Protecting a jewel in the Caribbean
The uninhabited island of East Caicos is a haven for wildlife, home to nesting green and hawksbill turtles on the beaches. We follow Marine Conservation Society’s Amdeep Sanghera and Emily Bunce on a trip to ensure this amazing place is preserved for the future
Protecting a jewel in the Caribbean
The uninhabited island of East Caicos is a haven for wildlife, home to nesting green and hawksbill turtles on the beaches. We follow Marine Conservation Society’s Amdeep Sanghera and Emily Bunce on a trip to ensure this amazing place is preserved for the future
By Joe Shute
To call the Caribbean isle of East Caicos ‘uninhabited’ is to ignore the abundance of life which exists there. True enough, these days there are no people across the island, which spans 32 square miles. The indigenous Lucayan and Taino people who lived in East Caicos until the first European explorers arrived have long disappeared. So too, the plantation owners, slaves and cattle ranchers who previously farmed these lands in the 19th century. Subsequent attempts to colonise the island over the 20th century ended in disarray with would-be settlers driven off by the lack of resources and a particularly aggressive local population of mosquitoes, which thrive in the brackish pools across the island.
But in the absence of human activity, wildlife has flourished. The island is home to an abundance of birds including flamingos, ospreys, and piping plover scurrying along the shoreline. Rays and sharks patrol the extensive reefs which surround its coastline, humpback whales migrate through the island’s deeper channels and turtles feed in the shallows and rely upon its sandy beaches to lay their eggs.
Indeed, East Caicos, one of 40 islands which comprise the wider Turks and Caicos archipelago, is of such regional importance to turtle populations that juvenile green turtles satellite tagged here have been recorded swimming as far as Cuba, Colombia, and the US state of North Carolina.
A new project by the Marine Conservation Society and partners, the RSPB and the Turks and Caicos National Trust, is seeking to map the future of East Caicos by acknowledging community needs and values. This will ensure that, even if people do one day return to live on the island, any development can be done in harmony with its astonishing biodiversity.
As part of the project, students visited East Caicos
Listening to the community
Leading the work for the Marine Conservation Society is Amdeep Sanghera, UK Overseas Territories Conservation Officer, and Social Science Officer Emily Bunce. As well as in Britain, the charity works across the UK Overseas Territories. The pair are utilising an innovative research approach described as the ‘Community Voice Method’ to garner the views of a cross-section of the 50,000 or so population of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Over the course of a three-week field trip across the islands, the pair have conducted in-depth interviews with a host of community members, from fishermen to schoolchildren, about their connection to East Caicos. The interviews will be featured in a 30-minute film, to be used in a series of island workshops next year to stimulate debate about what local communities want for the future of East Caicos. The film will also be released on the Marine Conservation Society website in summer 2024.
The unspoilt island of East Caicos from the sea
As part of the project, Amdeep and Emily accompanied a select group of local schoolchildren on trips to East Caicos (which is only accessible by boat) to explore the island. One of the students, 15-year-old Tranae Tamera Wilson, described the unspoilt beauty of East Caicos as “like a fresh scent” and said of the island that “it was so pretty, I’d love to go again after going on the trip”.
It is this stunning beauty which conservationists fear may make East Caicos vulnerable to the sort of rampant development which has impacted other parts of Turks and Caicos Islands and across the Caribbean.
Amdeep says there have been past proposals for a cruise ship terminal and a trunk road linking to the island. He stresses his and Emily’s work is not about restricting community access or any development on the island, but instead finding an approach that is beneficial to wildlife as well as people: “I think it is about trying to find a middle ground that meets the local community’s ambitions for the Turks and Caicos Islands, including management and protection of East Caicos’ pristine nature.”
Turtle conservation
Crucial to this are the turtles which temporarily call the islands home. When Amdeep first visited East Caicos between 2008 and 2010 there were mostly hawksbill turtles (a critically endangered species) nesting on an eastern sweep of sand known as Long Bay. Recent hurricanes, which have devastated islands across the Caribbean, have changed the shape of the beach and led to deposits of sargassum seaweed piling up, making it difficult for nesting turtles to access the sand. While Amdeep says that hawksbill nesting numbers seem to have declined on East Caicos, endangered green turtles are now nesting on its northern shores in areas and numbers not previously recorded.
Over the years spent working on Turks and Caicos Islands, Amdeep has come closer to turtles than most. He has had the privilege of catching and satellite tagging huge adult green and hawksbill turtles. “They are massive,” he grins, “and a pleasure to see”.
More common, he says, are the juvenile turtles, which thrive in the low-lying seagrass beds and coral reefs around Turks and Caicos. Of particular importance to turtles – as well as a host of other species – is the Ramsar Nature Reserve, which covers 144,846 acres of wetland habitat, spanning southern parts of North and Middle Caicos as well as the western side of East Caicos. “This particular Marine Protected Area provides excellent feeding grounds for green turtles found in the Turks and Caicos Islands, which belong to vulnerable Caribbean populations, so it is of regional importance, too,” says Amdeep.
It is difficult to estimate exact turtle numbers in the Turks and Caicos Islands, but Amdeep says they are in their thousands. However here, as with across the globe, they face a host of pressures. Some turtles are still legally caught by the local turtle fishery, but habitat destruction through climate change, pollution and insensitive development pose much greater threats to turtle populations.
Coastal development in the Caribbean is rampant to meet the needs of a growing tourism industry. Human activity on nesting beaches at night can easily disrupt female turtles, whereby the females haul themselves upon sandy beaches and construct chambers to secrete their eggs. Pollution and plastic also impact turtles and their feeding grounds. But above all, Amdeep says, climate change is having the most significant impact with corals bleached by rising temperatures and extreme weather destroying habitat.
Of most concern is the feminisation of turtle populations through global warming. Sea turtle sex is determined by the temperature at which the eggs are incubated, with warmer nests producing female hatchlings. Studies at nesting beaches around the world are starting to show that as the planet heats up, male hatchling turtles are becoming scarce.
Turtle conservation
Crucial to this are the turtles which temporarily call the islands home. When Amdeep first visited East Caicos between 2008 and 2010 there were mostly hawksbill turtles (a critically endangered species) nesting on an eastern sweep of sand known as Long Bay. Recent hurricanes, which have devastated islands across the Caribbean, have changed the shape of the beach and led to deposits of sargassum seaweed piling up, making it difficult for nesting turtles to access the sand. While Amdeep says that hawksbill nesting numbers seem to have declined on East Caicos, endangered green turtles are now nesting on its northern shores in areas and numbers not previously recorded.
Over the years spent working on Turks and Caicos Islands, Amdeep has come closer to turtles than most. He has had the privilege of catching and satellite tagging huge adult green and hawksbill turtles. “They are massive,” he grins, “and a pleasure to see”.
More common, he says, are the juvenile turtles, which thrive in the low-lying seagrass beds and coral reefs around Turks and Caicos. Of particular importance to turtles – as well as a host of other species – is the Ramsar Nature Reserve, which covers 144,846 acres of a Marine Protected Area wetland habitat, spanning southern parts of North and Middle Caicos as well as the western side of East Caicos. “This particular Marine Protected Area provides excellent feeding grounds for green turtles found in the Turks and Caicos Islands, which belong to vulnerable Caribbean populations, so it is of regional importance, too,” says Amdeep.
It is difficult to estimate exact turtle numbers in the Turks and Caicos Islands, but Amdeep says they are in their thousands. However here, as with across the globe, they face a host of pressures. Some turtles are still legally caught by the local turtle fishery, but habitat destruction through climate change, pollution and insensitive development pose much greater threats to turtle populations.
Coastal development in the Caribbean is rampant to meet the needs of a growing tourism industry. Human activity on nesting beaches at night can easily disrupt female turtles, whereby the females haul themselves upon sandy beaches and construct chambers to secrete their eggs. Pollution and plastic also impact turtles and their feeding grounds. But above all, Amdeep says, climate change is having the most significant impact with corals bleached by rising temperatures and extreme weather destroying habitat.
Of most concern is the feminisation of turtle populations through global warming. Sea turtle sex is determined by the temperature at which the eggs are incubated, with warmer nests producing female hatchlings. Studies at nesting beaches around the world are starting to show that as the planet heats up, male hatchling turtles are becoming scarce.
Supporting population recovery
A legacy of the Marine Conservation Society’s work in the Turks and Caicos Islands is that turtle conservation has significantly improved, with local partners, including the Turks and Caicos Islands government, supporting monitoring efforts and better enforcing legislation. This is helping to safeguard turtles and their habitats against the myriad threats they face.
The Marine Conservation Society has helped make important progress in increasing awareness of turtle conservation among the island’s fishing industry. In 2014, following work with local fishermen and the wider community that was led by Amdeep, the Turks and Caicos Islands Government approved new protections for large and breeding adult turtles to help support population recovery.
The charity has also been involved in tracking turtles to better understand population movement. One adult green turtle they tagged, named Suzie, was recorded undertaking a record-breaking 6,000km round trip around the Caribbean over the course of nine months.
A green turtle in Turks and Caicos Islands
A beacon of hope
These previous projects have shown that people and marine biodiversity on Turks and Caicos Islands can co-exist. And when it comes to East Caicos, explains Emily, they hope their interviews can demonstrate a shared vision for the future by representing a host of different local voices, which will be used as the basis of a community action plan. “One of the benefits of the Community Voice Method is it’s really accessible for everybody,” she says. It is early days in the filming but already they are garnering a wealth of information about the island’s importance.
One of the interview respondents, a local fisherman and eco tour operator called Timothy Hamilton, recalled first visiting East Caicos as a child on a small 14ft boat owned by his father. As they puttered through the coral reefs, he describes staring open-mouthed at the paradise that unfolded before him: “All I could see was beautiful beaches, high green forest hills and so forth,” he said in his interview. “I was so amazed that island existed around here.”
The hope now is that the wild wonders of East Caicos can be preserved for future generations.
Top turtle facts
Turtles originated around 230 million years ago during the Triassic period. Today there are seven marine turtle species across the globe, four of which can be found in the Caribbean sites the Marine Conservation Society works in (green, hawksbills, loggerheads, leatherbacks).
Green turtles get their name from the greenish cartilage found under their carapace, known as calipee. Their carapace usually has a greenish-grey pattern but can sometimes be yellow-brown or black.
Green turtles typically eat seagrass and marine algae, hawksbills feed on sponges and soft corals, and loggerheads eat hard-shelled animals including Queen conch, lobster and crabs.
Turtles usually lay between 100-125 eggs per nest. Females nest several times over the course of a nesting season, which occurs every two to four years.
Adult turtles can swim thousands of miles in a single year.
The leatherback turtle is the species most frequently recorded in UK waters. It has a leathery skin, rather than a hard shell and can survive in our temperate waters by maintaining a warm body temperature. The other five species found in the Atlantic have hard shells and are less common here. If you do find a hard-shelled turtle, do not return it to the water as it’s likely in cold water shock. To download our Turtle Code and to report a turtle sighting in the UK, click here.
Top turtle facts
Turtles originated around 230 million years ago during the Triassic period. Today there are seven marine turtle species across the globe, four of which can be found in the Caribbean sites the Marine Conservation Society works in (green, hawksbills, loggerheads, leatherbacks).
Green turtles get their name from the greenish cartilage found under their carapace, known as calipee. Their carapace usually has a greenish-grey pattern but can sometimes be yellow-brown or black.
Green turtles typically eat seagrass and marine algae, hawksbills feed on sponges and soft corals, and loggerheads eat hard-shelled animals including Queen conch, lobster and crabs.
Turtles usually lay between 100-125 eggs per nest. Females nest several times over the course of a nesting season, which occurs every two to four years.
Adult turtles can swim thousands of miles in a single year.
The leatherback turtle is the species most frequently recorded in UK waters. It has a leathery skin, rather than a hard shell and can survive in our temperate waters by maintaining a warm body temperature. The other five species found in the Atlantic have hard shells and are less common here. If you do find a hard-shelled turtle, do not return it to the water as it’s likely in cold water shock. To download our Turtle Code and to report a turtle sighting in the UK, click here.
Read more from Your Ocean
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The ‘East Caicos Wilderness Area’ project is led by the RSPB, the BirdLife International Partner in the UK, and funded by the UK Government through Darwin Plus.
Credits
Videos: Amdeep Sanghera. Photos: Emily Bunce; Jade Prevost-Manuel/Alamy Stock Photo
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