double murder. What do you think the police are going to tell them in the secret of a dark jail cell here in Antigua on the day when the Prime Minister is calling for the death penalty to be given to people who didn't even murder. Those girls will be sh%$$*ng their pants and fingers will be pointing.

small storm passes close

This is from one of the weather sites i go to. I had been watching this weather all yesterday as the forecast track changed putting it closer to us. I am the only tour company that cancelled tours today (and we took plenty of grief from hotels, reps and guests for cancelling). What would you do if you read this and looked at all the sat and radar sites for the area showing the small storm tracking to us? Here read this:

Thursday 14 August, 2008, 8amAST - Small craft precaution, all zones. Small craft advisory pre-posted for tonight z710 (offshore Atlantic). No watches, warnings or advisories in effect at this time. Please check NWS-SJU for latest. Showers this morning moving over local area from NE. There will be more later today, tonight, tomorrow. Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert has been issued which covers our area. First visible satellite this morning shows the area of developing convection, note the 'tail' of showers extending down through Martinique. NHC's tropical weather discussion at 8am continues to fix the low S of convection, at 16N 61W. Moving NW, this will bring the low across the local area. Marine forecast this morning for zone 730 which includes much of VI and offshore Caribbean, pegs winds higher in this zone than any other. Though not yet posted, I would expect a small craft advisory in effect by tonight for all VI zones. The WSW component during the night is of particular interest to mariners for tonight's dock/anchoring:* TODAY NE 14-19 KT SEAS 3-5 FT SCATT SHWRS AND ISO TSTORMS. * TONITE N 14-19 KT SHIFTING TO THE W/SW 23-28 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 3-5 FT SCATT SHWRS AND ISO TSTORMS. * FRI S 16-21 KT SEAS 4-5 FT SCATT SHWRS AND ISO TSTORMS. * FRI NT SE 11-16 KT SEAS 2-4 FT SCATT SHWRS AND ISO TSTORMS. Even if most of the precipitation passes to our north, not yet certain, depending upon the development of this system today, rare gusts in squalls up to 45kt are possible, along with dangerous cloud-to-surface lightning.

HMS Griffin plundered by Mel Fisher

While doing research for yesterdays blog i dug up some more info about HMS Griffin. If you remember this blog and this one where i spoke about Barbuda's wrecks I thought quite a bit about Mel Fisher and his time in there. Many say that he found valuable things on Barbuda's wrecks and took off before the Antigua and Barbuda government could stop him. Who knows if that was the case, but i did find one other website that had info on the Griffin. This site is selling musket shot from the original HMS Griffin. There is no doubt that Fisher's gang stole them from Barbuda. Oh well....

Sailing to Barbuda for the weekend.

As has been the family tradition for years and years, a bunch of us went over to enjoy the Carnival holiday weekend in Barbuda. Instead of doing the powerboat thing this year, I sailed over with my girlfriend. We left a bit late and got into Barbuda long after dark. On the sail across the sounds of the wind and waves sounded pleasantly familiar. It had been some time since i had enjoyed listening to wake come off the side of a boat like this. Funny the things that one can take great pleasure from. The winds were not too strong but we still managed to keep the speed at around 6.5 knots towing the tender. Using GPS we got as far as we could go on the west coast tucked in close next to the shore and just inside some reef. The stars were amazing and even though it seemed to be a bit hazy the show above us was as lovely as ever. Since it was so late I just managed a quick pasta before falling asleep up in the foreword bunk. The gentle rocking and sounds of water against the wooden hull sent me into a deep sleep very quickly.
I was up early and was surprised to see that directly in front of the boat there had been three turtle crawls and probably nests. This is peak nesting season for the hawksbill turtles and the fresh tracks were not just in front of our boat. My Dad had counted over 80 tracks on the 14 mile beach along the coast a few days earlier. I hope this many nests will help them steer clear of extinction which is a very real possibility for the sea turtles.
After some breakfast i put up the awnings and decided motor south to Palmetto Point where the Beach House hotel sits derelict in some sort of bankruptcy. The point is such a beautiful area and the views are just as good as they get on this coast. While on the way there I let out a line and managed to get hooked into a big barracuda. My girlfriend fought it for some time to get it close enough for me to handle it and release the fish. She said it was her first proper fish ever which surprised me. Hard core environmentalists don't do too much fishing i guess:) Too bad for them. hehe
From here we turned East moving into more choppy water as we cruised up past Coco Point miles up the coast, then through the reef and into Spanish Point where the water colours always amaze me. We dropped the hook in between two sets of powerboats which were rafted up inside the reef. One set was my Uncle Nick and a few of his friends and the other set was some family friends from Guadeloupe. I think Francis, the head of that group had been to high school with my Dad and uncles for a term during high school and occasionally comes to Antigua for fishing tournaments.
Uncle Nick and a few others came over to check out the boat and say hi. He said he liked how Ocean Nomad looked and spoke about getting a sailing vessel too. Afterwards we took the tender to the shore and went on a walk over the point and towards the East Coast. One of my favorite things to do in Barbuda is walking on the windward side collecting shells and interesting bits and pieces. It was late in the afternoon and we would only walk to Griffin Point which is where one of hundreds of ships were wrecked along the dangerous windward side of Barbuda. HMS Griffin hit the reef like many other boats during the colonial period and sank with all its cannons and ballast just off the shore. I found this after quite a bit of googling. Seems as though there was a more recent HMS Griffin.
"James Soaper : A Midshipman, on board HMS Griffin 1761, a 6th rate ship or frigate of 28 guns, she was lost shortly after 9 p.m., in the dark, on October 27, 1761. The ship had left Bermuda weeks earlier, had been on the high seas far away from land and, at the time she was lost on the reefs on the northeast coast of Barbuda, the captain believed (based on his reckoning)that he was more than 25 leagues off that island. "Morning : when closer to Barbuda than believed by its reckoning, Cpn. Taylor spots two suspect sails which he takes to be French privateers and starts chase. The chase goes until the night when two lights appear supposed to be the ones of the supposed French privateers. These are followed until the ship runs on the rocks, on northeastern point of Barbuda. Attempts are made to anchor, the cables part, the ship runs on the rocks and is evacuated. The captain remains alone apparently on his disintegrating ship until 4 pm on October 28. Nothing can be saved from the wreck. Three able seamen, William Cribb, Samuel Bond and Francis Amandis, have been drowned in the shipwreck"." From this site.
The point is such a lovely place as it's very close to the breakers and barrier reef which stretches all along the windward shore. You can easily see how people could get killed in the waters there though. I have snorkeled there on the wreck several times and the currents and waves remind you of the danger constantly.

We were not snorkeling here today though as we didn't have much more time in the day. I spotted a large fishing float that had just washed up and thought that maybe i could make it into a sink for the yacht. It was pretty heavy but i knew it would be used back in Antigua. That night back on the boat we grilled up a lovely dinner and watched the stars including several of the shooting kind. It's such a nice thing to be in the Caribbean in a corner where there are no artificial lights spoiling the night's sky.

We had friends in town back in Antigua who would be leaving the island in two days, so we would set sail the next morning back to Jolly Harbour. We woke up to very light winds and knew that we would be motor sailing some of the way. In fact, by the time I had put everything away and pulled the anchor the winds were hovering somewhere around 5 knots. It was going to be a hot one. Thankfully we have a good engine on the Carriacou sloop and our slack sails were helped by some diesel power. We had a few good strikes on the fishing rod but nothing got hooked this time. The winds picked up as we got closer to Antigua and I managed to turn the engine off for a while. We were in port back in Jolly Harbour at about 6 PM and I was already missing Barbuda.

First murder at a hotel in Antigua ever - Cocos

The horrible murder at Cocos this past weekend has had so many ramifications and cans or worms have been opened at every corner. I would just like to give my view on why we have arrived at this stage. These are my views after going to school, living and working here.
With the massive influx of immigrants from all over the Caribbean and from many other areas around the world changes for the better and for the worse have taken place in Antigua.
With very fast development here our work force had to be supplemented with people from abroad. While this was happening many Antiguans who had ways and means were moving to the UK, Canada and the USA in large numbers. While construction of hotels and all sorts of developments were taking place labour was always in huge demand, but when the economy slowed down and immigrant workers finished their jobs they didn't leave. Our population has increased dramatically contrary to the terribly defective census that was last done. My guess would be that we have somewhere around 140 thousand people here in Antigua instead of the 62k that that crazy census came up with. It was done at a peak time of immigration here and also before the Millennium Act was passed which gave citizenship to many of them before the last election. Anyway, our police force and all public departments (including the tax department) are working on the idea that we have 62 thousand people here on the island. This supposed drop in population happened while new villages were formed all over the island and every village was growing exponentially. There was just no way the population could drop and the only reason it dropped on the census was because all the immigrants were fearful of their status on the island. There are thousands and thousands of foreign immigrants here now who were brought in to help with the development of Antigua and mostly to do with the construction projects that have now finished. They have to work to stay alive and have entered every aspect of the Antigua and Barbuda workforce. There isn't a department or category of employment without them and this goes for jobs at the very bottom to jobs at the very top. You even see immigrants selling CDs on the side of the roads. So what? Well while all of this is happening the strain on the school system as well as every other government system has been stretched. Education and health has suffered. There are hundreds and possibly thousands of young Antiguan youth without any jobs or direction and many have fallen to the lure of drugs and then more serious crime. The average age of people arriving before magistrates on criminal charges has dropped considerably over the past 10 years. Kids are being found with drugs and weapons on a regular basis. Our entire country has big changes that need to be made and the problem is being analyzed by everyone concerned.
The horrible shooting of the honeymooners at Cocos this past weekend was the first time a deadly shooting has taken place in a hotel in Antigua. I think it was the first time a tourist was murdered in their room. I know of one other murder where husband killed his wife while on holiday years and years ago, but this Cocos thing was totally out of the ordinary and the county is in a state of shock. Many people calling in to the radio stations are calling for a swift capture of the culprits and a quick execution. I have heard many offer their services as executioner. That's how dramatic people are taking this thing. You don't attack and kill people and least of all tourists. That's the general feeling. Of course, there are some who stress that this is not a tourism issue and that it's more to do with the general public safety of all within the country. This is a smart way to think, but there is no doubt that the ramifications of violence to tourists hurt the mainstay of the economy and as a result it is perceived as being more serious. I remember while i was at Florida Tech back in 1990 there was a spate of tourist related murders and Tourism was hit very hard there. Orlando was very badly effected. Laws and procedures were quickly changed and as a result the escalation in tourist crime was hit on the head.
Here in Antigua things have gotten out of control and changes in our country's makeup have had a negative impact on crime. When i was a kid there was one murder a year and that was a big deal. Although there are many other Caribbean islands with worse murder rates than we have our increased rate is totally unacceptable and we all know this. Before this murder at Cocos the country's leaders knew things were getting out of hand and made major changes within the police force. A foreigner was employed as Chief of police for the first time since our country became independent and he and his team have been totally changing the methods and structure of the force. The changes needed are happening as i write this and I am very confident that a drop in crime will happen here shortly and that we will all be safer as a result. That being said, it will take more than just action from a better trained police force. The hotels are being stricter with their security measures and have done things over the past year to beef up their security.
I dunno guys, this killing and the others that have taken place recently in the country have had a major impact within the island and many people are terribly worried about the situation and it's ramifications. Although i think that crime is gonna be hit hard over the next few months and years, i think the effects on our daily lives and the economy will be dealt a big blow.

Thank goodness its monday.... i need a rest!

Wow, with active action packed weekends some people just are happy for Monday to roll around so that they can get some rest. This was one of those weekends. On Saturday a bunch of us continued work on Ocean Nomad putting in the last of the floor as well as doing the last bits of engine installation. In between doing that i would run over to help JD and Tony who were doing some engine maintenance on Xtreme. After calling it a day with the yacht i decided to take Xtreme out just to see if all the maintenance went well. My GF joined me for a quick sunset cruise over to Pinchin Bay. The sand there was softer than i expected and i realized that although i had been passing this beach all my life, i had never stood on it. The poor beach had been almost wiped out by the local family who owns the land there when they decided to mine sand from behind the beach. Now rocks that were once buried with sand form a barrier between the beach and the sea. It's not just a barrier for swimmers but for turtles also. This beach was one of the most popular nesting beaches on the west coast and it still has a high number of nestings. Anyway, the sunset was beautiful and the soft sand seemed to help me forget the horrid sand mining that had gone on just a few years before. Up the beach from us there were three American Oyster Catchers feeding on the rocks and in the sand. These beautiful birds are here in Antigua most of the time but in such small numbers that most people miss them. Usually I see them in pairs but today there was a third wheel.....maybe a relative. As the sun dipped under the very hazy sunset, bats from the hills began to do their aerial acrobatics in search of bugs to eat. The hills between Hawksbill and Pinchin must be a great home for all these insect eating bats. Long before it got dark stars began to jump out of the orange and purple sky. You cant keep them hidden for long even when there is haze in the sky.

We swam back to Xtreme and cruised slowly home as the moon rose over Five Islands Harbour. I thought that Friday was full moon or maybe is was that night.... either way i was exhausted from a long day and it was time to sleep.

Sunday we decided to relax all morning with a late lunch at OJ's beach bar. I was going to break my ''fit for life'' regime and eat a burger and fries today! As i bit into the fantastic home made burger i watched my friend Paul Ryan zoom past on his big SeaRay powerboat. It looked like he had the family on board, and it would be a lovely day for them......or so i thought. The weather was better than anyone could want for boating, but Paul's perfect day of boating wasn't to be. My cousin Bel who works for the paper called me 15 minutes later asking me where is Morris Bay because there was a yacht on fire there. I reminded her that its where we spent most of our Sundays while growing up. We called it Callaloo as that was the name of our Grandfather's hotel there. Anyway, when i told her i was just paying my bill she asked me to go have a look for her. She knew i had my camera. At this time i didn't know it was Paul's boat, but when we got to Cades Bay i could see the black hull beneath the flames and billowing smoke. I called uncle Nick who as the owner of North Coast Salvage company, was always in tune with boat mishaps. He told me that Paul and his family had gotten safely off the boat after it caught fire. Just before jumping in he had called the coast guard. They arrived over two hours later after the boat had come to its resting place on the North-eastern side of Cades Reef.

We watched most of the ordeal wanting and waiting to see the ocean take over from the fire. It happened finally with a sharp burst of flames and then steam. Thank God nobody was hurt.

As we arrived back in Jolly Harbour I got a call from Alan Aflak telling me that there was an injured turtle inside of the harbour. This was strange as we never see big turtles in the harbour. We went down to see what was going on and Alan took us out on his boat to see it. The poor big green turtle had obviously been hit by a big boat and had huge prop scars along its shell. It seemed to be very tired and was only using its front flippers. The wounds look like they were not recent and the turtle had probably been suffering for some time. We dragged it to the entrance of the harbour where there was a beach we could pull it up on. It was here we could see the extent of the damage and it wasn't good at all. The big green was still alive but there was no doubt that death would be coming soon. A flipper was missing and the shell was cut right through and deep into tissue close to the bottom of its shell. We made the decision to call a vet as we didn't think it would make it. Unfortunately it didn't and finally succombed to it's injuries.

With the thousands and thousands of hours that i have spend on powerboats in the Caribbean i always am amazed that I have never hit a turtle. Keeping a sharp eye open for turtles and all the other things that can be out there in our path has paid off so far. I just hope our luck continues.

We got back home exhausted just in time to receive a phone call from someone at Darkwood beach. There was a whale close to the shore swimming slowly past. A whale! In July! Immediately i thought something had to be wrong, but it was 7 pm and almost dark. This story would have to pass me by.

A new place for Antigua Tourism discussion

The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Group was launched late last week as an alternative to other under-moderated sites which were less dedicated to tourism promotion in Antigua as their main purpose. This forum or message board is a place where users can sign in and speak about tourism issues related to Antigua and Barbuda. The discussion board or forum or newsgroup as many like to call it has had incredible popularity with over 100 people signing up as members in just a few days since its start. http://www.antiguaforums.com/ is the main page and you will see that moderators from the forum membership have been assigned to keep things in order on the site. That being said just the fact that there are moderators on the site deters trolls and other naughty people from signing up. So far no moderator has had any work. I am sure that will change but it has been anyway. If you are visiting Antigua and Barbuda and want to learn more about these wonderful Caribbean islands please come to the forum and fire away those questions.

Sailing on Ocean Nomad... work still continues.

It was my girl friend's birthday recently and we decided to take some friends and family out for a cruise on the recently re-launched Ocean Nomad. The engine is in but not all hooked up with fuel tank, exhaust and bits and pieces, to JD had to ferry everyone out to the yacht using Xtreme. Anyway, there must have been about 14 of us on the yacht and she sailed very well along the coast out from Jolly Harbour towards Deep Bay. With no engine and not a single person apart from me who had sailed on her before we had to be careful. There were a few sailors on board so it was actually pretty easy. We dropped the hook very close to the Andes shipwreck so that we could all jump in and swim. JD had brought his thundercat along with the Xscream ring thing that we used at the kid's parties. A few of the big kids enjoyed going for rides while the rest of us ate and drank.

Time kinda flew and before long it was time to sail back to Jolly Harbour. There were a few squalls and with Galley Bay's point just below us we just used the jib to clear it before we hoisted the big mainsail. In Five Islands Harbour the winds kicked up pretty good and Ocean Nomad glided on with grace and speed. So much work has gone into this yacht and continues to this day. In fact, this past weekend the greenheart floorboards were put in over the top of the interior lead ballast and the engine box was finished. I think by the end of the week we will be able to get in and out of port under engine power. I dunno how my uncle sailed for all those years without an engine. Charters under the Sailing Antigua company name will probably not be started until later in the summer. To get it perfect it is taking plenty longer than i thought. Sail covers and the awning are being made at the moment by Graham at Antigua Sails, and a head will be constructed shortly. We still have not gotten a ladder either. There is an amazing amount of work that has to be done in order to ''finish'' a wooden boat to the point where she is ready for day tours and charters. The journey from the photos taken above back in Carriacou in Feb. where and when i took this boat over has been a rewarding challenge. Its still not finished!This sailing trip for my GF's birthday was the first time we went for a cruise with regular people and that in itself was a learning experience, and i was glad that it all worked out well. She even helped trim the mainsail as seen above. Nobody could ask for better crew!My mom and sister who both work with me at Adventure Antigua came with us too and enjoyed it which was very nice. All in all we had a great time and i am even more excited to have the yacht properly finished...soon! A special thanks to the ''crew'' that day as they didn't even know they were going to be crew. Also thanks to Kat and Karine for taking the photos.