Adventures in the TCI’s Salt Islands.

Admit it. You arrive on Providenciales, get one breathtaking glimpse of Grace Bay Beach, and feel like you’ll stay put. You think it can’t get better than this. Other than an excursion to one of the cays, you won’t venture far.  I can tell you that’s a missed opportunity. For such a small archipelago, the Turks & Caicos offers much diversity; each island has a unique personality.

Why venture off the beaten path? You’ll be rewarded with stunning beaches that are truly secluded. You’ll view landscapes that take your breath away. You’ll meet local people that may become your friends for life. You’ll learn how creative people can be when they live in an isolated place.  And best of all, you’ll step back in time to a more laid back era with old Caribbean charm. Let the adventures begin!

Grand Turk, South Caicos and Salt Cay are often referred to as TCI’s “Salt Islands” because each was part of the country’s important salt industry. It is known that salt was collected from the Turks & Caicos Islands before the 17th century, on until the 1960s. The remnants of this industry are seen on these islands in the form of abandoned salinas, tattered windmills, historic Bermudian buildings and water-beaten docks, providing a “living history” lesson for visitors that is not found elsewhere.

Most of Turks & Caicos’ outer islands are easy to reach from Provo. Some do require some creativity; but all are worth exploring. Once you arrive, you’ll find some islands you can walk, some you can travel via golf cart, some require rental cars and some require boats. Sometimes part of the adventure is just getting there.

Numerous times I have organized my own day trip to Grand Turk. Cockburn Town is here, the country’s capital. Being only 8 miles long and about 1 mile wide, Grand Turk is much smaller than Provo, with a lower population. There are a number of scheduled daily flights on Air Turks & Caicos, so it’s easy to plan a day in Grand Turk and return in time for dinner.

My first trip to Grand Turk started off rather ominously. Already a nervous flyer, my palms grew even sweatier when the plane stopped at South Caicos to pick up a prisoner. He was on his way to court, but thankfully was well behaved during the 10 minute flight. I was picked up by Tony Clarke, who owns a local taxi service and car rental company, for a tour of the island. We visited the lighthouse, Her Majesty’s Prison, even “Nookie Hill” (which is exactly what you think it is). As we passed the airport, I saw a replica of Senator John Glenn’s space capsule, remembered for his landing in these waters after being the first American to orbit the earth. The astronaut noted from space that the Turks & Caicos waters looked like the most beautiful in the world.

During the tour, Tony explained that on a small island, places often have “obvious” names, and sometimes multiple names. For instance, names make sense: Front Street is the first street that faces the ocean; Prison Folly is where the prison is located and Back Salina is the area behind the old salinas, natch. He showed me a restaurant that had an “official” name of Sap’s Fish Fry, but it commonly known as “Chubbies,” and that’s how everyone referred to it. Places and even beaches have names like this, and it finally made sense — with streets not always marked and multiple names for the same places — why it was always hard to get directions on an island.

Tony dropped me off at Front Street, which is quiet and colorful, with old colonial buildings painted many different colors, all faded by the sun. Most of the original buildings were built from pieces of timber from shipwrecked boats that had washed ashore. Grand Turk is like stepping back in time to an easier life, with no one hurrying or rushing from place to place.  Some folks travel by bike, and everyone must stop for chickens, donkeys, cows, horses and land crabs crossing the road. Everyone says “Hello” to passersby and seems to know each other. The churches open their doors and let organ music spill out to the street. Some of the buildings have bright red roofs of corrugated iron which contrast spectacularly with the turquoise sea. At the end of Front Street, I stopped at the Turks & Caicos National Museum, one of the Caribbean’s best. For such a small country, the museum contains many different types of artifacts, representing everything from pirates’ treasures, to the remains of Spanish galleons, souvenirs of visits from the Queen, a display about John Glenn’s space splashdown and a collection of “messages” from bottles that have washed up on these shores.

On one of my many trips to Grand Turk I met Tim Dunn from Oasis Divers. He took me on an excursion to Gibbs Cay where I could feed and swim with stingrays. I was nervous, yet excited with the rays swimming around me in those crystal clear waters; I took many pictures that day. This adventure typically includes a BBQ lunch complete with conch salad made from conch freshly harvested from surrounding waters.

On another trip, I decided to stay for several days to better experience the Grand Turk vibe. I met many locals that I now consider friends. Jenny Smith from Osprey Beach Hotel told me tales of surviving hurricanes. Mitch Rolling, the veteran operator from Blue Water Divers, not only could tell stories of the sea, but at night was in a band that was the island’s entertainment.

This was part of my lesson in learning that Islanders are multi-talented, and often “jacks-of-all-trades.” Your taxi driver can also be the island’s best electrician; a restaurant owner can find you a boat to Salt Cay; a power company linesman was instrumental in starting a library. It’s always worth having a conversation to dig beneath the surface of first impressions.

During one of my visits, there was a cruise ship at the multi-million dollar Grand Turk Cruise Center and the shops and restaurant was open. Although only three miles from Cockburn Town, going to the cruise port terminal is like being in another world . . . Disney World, that is. You can buy duty free liquor, jewelry, watches and perfumes or search for tourist trinkets as places like Ron Jon’s Surf Shop and Piranha Joe’s. I sat by the pool at the world’s largest Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, where the people-watching was terrific and cruise-ship activities continued on land. I ended that day back in town at The Sand Bar, a friendly local watering hole. The two sisters that own it told me they had seen the elusive “Green Flash” just prior to sunset numerous times on Grand Turk. (I thought it was just a myth.) I had just enough time to go back to the airport and return on the 25 minute flight to Provo, where I enjoyed an elegant dinner overlooking Grace Bay Beach.

Another day, because I was researching for a guidebook, I was invited to visit Ambergris Cay. A private, upscale island southwest of Grand Turk, it is home to the Turks & Caicos Sporting Club, a millionaire escapist’s dream. This upscale residential community offers home sites ranging from $650,000 to $6.5 million with members enjoying world-class fishing, a deep water marina, environmental learning center, spa, and fine-dining. To get there, I was whisked away on a private plane, the kind with all leather seats and headphones that drown out airplane noise. The runway was totally unique and seemed to float over the shimmering blue-green ocean; I later learned it is the longest lighted paved private airstrip in the Caribbean. Not only is Ambergris Cay a sportsman’s paradise, but it has fields of Turks Head Cacti, a surprising sight. Ambergris Cay gets its name from the whale’s secretion ambergris, quantities of which frequently washed up on the cay. Years ago, it was a valuable substance for its use in perfume and medicines, and many a Bermudian made a small fortune from its discovery. During my day at the cay, we boated to uninhabited Little Ambergris Cay for the most superb bonefishing I could imagine. (At one point, the guide estimated there were about 200 bonefish in the water!)

Also in the guise of researching my guidebook, I traveled by boat to explore West Caicos. (Although development of the project is currently on hold, a portion of the island is set aside as the West Caicos Reserve, an exclusive retreat centering around a Ritz-Carlton boutique hotel and marina harbour town, with villas and custom homesites available.) The sheer, coral-encrusted underwater wall off West Caicos, separating the shallows from a dramatic 7,000 ft. drop into the ocean bottom, is a favorite site for dive trips from Provo. Although divers rave at the spectacular underwater scenery there, I love West Caicos’ topside, too. It’s fairly lush, with scores of native palms. Lake Catherine, in the middle of the island, has brilliant turquoise water and is home to even brighter pink flamingos. I was so excited to get closer to the flamingos that I tried to walk in the pond water; I didn’t know the underwater sand was more like quicksand. My feet buried quickly in it and I got stuck. It was just ankle deep, but the sand was wet and heavy, and I had to relinquish my favorite flip-flops to escape. Now barefooted, I saw the ruins of an old 1800s town, and learned that pirates used to frequent the island’s many rocky inlets. I also experienced the Turks & Caicos version of cliff diving!

Finally, I ventured to South Caicos, which in the 1960s was one of the busiest places in the country, due to the international airport’s status as a prime refuelling station for private aircraft and pleasure yachts. While tourism has slowed from those heydays, there are daily flights on Air Turks & Caicos, and South Caicos Ocean and Beach Resort is a comfortable place to stay. While further development has stalled over the years, plans for a new resort, with a clubhouse, casino and marina, are expected to come to fruition soon.

South Caicos can rightfully boast some of the best diving in the world. The consistent visibility of more than 200 feet is among the clearest water I’ve seen, and the dramatic wall drop-offs had dozens of creatures swimming around me, including whales in the winter months. Greg Wasik  from South Caicos Divers took me out on his boat to the outer reef with two other divers. The most amazing dive was a huge plane wreck, a Covair 29A, which ran out of gas when it was trying to land. The plane had been used for drug running in the 1970s, and the pilot actually survived. The main hull of the plane with the full wings is still intact, and the tail and nose are separate, making for three different dive spots. There is even a resident barracuda who accompanied me during the dive.

Later on, Greg set me up with Mr. Holton Lightbourne for a taxi tour of the island. We drove through the town of Cockburn Harbour, with its clapboard, pastel colored houses and bright red iron roofs. Unfortunately, since my visit, Hurricane Ike unleashed its fury on South Caicos, and the town is still in need of some repair. Fortunately, the reefs sustained no damage, and the waters are just as clear as ever. The waters are so pristine that South Caicos is the location for the School for Field Studies, a US-based institution which offers hands-on environmental studies abroad.

While I wasn’t able to attend, the South Caicos Regatta is held the last weekend in May every year since its beginning in 1967. Festivities include a sailing regatta, boat races, a beauty pageant, float parades, junkanoo, donkey races, May pole platting, gospel music and big name entertainment.

Also known as East Harbour, South Caicos can boast the country’s finest natural harbour. Once a bustling port for the thriving salt industry, divers can see the granite ballast that was thrown overboard to lighten the ships as they approached the harbour to pick up their loads. Today the once-famous port serves as the base for the island’s thriving conch and lobster fishery.

I highly recommend spending the night on South Caicos so you can take advantage of the diving, and not have  to worry about flying afterwards. Besides the resort, you can eat dinner at one of several restaurants based out of people’s houses, usually serving whatever the catch of the day happens to be. The restaurants’ names — Mama Love’s,  Darryl’s or Dolphin Pub — serve as a reminder that you are definitely far from cookie-cutter fast food establishments.

I like to save the best for last. Salt Cay, with its epithet, “The Land that Time Forgot,” did seem that way. It took some effort to plan a day trip from Provo. In years past, either the water was too choppy to boat over from Grand Turk, or flights would be cancelled or changed with no warning.  In August 2008 (just prior to Hurricane Ike’s devastation) I learned that Friday is the best day to make the trip.

Salt Cay is really tiny, only three miles long and about one mile wide. From the air it looks like a giant salt pond, and, quite honestly, did not seem that appealing to me. Yet, after spending the day I completely changed my mind and fell in love.

I knew Salt Cay was small enough to walk around, but I also knew it would be a lot more fun renting a golf cart to explore. The “airport” is really a one room building, so small that there are no taxi drivers waiting for planes to land to take you anywhere. So I walked past the salt ponds with a parade of donkeys following me to the purple building with yellow and turquoise trim — Island Thyme Bistro. The owner, Porter Williams, was the first person I met. He, in turn, called Candy Herwin, the owner of Pirate’s Hideaway Guesthouse, for a golf cart rental. Island Thyme is one of THE places to hang out; Porter is the unofficial “everything Salt Cay” promoter. The bistro is a great place to start, decorated with Haitian art on the walls and colorful trinkets on the bar. I walked down to Pirate’s Hideaway to pick up the golf cart, and Candy showed me her guest house. Her brother Nick gave me a tour along the no-name, packed-sand side streets of Balfour Town. (It seemed that only Victoria Street, the main street, has an “official” name.) Of course, everyone knows where everything is — locations are “next to Pat’s house” or “past the old governor’s home” or “beside the purple shack” Pat’s, one of three places to eat on the island, only cooks what was caught fresh that day . . . and only if you call ahead and make reservations.

Nick showed me the White House, a stately salt proprietor’s manor built in 1835 with ballast stone and from the ship’s timbers that brought the family to Salt Cay. The salt house is an example of classic Bermudan architecture with the living quarters on the upper level and salt storage underneath. In the 1800s, salt was as valuable as gold and at one point, Salt Cay provided 90% of the world’s salt. In its heyday, over 100 vessels a year left the island with their cargo of “white gold,” a valuable trade commodity, important in food preservation to the colonies in the north. I followed Nick through paths along the salt ponds, and we went further down Victoria Street, past the colorful library and government building. At the other end of the street were two (rumored to be) pirate’s graves. What was surprising was how small the rock “caskets” seemed.

Because Nick had the golf cart equivalent of an SUV, I hopped on his and we visited a section of North Beach that most people don’t venture to. It was breathtaking. You could see a shark swim by the shoreline and the water was so turquoise it glowed.

Back on my own cart, I went to another stretch of North Beach on which two donkeys were hanging out — what a sight! I walked the length of the beach, which I had all to myself most of the day. It was one of the most stunning strands of sand on which I have ever laid eyes. I was hypnotized by the different hues of blues and the bright white, powder-soft sand. Across the way, Grand Turk was in sight and I could see a cruise ship parked at the port. I walked down to the Windmills Plantation; closed to make way for a proposed golf course/resort development. I regretted never having stayed at this Salt Cay gem. The colors of its roofs — bright turquoise, yellow and red —represented its magical atmosphere, with a touch of whimsy. The owner, Guy Lovelace, wrote The Carnival Never Got Started, a tale of the trials and tribulations of building a resort in paradise. I read the book after returning to Provo, and could picture everything he wrote about. (Note: Hurricane Ike destroyed the Windmills and, due to its sale, there are no plans to rebuild this fantastical paradise.)

Eventually breaking away from the beach’s beauty, I made my way to the Coral Reef Bar and Grill for a beer and to chat with locals. There I met Willingham and Stedman, divers by day, musicians by night. I really wanted to meet Debbie Manos, owner of Salt Cay Divers, after speaking to her many times by phone over the years. Of course I picked the day she decided to go shopping to Grand Turk. Everyone said, “Don’t worry; you can meet her when she gets off the plane and when you get on, unless they cancel the flight.” Funny! The beachfront Green Flash Café was another colorful place to have a drink and catch up on gossip. (Unfortunately, it was destroyed by Hurricane Ike.)

I decided to end my day back where I started, at Island Thyme Bistro, this time with my new friends.  Walking back, I was approached by numerous locals that had to say “Hi” to the new visitor with the big camera. Porter told me nights are lively here, with pizza specials and karaoke. He could even set up pedicures, massages and cooking classes. I know I’d return soon, with whale sightings in the Columbus Passage during the winter season being some of the best in the world.

As promised, I met Debbie coming off the plane as I was boarding. What I discovered about my day on Salt Cay is that the place gets under your skin and into your blood. It has character, and seems full of characters. It was special to see how people get along with the quirks of island life, and I feel that I made friends for life.

I constantly revel that a small archipelago can be so upscale and modern, yet rustic and charming. I found ambience and tranquility, things to do or nothing to do, gorgeous beaches and wonderful people. I’ve become a Turks & Caicos devotee for life and I am so glad I decided to explore the variety it has to offer. The more I see, the more I love.

If there be any earthly Paradyse in the worlde, it can not be farre from these regions of the south, where the heaven is so beneficiall and the elements so temperate that they are neither bitten with the coulde in winter, nor molested with heate in summer.

Amerigo Vespucci, 1499

It was the fourth voyage that Christopher Columbus made to the New World. In 1498 he was sailing along the northeast coast of South America near Trinidad when he started getting strange navigational readings, which he took to indicate that he was sailing uphill. Being a devout Catholic, he interpreted this situation as evidence that there was a prominence on the earth shaped like a woman’s breast, on which would be found the “Terrestrial Paradise” (Garden of Eden). And since no man could go there without God’s permission, he changed course and sailed to the west.

As unbelievable as this story may sound, it is absolutely true.  Columbus understood the concept of sea “level,” so how could he imagine that he was sailing up a hill? His interpretation may have been based on his religious beliefs, but they also suggest that he had been at sea (and away from his wife) for far too long. From our vantage point, we can surmise that what Columbus failed to recognize was that he was sailing through the very strong, and largely freshwater, current that flows north through the Gulf of Paría (separating Trinidad from Venezuela) – a product of the enormous discharge of the Orinoco River. When it comes to traveling, sometimes it can be a real challenge to get where you are going.

It is hard not to be reminded of that old Bob & Ray comedy routine: A tourist in Maine approaches an old man on the side of the road and asks directions. The old man gives a complicated set of directions and then concludes, “no, that won’t work.” He then gives an even more complicated set of directions and again concludes, “No, that won’t work either.” Then yet again . . . and finally the old man looks at the tourist and says, “You can’t get there from here.” (It’s funnier with a Maine accent!)

For us, for Columbus, and for the Taínos, transportation has always been a major issue. The Taínos had only two choices – overland on foot (this is known as “walking”, which has become an increasingly rare form of transportation), or by water in boats. Columbus had the same two options, although his boats had slightly more room for relaxing on deck. However, keep in mind that the term “canoe” (some Taíno names for canoe are canoa, cayuco, and yuco) had much different implications in the past than it does today. Columbus observed Taíno “canoes” on the south coast of Cuba that had brightly painted bowsprits, were almost 100 feet long, and were driven by 90 men with paddles (naje). Imagine trying to squeeze 90 people into what today we call a canoe!?

Columbus described Taíno canoes as hollowed from a single log, often the trunk of a huge Ceiba or silk cotton tree. In order to construct a canoe you needed to first ask permission from the ancestors to cut down the tree, because the Ceiba was home to the ancestral spirits. Among the Warao Indians of the Orinoco Delta, only those who possessed sacred knowledge were allowed to build canoes. There were many forms of insurance that went into making canoes seaworthy.

When you live on an island, there is no more important form of transportation than a boat; they are essential to island life. Overwater travel was extremely important for the Taínos, and as such the only Taíno words that we know that relate to travel have to do with boats, bodies of water (ama, ni or ne), and how far away places are. In the Taíno language, something that was far away was called ya, but if it was really far away, it was called yaya (Yaya is also the name of their principal god, the supreme being with “no name”). The Taíno also had a word for outsiders – people who lived far away and didn’t belong to your group – they were called cuba.

For us, getting to and from various archaeological sites has often involved boats, and we have had our share of memorable boating experiences, like running out of gas at night off the north coast of Haiti and waiting for the morning fishermen to come help us out. Back in 1979, Keegan and Chal Misick sailed across the Caicos Bank to look for cave sites on East Caicos that had been reported in 1912, only to run aground several times. When you are stuck on a mound of sand in the middle of the Caicos Bank waiting for the tide to turn, you are very far from where you thought you were going to end up (thank God we picked up Lee Penn in South Caicos who really knew how to sail!). Sometimes you have to be inventive to get where you want to go. On a survey job at Silly Creek in Provo, we were ferried to work on jet skis.

The best way to do archaeological surveying is on foot. Unfortunately, archaeological sites are not always located near modern roads or even within walking distance of a bar. Travel on foot through the forest can be difficult. Anyone who has been in the “bush” knows that under a canopy of trees you lack visual references to direction, and the density of the vegetation can sometimes make passage almost impossible; this is what’s known as the “wall of bush” (the Taínos called it jiba). You can’t go under it, over it, around it, or through it, but somehow (with the help of machetes) you keep moving forward. The Taínos didn’t have machetes, but an advantage that they may have had is that when the bush contains primary mature forest, there are fewer obstructions because large trees prevent the growth of a dense understory.

So did the Taínos simply ramble through the forest, or did they build trails and roads? Like any of us would, the Taínos cleared trails to their gardens and between their villages. An elegant piece of evidence pointing to the use of prehistoric roads comes from the north coast of Haiti, where Clark Moore recognized that large Taíno villages were located at 27 km (17 mile) intervals. This interval represents a one-day, or about an eight-hour, leisurely walk. Today, walking 17 miles to visit your neighbor seems unrealistic, yet it is all what you are used to. In Haiti, where walking is the primary form of transportation, we frequently encountered people who had walked for miles with a bag of charcoal on their head. During one of our surveys we asked directions in broken Kweyol and began following our guide. After about a mile we realized that the person thought we were lost and was leading us back to our hotel – 25 miles away!

Over the years we have walked at least a thousand miles looking for archaeological sites, often covering 10 to 15 miles in a day. If you are doing a beach survey and you are at sea level, the horizon is about seven miles away.  You start out walking in the morning and you reach the “horizon” by noon! You reach your second “horizon” by dinner!

Walking along the beach is one thing, but cutting cross-country is quite different. When Dr. Shaun Sullivan did his research at MC-6 in 1978 he followed a 3.5 km (2 mile) trail from Bambarra that was maintained by Simon Forbes. Simon was then burning charcoal on the margins of Armstrong Pond. When we returned to work at the site in 1999, Simon had stopped going to Armstrong Pond and it took us six days to cut a new trail.

Getting your bearings within such an environment often requires regular tree climbing. Once, Keegan had the unfortunate experience of climbing a tree on Crooked Island in The Bahamas during a rainstorm to figure out where he was, and then realized that he was in a poisonwood tree!

In many parts of the world animals were used to replace walking or the transport of heavy burdens (horses, donkeys, oxen, llamas, camels, elephants, etc.). These animals were not available in the Americas (except llamas – and we’ll refrain from the Ogden Nash rhyme) until Europeans reintroduced them. We mention “reintroduced” because there were horses, camelids, and elephants (mammoths and mastodons) in the Americas until about 10,000 years ago. A major question for paleontologists is whether the first arrival of humans, who hunted them for food, or climate change at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch led to their extinction. Columbus brought horses on his second voyage. When the Taínos first saw men on horseback they thought they were one creature, like the mythical Centaur. Horses provided the Spanish with a huge advantage over the native peoples they subjugated. On one occasion we did travel to a site in Jamaica on horseback, but this was more for fun than necessity.

The last form of transportation that has been around for centuries but was never used by the Taínos is the wheel. In fact, the only evidence for wheels in the pre-European Americas is found on children’s toys in the Maya area. We wonder if they too played the game where you keep a wheel upright while propelling it with a stick.

Our modern investigations of the Taínos have been strongly dependent on wheels. Starting with the two-wheeled variety, Dr. Shaun Sullivan used a collapsible bicycle during his archaeological surveys in the Turks & Caicos in 1977. At that time there were only two trucks on Middle Caicos, and somehow these two trucks managed to get into a head-on collision! He also used a motorcycle to investigate possible site locations on Eleuthera.

Survey trucks are a whole other breed of vehicle. We rented a red pickup truck on Grand Turk one year that backfired and spewed sparks across the road every time you shifted gears. On our daily trips between North Creek and Waterloo we would send pedestrians scattering for cover as the truck passed through town. On St. Lucia our truck had only second and fourth gear when the transmission got hot; this necessitated zipping around hairpin-turns to maintain speed in order to ascend a steep slope. This was more memorable to the ten people in the bed of the truck.

Our most interesting forms of transport, however, were in southwest Jamaica. Each day, to get to our sites we had to cross the Dean’s Valley River. The first year we crossed the river in a cattle cart pulled by a large tractor. The next year we had a “jitney.” similar to the trams they use at Disney World. Every day, “tru da riva,” was the warning call sounded for everyone to get up on their seats and secure the gear as the water rushed across the jitney. The third year we graduated to a Land Rover that had been used in an off-road race across Africa. Camel cigarettes (the main sponsor) shipped the vehicle to Jamaica for promotional photographs. Using the spotlights on the roof, this vehicle was a great help in catching land crabs at night.

Transportation, and the development of new ways to get to places that “you can’t get there from here,” has been a major part of cultural evolution for thousands of years. We have used all kinds of transport to conduct our research on the Taínos, and the Taínos had their own forms of transport. But modern development requires new forms of access. In this regard, the Turks & Caicos is now investing in the construction of a road and bridges that will connect Middle Caicos with Provo. There are environmental issues to consider, but from the human perspective the new road will facilitate movement (and development) to the formerly “remote” islands of North and Middle Caicos. What we see is a future in which a visitor to Leeward Going Through asks, “Does this road go to Bambarra?” and the Belonger answers, “This road don’t go nowhere, it just rests here.”

Dr. Bill Keegan is Curator of Caribbean Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Betsy Carlson is Senior Archaeologist with Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc. (SEARCH) in Jonesville, Florida, and affiliate faculty at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Grace Bay’s newest resort redefines “Caribbean cool”.

In the 1970s, Providenciales was “discovered” by the jet-setters of that era. A fun-loving, pedigreed crowd with names like duPont, Ludington and Roosevelt flocked by private jet to Provo’s deserted white sand beaches, gorgeous turquoise seas and lobster-laden reefs to frolic in the sun.

In the year 2009, today’s hip sophisticates come to Provo seeking relaxation and renewal in a luxurious, yet informal atmosphere — and their favorite locale is rapidly becoming the new Gansevoort Turks + Caicos.

Ganesvoort is a growing group of upscale, contemporary lifestyle hotels that attract a loyal and passionate following. With established locations in New York City and Miami Beach, the Turks & Caicos became the next logical stop for a Caribbean get-away. From the resort’s opening in March, 2009, celebrity sightings have been abundant, with the intimate property and relaxed atmosphere allowing most to feel comfortable enough to mingle with guests. The resort and its Exhale spa have already received Condé Nast Johansens recommendations. And when New York’s “happening” BAGATELLE and The ONE Group opened the Bagatelle Bistrot & Beach Club here, it brought another huge following to experience the Provo interpretation of their signature vibrant and playful atmosphere.

From your first step onto the Gansevoort property, you’ll feel the vibe of Caribbean “cool” and chic style. The resort’s exterior presents a sleek, modern architecture combining white native stone, clean lines, geometric designs, accents of light wood and a predominance of glass. The lobby entrance features a shimmering waterfall wall and the rhythm-rich tones of jazzy world music bring a background beat to your stay.

The resort’s social signature is its 7,000 sq. ft. infinity-edge, mosaic tiled pool, with unique palm-shaded “floating islands” for sunbathing and intimate dining. Enticing from any seat in this centerpiece is a view of the aqua seas and sugar sands of Grace Bay Beach, just beyond the pool’s end. Ultra-comfortable lounge beds beckon on the expansive pool deck, complete with a hot tub, dining oasis and natural cooling by the gentle trade winds.

Ganesvoort offers 91 rooms, encompassing 32 suites and 4 penthouses, and promises ocean views from every one. Interiors are ultra-modern; minimalist without being stark, not lacking any amenity. Each suite includes a private oceanfront terrace with floor to ceiling sliding doors and windows, and because the ground floor units are raised well above the dune line, lower levels don’t lack for enchanting sea views. Suites offer full, modern kitchens with marble countertops and energy-saving Liebherr, Gaggenau and Bosch appliances. Guests can sink into luxurious Sterling Hospitality Sleep System beds, with Frette bedding, towels, robes and slippers. I was enthralled by the oversized bathrooms with their huge, glass-encased rain showers and spa tubs that fill from a spout in the ceiling. Other special touches include complimentary WiFi in rooms and throughout the property, large screen LCD TVs, DVD/CD players and Bose stereos with iPod docking stations, along with framed photographs of island landscapes by local photographer Steve Passmore.

And then there’s the oceanfront . . . simply stunning and beautiful by nature. The Gansevoort is situated on a 400 foot sweeping curve of the quiet western end of Grace Bay, voted by Condé Nast as the “best beach in the world.” A long deck of natural wood leads guests over the dune, where shaded lounge chairs, a beach bar and full food and beverage services wait. Although relaxing is usually a top priority, watersports, fishing, scuba diving and private yacht charters can all be arranged by the 24 hour Les Clefs d’Or concierge, along with land-based excursions, golf, tennis, horseback riding and eco-tours. The resort’s Kid’s Club includes sailing and snorkeling classes and ecological education.

Celebrities and “regular” folks alike love to be both pampered and toned, and the on-site Exhale spa can do both (preferably in the reverse order). Exhale is a highly acclaimed spa concept with outlets across the US. Employing a mind-body wellness philosophy incorporating yoga and Pilate principles, complimentary to guests are twice daily proprietary Core Fusion/Core Energy Flow classes, among New York City’s most popular fitness regimen for years. (There is also a high-tech fitness center with machines and free weights.)

The tranquil, aromatic, beige-toned spa has three treatment rooms (including a popular couples massage room), each opening onto a private garden area with outdoor shower. A long list of therapies are on offer, from massages and waxing to facials, manicures and pedicures (in the country’s first pedicure chair). Certified therapists, led by Spa Director Tammi Morris, use Grn products (said to have immediate results!) and sell their products and clothing in the boutique. Spa services are also available in guest rooms or at the oceanfront pavilion, where classes are held.

As part of Gansevoort’s desire to become a part of the island’s social fabric by encouraging residents to enjoy the resort, Exhale is currently offering one month of unlimited mind-body classes for $100. Friends who have tried the classes vouch for their challenging “transformational fitness experience.” Already popular with the fitness cognoscenti, restorative spa retreat weekend packages are also open to residents.

Apollo Development’s Managing Director Rob Ayer has been the inspiration for the project since its inception as a mere dream in 2006. Originally named The Watermark, then The Wymara, its fruition is a testimony to his ongoing drive and determination. Besides completing a glorious end result, in the process Rob evidenced his commitment to protecting and sustaining the TCI’s beautiful and delicate environment. At the start of construction, all the native vegetation was removed and maintained at a nursery, to be reintroduced during landscaping. He was also the main sponsor of the Bight Children’s Park directly to the west, serving to sustain the dune and natural area, while providing protected parkland and prime beachfront, along with restroom facilities and a playground, for children and families to enjoy.

Rob has also incorporated many measures to ensure the economical and ecological running of Gansevoort. This includes a BIONEST system to change wastewater into potable water for irrigation, along with the rainwater that is captured and stored. There is low voltage lighting in the units and around the grounds, with low E windows and doors. High efficiency VRV Air Conditioning units save approximately 40% on energy consumption, and an Energy Management System turns off lights and reduces A/C consumption in unoccupied rooms. Solar power is used to heat the pool and environmentally friendly cleaning and laundry products are used throughout. Biodegradable/reusable products are purchased when possible, and there are ongoing environmental awareness programs for staff and guests. For these efforts, the Gansevoort was the first TCI resort to be recognized with the “Green Star Award” at the TCI’s Sustainable Tourism Conference in 2008.

The Bagatelle Bistrot has already attracted attention to its unique gourmet menu and stylish vibe. Eager for a new experience, residents enjoy its daily happy hour specials and bi-monthly beach and pool parties. This May, the resort hosted the Red Cross Red & White fundraiser, “the” social event of the season with hundreds of people attending. Besides 24-hour room service, The One group also offers gourmet catering for meeting, special events and weddings. There is a 600 sq. ft. indoor event space as well as a variety of indoor and outdoor function venues. An on-site wedding and group function coordinator makes it easy to take care of details.

An eclectic mix including families and a number of Europeans, guests’ reviews of the new resort have been rave, with TripAdvisor rankings consistently “excellent.” Recent comments range from “A feast for the senses” to “Perfection on Grace Bay” and from “It feels like your own private oasis” to “The epitome of a perfect vacation.” In fact, one bride’s wedding blog inspired three others!

Many comment on the service, “helpful but not obsequious, friendly but not too familiar and willing to go out of their way.” Gansevoort’s Vice President of Business Development Tamara Moore lauds the staff, who are committed and passionate about their jobs, with a strong sense of pride. With the focus on hiring Belongers, the resort seeks sparkling, special personalities who are eager to learn and grow.

If all of this whets your appetite to be part of the Gansevoort lifestyle, there are still condominiums for sale in a variety of sizes. Most offer lock-out studios that can be rented even if you are using your unit; units can often be combined into larger spaces as well. The multi-branded, professionally managed, Preferred® Hotels & Resorts property taps into a steady stream of travelers eager to experience the Ganesvoort’s signature approach to luxury lifestyle, helping to reap a higher return on investment.

For more information on Gansevoort Turks + Caicos, call 877 774 3253 or visit www.gansevoorttc.com.

By Leah Samuelson, Artists on Call
Photos By Artists on Call

From mid-January to mid-March, 2009, I spent eight weeks leading community mural projects in the Turks & Caicos Islands with an organization called Artists on Call. During this time, we completed three murals, two on Grand Turk and a third, smaller mural on Providenciales. This project was the longest duration and the most murals ever completed during a single Artist on Call program.

In a community art project, community members are designers, creators and viewers. It is a vehicle for shared experience in self expression and creative problem solving. A facilitating artist can make a community-enriching mural, with local volunteers, anywhere in the world. The key is following a plan of preparation with equal amounts of artistic skill and administrative flexibility. This article is an excerpt from a larger work detailing the theory behind transformational community arts and uses one of the murals completed on Grand Turk as an example.

Making murals: artist on call

Artists on Call is a program of the not-for-profit organization BuildaBridge. As a program, Artists on Call uses artist volunteers to lead community art projects in what I call “tough places” — a term that refers to communities struggling with poverty or disaster. I have personally facilitated community murals in tough places in six countries. These mural sites include a maximum security gang prison in Guatemala City, a neighborhood slum in downtown Guatemala City, and a neighborhood slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Each mural was unique, but the processes were similar. The Turks & Caicos was a different kind of setting than the other places in which I have worked, but still in the midst of cleaning up and rebuilding from two hurricanes that hit the Islands during September 2008, they met the criteria of a tough place.

People in tough places often experience trauma in catastrophic and violent events, or trauma pervades their quality of life. The word trauma is from a Greek word meaning “wound” and it refers to the pain and suffering from emotional, psychological and physical injuries. The pain and loss of a traumatic event can cause physical or mental isolation. Children in these situations often do not have the vocabulary to evaluate their experience.

Overcoming trauma is key to transforming individuals and their communities. People need a task on which to focus and a physically and relationally safe environment in order to consent to vulnerability. In these moments, relationships are built as honest thoughts and creative offerings are shared. For this reason, the mural work I complete focuses on the establishment of visual and physical projects that draw participation from the community, and draw expressions of vulnerability or expressions of healing from participants. When people are truly focused on a creative task, they are undefended. Expressions of ideas that build interconnectedness are possible when defenses erected to suppress traumatic triggers are temporarily laid aside. Painting images of familiar things is comforting. The process of painting a mural is transforming.

The theory of community art: untying a knot

Typically, community arts projects are undertaken as catalysts for transformation. These projects provide the place and the personnel capable of entering into transforming relationships with community participants. Tough places throughout the world struggle with domestic violence, illiteracy, environmental decay, political and economic oppression, religious wars, limited access to nutrition, unemployment, homelessness, lack of choice, and indifference to hope. Community arts projects claim to grow opportunities through changing minds by changing behavior — namely, introduced artistic behavior.

Consider likening a community art project to a building project, with workers, building materials, a blueprint, and an imagined result. The comparison begs identification with either the familiar additive or subtractive processes. Additive processes compile materials and fill real space with something new — like a new building, or a clay sculpture pieced together one lump at a time. Subtractive processes carve into an existing mass to creatively transform it — like a stone sculpture or a landscaped property. The lengthy process of community mural-making is less like compiling or carving and more like rearranging community components — human resources, skills, expectations, paint pigments and local images. Communities with high levels of risk factors or those regaining consciousness after a disaster have these community components in a tangle.

Engaging a community and the artistic process in attempting to make an image is a tangled process.  Undertaking a mural is untying a complicated knot in a long cord; it takes focus and direction from a few specialized directors. It involves tugging and looping in opposite directions in a sort of inelegant dance, pushing and inviting community institutions toward an end goal.

If the cord represents community artistic potential, the point of untangling it is not to spread a community out, but to fit it for the use for which it was formed. An unintentionally knotted cord is often kicked into a corner where its tangles curiously worsen. A knot is not entirely a problem. The process of looping and un-looping its segments can yield a blessing to a community. A sorted or strategically knotted cord collaborates, builds and interfaces with anyone ready to create. The title of this metaphor might better be untying and retying a knot. Ordered, cooperating parts formed into a pattern can be beautiful and useful.

The metaphor points to the intrinsic value and abilities of a community, and a visiting collaborator filling the role of a servant-detangler in the community arts context. Visitors can often see and do things locals would not, and they are in a position to offer encouragement from an outside perspective. They do not come to clear away debris or compile assets, but to affirm and attend to the existing components that can be arranged to reveal a beautiful work of art.

Creating a safe place

Mentoring enters any relational equation in which a teacher spends quality time with her students. Borrowing from the science of therapy, safe places are set up in each of the mural locations. The opportunity to do something creative tells people something safe is going on. Vulnerability and artistic experiments may feel risky, but the human subconscious knows there is the potential for healing in expression and collaboration.

In each setting in which I worked, I grappled with the question, what specific conditions make a place safe and welcoming? From the standpoint of an artist, how could a project be structured to make people feel safe enough to participate? People sharing creative ideas and telling stories to one another as they paint together works its own portion of transformation, but how can a project cater to their skill level and allow for a sense of accomplishment?

Making murals: Grand Turk

In the Turks & Caicos Islands, Artist on Call was invited to facilitate a community mural project at the request of the Turks & Caicos National Museum. The island of Grand Turk in particular was recovering from Hurricane Ike. Island infrastructure was severely hobbled and buildings and plant life were ravaged. I accepted the invitation and entered the project before the actual locations for the murals were decided.

The first location became Ona Glinton Primary School. Our mural was to be on the exterior of the school auditorium. Very soon after arriving on Grand Turk, the loss of local vegetation, especially trees, was apparent. Working with local stakeholders, including the museum, we quickly designed a mural depicting local trees, with close-ups of leaf and fruit details.

School administrators were excited about the project, and assigned the fifth grade classes the task of completing the mural. Every student returned with a parental permission slip to stay after school every day for two weeks to work on painting the mural. Students were assigned in groups to choose specific trees. For homework, students were to bring in leaves from trees we would paint in the mural. The next day leaves showed up. “This is from a tree in my yard. I couldn’t reach it so my daddy lifted me up. I think we should use it.” The students were enthusiastic.

As each group began work, they quickly assumed ownership of their sections. They were able to return to their sections day after day and focus on filling in shapes. They had visible goals. This chance to focus was one element that contributed to a state of vulnerability formerly mentioned. Consistent time spent with one another and with me as the teacher opened doors for beginning relationships and friendships. In her book on interpreting children’s art, Dr. Levick (2003) wrote, “The artist creates order out of disorder. This disorder may be something the artist feels inside or something chaotic perceived in the environment” (p. 1).  A time and place to focus, a task on which to focus, and the opportunity to systematically build something together after the hurricane established an oasis of order for painters.

At the beginning of the work, students were taught basic design principles. They were taught basic color theory and paint mixing techniques. The individual tree outlines were sketched onto the wall. Then the students began filling in the base coat of the mural’s images. From the beginning of the project, sponsors and the museum stressed to students the hosting potential of the finished mural. It was their mural, but it would be for the whole island to enjoy, both a wake-up call to care for island culture and an invitation to enjoy the artwork.

Excitement was palpable when the project was complete. A young skeptic at the outset of the project changed his mind in the end and on the last day stated, “We should illuminate it at night!” Pride in the product and students’ work was evident when the mural was finished. Local news outlets covered the story and the director of education came for a mural dedication ceremony. She charged students with future care of the mural and corresponding future care of the island. “Showing respect for the child’s work is a way to help children to begin to respect the property rights of others” (Levick, p. 20). Standing in front of the mural, students were proud of their school and satisfied they had helped beautify the island. Both the mural and the island to which the mural was gifted, belonged to them.

A sense of safety was achieved partly through cultivating a sense of ownership of the project. The greater the role participants played in the mural-making process, the greater their sense of ownership. Participants and mural sponsors also desired a successful looking product. This demand always places strain on the artist. The goal of Artists on Call is to incorporate the work of novice volunteers, but every project needs to produce a professional looking image.

What is the role of professional art standards? How can disparate artist, student, and sponsor-designed goals be balanced to satisfy all participants? After experimenting with putting finishing touches over the base coats students applied to the mural, I arrived at an acceptable strategy. Once base coats and shadows were filled in after school, professional artists stayed late into the evening completing highlights and color gradations, sometimes even working by truck headlights.

Opportunities for mentoring were an integral part of the mural projects on Grand Turk. The two month timeframe allowed for conversations between students and me outside the project, in places like a church, a grocery store, or an after-school homework program. Enough time was spent in each other’s presence to begin to build mutual respect and familiarity. The museum even sponsored two watercolor clinics for the classes working on the mural.

Students and other mural participants began attending mural workdays because they wanted to see one another, and not just the mural. A portion of transformation can happen within mentoring, on both sides of the relationship. Mentoring time includes actual time spent, some skill learning, teamwork, and encouragement. Change happens as people realize new things about the world or themselves, and are affirmed in positive and familiar things.

Saying goodbye to a time of mentoring is well done within a mural signing ceremony. Here teachers and students apply their names side by side as a closing testament to their time and work together. This was the last step of the Ona Glinton mural. On this day, we stepped back and saw how each student’s contribution combined to became the whole picture. This is the first rule of making a mural: when you don’t see how what you are doing fits in, just take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the Turks & Caicos National Museum, director Dr. Neal V. Hitch, and the Pine Cay Project for their support in the mural projects on which most of my research is based.

Sources

Levick, M. (2003). See what I’m saying: What children tell us through their art. Hong Kong: Regal.

Webb, N. (2006). Expressive and creative arts methods for trauma survivors. (L. Carey, Ed.). London: Jessica Kingsley.

It’s never been done before in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

In spite of the eco-conscious “green” movement that is sweeping the globe, Tropical Imaging’s new studio will be the first “green build” in the TCI. It’s an exciting new project that could break a path for others to follow. And best of all in these eco-nomically perilous times, Tropical Imaging owner Andy Mann expects the decision will save his company money in the long-run, besides creating a healthy workplace environment and doing his part to keep the world clean and green for his children.

Tropical Imaging is a very successful locally owned and operated studio, established in 1997. With a staff of eight, for over a decade they have grown slowly, step by step, from a simple underwater photography business to a leading storytelling company with full multimedia capability and skills more commonly seen in top U.S. studios rather than “the islands.” We at Times Publications greatly admire the work they do for our annual Destination Turks & Caicos Islands, the beautiful, coffee table-style book that you can find in your hotel room and take home as a souvenir.

A brainstorm in green

Andy, the Tropical Imaging staff and their equipment have outgrown a couple of office spaces over the years, and as they threatened to burst out of their current site, Andy started to think about trading monthly rent bills for a company-owned studio, tailor-made for their needs. As a former scuba-diving instructor who first came to the Turks & Caicos in 1995, he has always had a keen appreciation for nature. At the same time, he wanted to have some way to control the record-breaking utility bills of 2008. Fate or coincidence then played its role with a chance discovery of the Greenbuild International Expo in Boston in October 2008. Andy, always extremely forward-thinking in running the business, was so impressed with the ideas presented at the show that he decided to transplant them to the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Why is this so important? Andy explains, “The commercial and residential building sector accounts for 39% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the U.S. per year, more than any other sector. Most of these emissions come from the combustion of fossil fuels to provide heating, cooling and lighting, and to power appliances and electrical equipment. By transforming the built environment to be more energy-efficient and climate-friendly, the building sector can play a major role in reducing the threat of climate change.”

The impact of climate change on the Turks & Caicos Islands is particularly dire. With most of the country just slightly above sea level, ocean rising due to global warming will immediately affect TCI’s coast, especially its award-winning beaches and pricey real estate. An increase in the intensity and likelihood of tropical storms hurts both the resident population and visitors, as clearly evidenced by the hurricanes of 2008. As well, high-end tourists are becoming increasingly selective in choosing destinations and service providers that display “green credentials.”

Getting started

Andy’s first step was to secure a parcel of land in the newly developing east end of Leeward Highway, halfway between the roundabout heading into Grace Bay and the Leeward Development entrance. The site itself is simply “bush,” with nearby areas already slated for development, and not endangering any protected natural reserve or wetland. It was also right on Leeward Highway, making access a breeze.

Andy worked with architect Ron Shaw, Tim Sprakes from Construction Advisory Services and Chris Nesbitt and Steve Thompson from Projetech to create a blueprint for a small studio building, adapting the windfall of ideas he acquired from the Greenbuild convention, and, in particular, the RJ Walter Homes Home of the Future in California which, along with the worldwide “green community,” are eager to share knowledge. Andy explains, “It really was a team effort to make this work. Each ‘green’ element had to be evaluated to make sure it would work and make sense in TCI. It really was a partnership. You should see all the emails we have back and forth on this!”

Planning a green build

When designing a space to be an eco-friendly green build, there are three aspects to the equation:  firstly, reducing energy consumption inside and outside the building; secondly, designing to minimize energy losses and gains; and finally, employing renewable sources of energy to help power the building. With the availability of green building products greatly expanding, prices dropping and technology moving forward in leaps and bounds, there has never been a better time to build green.

To help reduce energy consumption, the team started with the obvious — low energy appliances and low energy light fittings — and moved up to using a state-of-the-art air conditioning system from local air conditioning company Aircool. Besides being designed to run at high efficiency, it also employs sensors to detect when people are and are not occupying various zones and raising or lowering temperatures accordingly, even shutting off automatically at the end of the day. While a substantial investment at the onset, Andy says one long-run benefit is in future cash flow, as monthly power bills will be greatly diminished. Another way of reducing consumption, and thus the “carbon footprint,” are placing special solar tubes in the roof to enhance all-natural lighting for the second floor.

To maximize energy conservation, in effect a building is “wrapped” to prevent loss of cool air (or hot air in northern climates). This, Andy explains, involves insulating the roof and walls and installing highly rated UV windows which reflect sunlight.

Only when energy consumption and conservation are managed does it make sense to consider “green” power. On the advice of several green-build experts, Andy has planned a hybrid system combining solar panels and wind generation to take advantage of the abundant sunshine and constant trade winds that have been a source of energy to the Islands for many generations. He selected the “I-pod” of wind turbines, the Skystream wind generator, a small, quiet unit set on a three-hinged pole to be easily dismantled in case of a storm. With three turbines and a small bank of solar panels on the land behind the site, he figured he could diminish the need to draw on PPC fossil-fuel generated power.

Some of the other eco-friendly modifications aren’t new to TCI residents:  the use of cisterns to capture rainwater, recycling “gray” water for irrigation, preserving as much natural bush as possible to minimize the use of imported plants that need fertilizing and pest control, and positioning the building to minimize east and west exposures. Others are more unique, including using bamboo flooring (a renewable material) at the entranceway, and adding a “power point” outside to plug in and charge his anticipated future electric van. Andy also plans to implement proper construction waste management and hopes that someday public transportation will be readily available in the TCI, making it more energy-efficient to commute.

Getting the OK

Prior to submitting his plans to the TCI Department of Planning for approval, Andy introduced the idea to Wesley Clerveaux, director of the TCI Department of Environment and Coastal Resources and Clyde Robinson, director of planning; both said to be quite keen on the concepts. At press time, however, parts of the plans had been initially turned down because no regulations were in place regarding the use of wind turbines for energy generation. Reports are that such regulations are being considered, as interest in and the need for sustainable energy resources continues to grow.

Tropical Imaging intends for the studio project to be Green Globes certified. Green Globes is an environmental assessment, education and rating system that is promoted in the U.S. by the Green Building Initiative. In comparison with national U.S. building stock, the average “green” certified building uses 24% less electricity and saves significant CO2 emissions annually. The program helps budding green builders every step of the way, providing an ongoing assessment protocol with related software tools and best practices guidance for construction and operation.

Meanwhile, Andy says he will forge ahead, as the energy savings still make sense. He will keep options open in hope that the wind turbines can be added later. Construction is  due to start in July and expected to be completed by the end of the year. This visionary dreams of a Turks & Caicos Islands someday employing only green power and electric vehicles, as a means of both protecting the planet and setting itself apart from other tourist destinations.

Tropical Imaging plans to document all aspects of the construction, planning and certification of the building, hoping to gain media exposure for the green build initiative and the Turks & Caicos Islands as a whole. Tropical Imaging continues to look for support from parties that are interested in helping them make the project a success.

For more information on Tropical Imaging’s green build, visit their blog at: http://www.brilliant.tc/greenbuilding/

Make no mistake: Scuba diving is serious business. To get certified, you have to study a fair bit of science, including the physics of gases, and be able to calculate atmospheres and air compression. You have to understand how to read Navy dive tables and use them to plan dives. You have to pass a written test and prove your skills 30 feet beneath sea level. And yet once you’ve got your “C card” and are officially a diver, you should be prepared to have the most fun one can have, legally.

Sure, the underwater world is beautiful and peaceful and relaxing and exotic. But the thing you don’t hear often about scuba diving is that sometimes it’s LOL–funny down there. Divemasters blowing “water” rings, couples goosing each other through their wetsuits, kids of all ages playing Hangman on their dive slates during safety stops: Good stuff, but that’s human humor. Barbara’s and my favorite way to crack up underwater is by observing the odd, amusing and always entertaining behavior of the critters themselves. Hunting and mating are two activities you can count on for high entertainment value, which is one reason to slow down in the water. Why rush off to the next hunk of reef? Stick around, work to achieve neutral buoyancy, where you are perfectly still in the water and neither bobbing up like an apple nor sinking like a brick. Move slowly, gracefully . . . keep your eyes peeled and pay attention. Because just when you least expect it, a fish is likely to do something to make you smile. And trust us, to do that while breathing through a regulator and not swallow water takes practice!

Exhibit A: the whitespotted filefish

The tropical Pacific Ocean lays claim to the ever-popular clownfish, but we think the whitespotted filefish is every bit as cute — plus, at a maximum length of 18 inches, there’s a lot more of him to love. With its colorful orange and black markings, bright yellow accents and white spots that appear during its first phase of life (not to mention its fat tummy and pucker-up white lips), this funny fellow could be the honorary clownfish of the Caribbean.

Viewed from the side, you can’t tell how slender this fish really is. And in the water, he moves slowly and in one plane; he doesn’t undulate like many softer-boned species. You can always spot one (so to speak) from a distance by his angle — almost always at 45º (lips up or down). But when it’s time for a gill cleaning, or better yet, some dental work, this handsome guy can practically hit 90º! We especially love their pre-mating rituals, when they circle one another back and forth and create the loveliest patterns. There’s a reason I have longed for fish-patterned swimsuits. Mother Nature is the ultimate artist!

If the whitespotted filefish had a Facebook page, his profile might read something like this:

Networks: Shallow coral reefs
Status: Usually in a relationship
Strength: Great at camouflage
Weakness: Not a great swimmer (blame my small fins!)
Fave foods: Algae, seagrass, small invertebrate or coral
Fun fact: Humans used to dry my skin and use it to finish wooden boats.

Exhibit B (Confiscated by TSA?): jackknife fish

This pair of 8-inch-long jackknife fish are the only ones we’ve ever seen in the reefs off Grand Turk. They were first seen several years ago at the base of a shallow coral head, where they took up residence until a bad storm blew in. Talk about riding shotgun! Next time they were seen was at a completely different coral head. But after a hurricane in 2007, they disappeared for good. Denizens of Florida and the Bahamas, jackknife fish are quite rare in the Caribbean. When you do spy one, you usually get double your money’s worth because they tend to stay in pairs. In fact, that’s one of the easiest ways to distinguish this elegant little guy from his cousins the highhat and the spotted drum (especially the adorably hyperkinetic juvenile, which is actually smaller).

Check out his Facebook page:

Nickname: Jack
Fave color: black and white (duh!)
Height: 3–4 inches
Atlantic or Caribbean: Atlantic!
Fun fact: I’m one of the few fish not in Wikipedia!

Exhibitionist C: grouper

“Lazy” isn’t a word typically used to describe fish, but that was exactly the first word that came to Barbara’s mind when she spotted a Nassau grouper apparently catching some zzzz’s on a large sponge in Grand Turk. Later she learned he was neither snoozing nor double-parked while the wife ran in to pick up dinner; he was at a cleaning station, the very common (and commonly missed by new divers) arrangement fish have with one another to get parasites removed from their skin, gills and mouths by a class of little critters called cleaner fish. (It’s fun to identify a cleaning station: Look for small yellow fish flittering in small groups above the corals. But keep your distance. The cleanees are vulnerable, and when they sense our presence, they skedaddle.)

Barbara says despite groupers’ rep for being anti-social, she’s known some to be very curious. “When diving at Coral Gardens off Grand Turk, my usual routine is to hang around with the other divers at first to photograph them gently interacting with Alexander, the resident grouper greeter. After a few minutes, I will swim off on my own. I was really startled the first couple of times that I got bumped by something. When I looked around, I saw it was a grouper — who seemed to want its picture taken.” Fair enough, she thought, but apparently shooting a fish is about as easy as photographing a puppy. As Barbara says,“You try to explain to an overly friendly, three-foot-long fish that it needs to stay at least 16 inches away for you to focus!”

Alexander is as much a fixture at Coral Gardens as Snoopy is at the Thanksgiving Day Parade. And he always wants to be petted. He and Barbara go way back. Of her friend she says, “This large Nassau grouper actually enjoys having his chin scratched by legendary divemaster Smitty (Algrove Smith, owner of Grand Turk Diving). For those of you who might be concerned about the ethical question of making ‘pets’ of wild things by feeding them, let me say that I have never seen Smitty or anyone in his dive group feed any marine creature.”

There must be something about groupers. I have personally witnessed this phenomenon at three other dive locations outside the TCI: always Nassau groupers, usually more than one, and always at the same popular shallow site. I agree with Barbara: It’s not about food. They genuinely like the attention and affection. See, we told you fish were funny!

Sometimes it isn’t the fish per se that’s amusing but his choice of swimming partner. Trumpetfish, those long, slender fish that change color before your eyes and dip 90º headfirst into soft coral, love tailgaiting. They’re frequently seen with jack, but occasionally you’ll see one hovering directly above a plump grouper like a shadow — or a halo. Whither goeth the grouper, so goeth the trumpetfish. They’re the Jack Sprat and his wife of the sea. We can only assume he’s waiting for the grouper’s leftovers.

On deck: shortnose batfish

Talk about a master of disguise: Even the most sharp-sighted diver can swim back and forth over a batfish and never see it. This shallow-bottom-dweller blends in perfectly with the color and texture of the sand, plus it can make dark, irregular spots appear to further disguise itself among the small plants that inhabit its favorite sandy areas. This wacky fish, typically about a foot in length, actually walks along the sandy ocean floor, but it can muster a burst of speed thanks to a pair of what look like jet-propulsion holes in its lower back.

On my last trip to Grand Turk, for my last dive, we requested a “muck” dive with Smitty, meaning we’d forgo the colorful coral in search of the more unusual, and more exciting, creatures that live in the sand and “muck.” Old Eagle Eyes started leading us further and further away from anything resembling life (plant or fish), and for the briefest of nanoseconds I thought he had gotten off the scent. (After all, I wasn’t seeing anything.) Suddenly he stopped kicking his fins and indicated we should stop, too. With his eyes, he pointed about 40 feet away in the Sahara-like sand. OK, he’s definitely losing it! I thought. Then, in super-slow-mo, he led us directly to three batfish, about six feet apart, gloriously ugly. Because we had approached so slowly and had “surrounded” them, they stuck around, hopping in the sand and giving us the show of the week.

By the way, do you know that divers use hand signals to communicate underwater? There’s thumb and index finger together in a circle, other three fingers straight (“okay”); thumb up (“ascend”) and so on. We also have signs for many of the fish. Can you guess the sign for batfish? Yep, you swing an imaginary bat. Here’s a thought: Maybe the fish find us as batty as we find them!

New York-based Suzanne Gerber writes about scuba, travel and health for a variety of publications. Book your next dive trip by contacting Suzanne at suzanne@worldofdiving.com.

Avid underwater photographer Barbara Shively discovered Grand Turk diving in 1997 and has returned every year. It is her passion to share the coral reefs’ beauty through her photographs, many of which can be viewed and purchased at http://shivelygallery.com/. A variety of her prints are on sale at Art Provo, located in The Regent Village, Providenciales.

Although I am not a golfer, I can see why people enjoy the sport. Taking a tour around the Provo Golf Course is like taking a sojourn from everyday island life. In contrast to the fairly arid, flat landscape over which I conduct my typical work routine, the golf course fairways are lush, emerald green and fresh-smelling. Our quiet electric cart whirrs up and down gently rolling hills, dotted with ranks of palm trees and battalions of brightly flowering bushes. Placid lakes, home to graceful water birds including ducks and flamingos, appear around most turns, and steady trade winds blow away any traces of heat and humidity.

I’ve been visiting and writing about the Provo Golf Course since its opening in late 1992 . . . and it just keeps getting better and better. This is due to a long-term commitment by the HAB Group, the course’s owners and founders, towards making the course a showpiece for the Turks & Caicos Islands. The course’s staff, including longtime Director of Golf Dave Douglas and Course Superintendent Jason Bailey, are similarly committed to making enjoyable every round of golf played by member and visitor.

A history lesson

I still have the original magazine produced when the course opened, describing it as the “Caribbean’s Newest Golfing Destination!” Articles within tell of the 1989 decision by the Turks & Caicos Water Company (a division of the HAB Group) that creating a golf course would be a good step towards promoting tourism in the Islands. Since Provo has a semi-arid climate with neither abundant rainfall nor ground water, fresh water to keep the course green would have to be produced, and who better to do it than the fledgling water company? Renowned golf architect Karl Litten was chosen to design the 18 hole course and a $600,000 state-of-the-art computer irrigation system was set up to keep the grass green with approximately 250,000 gallons of desalinated water (now 300,000 gallons) being pumped daily through 14 miles of laid pipeline.

Ground broke for the project in May 1991, with Gregori International, Inc. of France serving as the contractor, based on their extensive experience in landscaping and ground sculpting. Early photos show the scant topsoil being scraped into mounds for reuse in topping the course and heavy equipment digging into the hard coral rock beneath to build elevation into land lying almost at sea level. As environmentally conscious then as now, the developers preserved as many native trees as possible, along with the natural lake, which today bisects the front and back nine.

The stately clubhouse, center of course activities and welcoming portal to visitors, was designed as one of architect Simon Wood’s original projects on Providenciales. Its traditional West Indian-style architecture became among his renowned designs and the comfortable, rotunda-like interior remains a popular gathering place for golfers, with the Fairways Bar and Grill serving meals on its terrace overlooking the 18th hole.

The course earned accolades from the beginning, and by 1996, a Golf magazine writer for Caribbean Travel & Life rated the course among the Caribbean’s top 10, a rank held today and enhanced by a four star rating from Golf Digest in 2007/08. The 18-hole, 72 par course offers a rousing test for golfers of all calibers. If offshore breezes are blowing strong, the 6,705 yard championship course becomes “extremely interesting” with a slope rating of 136. For the casual golfer, blue, white and the women’s red tees (marked with colored conch shells) reduce the field to 5,036 yards. According to Dave Douglas, “The course is designed to offer a larger green area if the approach shot is a long one, while shorter approaches will be to smaller greens tucked behind bunkers or mounds. In between the different hitting areas, you have large waste spaces. This requires players to utilize good course management, hitting the ball to specific targets rather than just blasting away with their driver or fairway wood.” The course places a premium on accuracy and has given up only a few holes-in-one over its teen-age lifespan.

Keeping it fresh

It seemed like old times (except for a few more wrinkles and gray hairs between us) as Dave Douglas gave me the 2009 golf course grand tour, driving one of the brand-new fleet of electric carts. He explained that over $1.5 million had been invested by HAB Group over the last year on landscaping and refurbishment projects. This included over 900 new palm trees, a combination of Winin, Areca, Sable and Washingtonian varieties — all non-susceptible to the deadly lethal yellow disease that killed many of the original coconut palms. Adding color along the fairways and around the greens are hundreds of flowering trees, including cassia, Hong Kong orchid, pink tabby, frangipani, African tulip, gumbo limbo, tropical almond and bottlebrush, along with verdant bushes such as bougainvillea, oleander, copper leaf and Ficus, with sea oat grass adding a natural fringe. Besides doing its part to decrease global warming, the exuberant new landscape adds interest and beauty to the course.

We also cruised past new water features created on the 7th and 17th holes; the last a sinuous lake designed to add drama to the end of the course. This brings the total number of lakes to 12, with water on seven holes on the front nine and six holes on the back nine. Interestingly, the course remains so close to sea level that builders needed only dig down a few feet for the water table to fill the new ponds. While the flamingos were busy elsewhere, Dave assured me that they are regular visitors, along with egrets, heron and other waterfowl. Also adding a challenge for course regulars are two new tee-offs on the 13th and 18th holes.

Indoors, the refurbished clubhouse sports fresh decor in the rotunda, a larger bag storage facility and an expanded and updated pro shop, from which guests can rent premium Taylormade Burner clubs, or purchase logoed shirts, shorts, golf shoes and extra balls. Other club facilities include a warm-up driving net, chipping area, putting green and tennis courts. Tee times start at 7 AM until dusk, the course is rarely crowded, and on-line reservations are available.

Hosting the Caribbean’s finest

With all this “gussying up,” you might think company’s coming! And it is. For the second time (the first was in 1999), the Provo Golf & Country Club will play host to the 53rd Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships on August 3 to 8, 2009. Bordier International Bank & Trust are the headline sponsors of the prestigious event, expected to draw 140 golfers and nearly that many “followers.”

The Caribbean Amateur Open began in 1957 with only two countries; since that time it has evolved into the largest annual golf event in the region, contested by 10 countries, including the Turks & Caicos Islands. Each country sends 14-person teams to compete in five divisions, including the Hoerman Cup (five-man team); George Teale Memorial Trophy (three-woman team); Ramon Baez Trophy (two amateur men aged 35 and over); Francis Steele Perkins Trophy (two senior men aged 50 and over) and the Higgs and Higgs Trophy (two super-senior men aged 60 and over). The 2009 competition will see Puerto Rico looking to retain the title they won last year in the Cayman Islands.

Spectators are welcome and TCI residents are encouraged to come out and cheer on the local team. The 1999 event was touted as one of the best championships ever hosted by a member community. As host country, the Turks & Caicos Golf Association (TCGA) is expected to provide accommodation for all visiting teams, use of the golf course for six days, on-island transportation, breakfast and dinner for all players, an opening ceremony, flag raising and dinner and a prize-giving and closing party. Obviously, much sponsorship is needed and packages are available to suit any budget. For more information, contact Tournament Director John Phillips at claymore@tciway.tc.

The million dollar mark

With over 160 members, the Provo Golf Club maintains a strong local players’ base and a full roster of members-only events to complement the many annual golfing tournaments. Since 1996, charity golf events have quietly raised over $1 million for local charities and worthwhile causes in the Turks & Caicos Islands. This amazing achievement for such a small golfing community is, in large part, due to the many local corporate sponsorships, great participation from local golfers, and the hard work of the golf club staff. Many of the tournaments have a 16 year history, and are still going strong.

Over the years, some of the worthwhile causes have included:  the National AIDS Awareness Foundation, the British West Indies Collegiate, P.A.T.H.E. (Provo Association for the Handicapped and Elderly), the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Turks & Caicos Cancer Society, the Turks & Caicos Kidney Foundation, the Kiwanis Club, the Turks & Caicos Football Association, the Turks & Caicos Golf Association, the Angelo Rizzoli Foundation and the Clement Howell High School.

A golf course lifestyle

Part of the HAB Group’s long-range plans for developing a golf course was the concurrent development of the 200-acre surrounding resort community, blessed with the “greenest grass on Provo.” To my surprise (I hadn’t toured the course for many years), much of the project is well underway. This includes 70 townhomes in five different developments — Fairways, The Palms, The Retreat, The Enclave and The Enclave II. Each features 2-storey, 2 bedroom/2.5 bath (some 3 bedroom) townhomes fronting the fairways, with private patios enjoying a sweeping golf course view. These have proven extremely popular for long-term rentals and investment growth, with many renters becoming townhome buyers and later purchasing land and building their home on the golf course.

There are also 15 Club Villas (with plans to build another 12). These are unique in that each section has 3 separate  2 bedroom/2.5 bath units, with two units on the bottom level and one on the second level. Lower level units have a den that could be made into a third bedroom.

Each development has its own pool/patio, with the white sands of Grace Bay just a short stroll across the street. They are managed in individual strata groups, and many offer discounted golf and tennis membership.

Of the private residence lots, 13 are now graced with beautiful single-family homes, taking advantage of built-in infrastructure including asphalt roads, underground water, electricity, telephone and cable television lines and a main sewage line. Besides a choice of 38 remaining lake view, fairway or greenside locations, an added benefit for home or lot owners is golf club membership.

The HAB Group also operate highly regarded luxury resorts on Grace Bay — the award winning Villa Renaissance, luxurious Regent Grand Resort & Spa and the forthcoming development The Vellagio. Guests staying at either resort receive free golf during their stay from now through April 2010.

Although it may be some time before I ever swing a club (or curse at a golf ball!), I look forward to another ride around the course for a future story. I have no doubt Provo’s tranquil oasis will be more lovely than ever . . . and I won’t have to worry about my score!

For more information, visit www.provogolfclub.com or call 877 218 9124 or 649 946 5991.

Tackling TCI’s turtle fishery.

Humans have hunted turtles in the Turks & Caicos Islands for centuries. Yet turtles still thrive here, in good numbers too. With their extensive, pristine coral reefs and vast swathes of seagrass beds, lagoons and tidal creeks, the low lying Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) provide valuable feeding grounds for thousands of green and hawksbill turtles. The Islands’ human settlers have exploited this rich turtle bounty since their arrival in about 700 AD.

Archaeological digs at ancient Taino Indian settlements throughout the Islands have revealed middens stacked full of turtle bones. After Europeans discovered the Islands in the 16th century, the Tainos’ subsistence hunting would likely have been replaced by commercial turtle harvests, which provided meat and shell for regular export right up until the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Nowadays, the economic value of TCI’s turtle harvest is relatively unimportant. Most of the Islands’ fishermen depend on the more lucrative conch and lobster fisheries, which supply the export markets in the USA.

But despite an apparent decline in the demand for turtle meat in recent decades, many folk in TCI still enjoy it. A few fishermen regularly harvest turtles intentionally to satisfy local demand from restaurants and private customers, but most turtles taken in TCI are caught opportunistically, by fishermen fishing for other species. If these fishers encounter turtles and can catch them easily, often they will be taken home for personal consumption. To date TCI’s turtle fishery has been largely ignored, perhaps because few, if any fishers depend on what is perceived as a largely incidental harvest. Nevertheless, in 2004 a provisional assessment carried out by the Marine Conservation Society (UK) and the University of Exeter with the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources (DECR) estimated that the Islands’ annual harvest of green and hawksbill turtles was likely to involve hundreds, and possibly thousands of turtles per year. TCI’s turtle fishery could be landing one of largest legal turtle harvests in the Caribbean.

Time for change

Over the years, the turtle harvest regulations contained in subsequent drafts of TCI’s fishery legislation have not kept pace with our growing understanding of marine turtle biology and are now in need of change. For example, the current Fishery Protection Ordinance states any turtle that weighs over 20 pounds, or measures 20 inches “from the neck scales to the tail piece,” can be caught at any time of the year. Female turtles and their eggs are protected above the high water line, but as soon as those same females return to the sea they are fair game to the fishers. Unlike the conch and lobster fisheries, there is no closed season for TCI’s turtle fishery and therefore there is no real protection for the reproductively valuable adult turtles in TCI’s waters.

Our previous research suggested that most of the turtles present in TCI’s waters are juveniles or sub-adults, and genetic analysis of the relatively small numbers of green and hawksbill turtles sampled during those studies indicate that most originated from nearby, or larger nesting populations in the region. Many of these larger nesting populations in the Caribbean, such as Costa Rica’s green turtle rookery at Tortuguero and the hawksbill rookeries in Puerto Rico, are showing strong signs of recovery despite centuries of harvest in the TCI. These encouraging results are largely due to concerted conservation efforts at the nesting beaches far away from the TCI, where nesting females and their eggs are protected from illegal poaching.

The TCI itself also has a nesting population of hawksbills, as well as the occasional nesting green and loggerhead turtle. But our research found that the historical and ongoing harvest of adult turtles in TCI waters has almost certainly led to these nesting populations being wiped out from the inhabited islands. We found that fishers tend to target larger sub-adult and adult turtles, perhaps not surprisingly as these animals yield more meat, and there lies the key problem with today’s turtle fishery in TCI. With no change in the management of the fishery, it is likely that TCI fishers will whittle away the country’s remnant population of reproducing adult turtles until it disappears, perhaps forever. This has happened elsewhere in the Caribbean in recent history, but it doesn’t have to happen in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

The way forward

The TCI has a sovereign right to use its natural resources for domestic consumption, but it is clear that something has to be done to reverse the apparent decline in TCI’s nesting turtles while balancing the needs of the community. An outright ban on turtle fishing would be impractical, unenforceable and inequitable, and is therefore not an option. Instead, we believe a solution can be found through an inclusive, participatory approach that involves turtle fishers. This approach is essential to inform much-needed changes to the Fisheries Protection Ordinance, and establish a more sustainable, yet stakeholder-led turtle fishery management strategy. In 2007, DECR Director Wesley Clerveaux recognised the need for action and invited MCS and the University of Exeter to return to TCI to follow up on our research recommendations.

At about the same time, long-term Marine Conservation Society members Anne and Simon Notley were looking to get involved with a meaningful conservation project after having sold their very successful business. A chance encounter with the MCS Fundraising Manager aroused their interest in our tentative ideas for a follow-up project in TCI. “Having sold our company a few years ago, we wanted to get involved in a conservation project, but neither of us had a research background,” says Anne. “My training was in law and Simon’s was in yacht and boatyard management. We have been members of MCS for 15 years, so it was natural to talk to the Marine Conservation Society about which projects we could help. We had always wanted to have an excuse to visit warmer climes during the winter, so when the Turks & Caicos Islands project idea was mentioned it wasn’t very difficult to make a decision. We are both keen divers and sailors, so turtle conservation was a no-brainer for us!”

After 18 months of planning and deliberation, MCS, Anne and Simon, the University of Exeter’s Marine Turtle Research Group and the DECR committed to making the project become reality. The School for Field Studies in South Caicos, which has continued collecting data on turtles around South Caicos since 2005 when they assisted with our previous research, also pledged its support. So, with the Notley’s financial backing in place, and local and international project partners engaged, the Turks & Caicos Islands Turtle Project was born. The project will thoroughly assess the status of the Islands’ turtle foraging and nesting populations, understand the turtle nesting seasons in TCI, and generate a comprehensive analysis of the TCI’s turtle harvest, including biological, economic and social evaluations. After two years of fieldwork, which will include extensive consultation with turtle fishers, the project will have developed a comprehensive draft turtle fishery management plan and detailed recommendations for appropriate amendments to the existing legislation.

New faces

As the project gained momentum last year, the University of Exeter recruited PhD student Tom Stringell to coordinate the biological data collection and analysis, while MCS recruited social scientist Amdeep Sanghera as the project field officer. Amdeep handles the logistics of day-to-day biological data collection on the ground, but given the participatory nature of the project’s aims, social science is a major aspect of his work. He has extensive experience of assessing wildlife use, especially in Africa where he investigated several situations including turtle hunting in Ghana. He was therefore attracted to the proposition of using his skills in the Caribbean. “My background has involved working with resource users to investigate ways to better manage the very resources they rely upon,” says Amdeep, “so the TCI project really attracted me, especially the project duration and the participatory nature of the work. In two years, you can really get to the core of the issues and get a strong grasp of what people feel and think. With strong emphasis on fisher participation, the project should allow stakeholders to have a voice in matters that are close to them, and hopefully facilitate changes that are, as much as possible, reflective of their views.” Amdeep will build a thorough understanding of the socio-economic factors that need to be considered in shaping the future of turtle use in TCI.

Life in the “Big South”

While Tom Stringell makes four, month-long research trips each year, Amdeep is based full time in South Caicos, the traditional home of fishing in the TCI. Wesley Clerveaux arranged desk space for Amdeep at the DECR’s office there, and gave him a room in “The Lab”, the renovated DECR accommodation a stone’s throw away from the beautiful azure sea on South Caicos’ rocky southern coast. Wesley also recruited local fisherman Tommy Philips as Amdeep’s project assistant. Tommy has made sure that Amdeep had all the right introductions in the fisher communities when he first arrived in November 2008. Already Amdeep has made significant inroads into the South Caicos community, making good friends, gaining fisher confidence and understanding more about the dynamics of the harvest and what it means to the fishers. Tommy is an excellent boatman who knows the local reefs and banks like the back of his hand and has been catching turtles all his life. While he teaches them the tricks of his trade, Amdeep and Tom have trained Tommy in the biometric measuring, turtle tagging and tissue-sampling methods needed to assess the status of TCI’s turtle stock. Together they work on the South Caicos dock, sampling harvested turtles as they are landed and chatting to the fishermen about their day.

By Amdeep’s own admission, this work, with its almost daily exposure to the realities of an active turtle fishery, has taken some getting used to after a spell of living in urban Birmingham. But The Lab is set away from the main town, meaning that while Amdeep is integrated within the tight South Caicos community, he also manages to find that all-important personal space. “After a hard day’s work at the dock, there’s nothing better than going back to The Lab and enjoying a long stare into the open ocean,“ he says. When Tom Stringell is on island for his research trips, Tommy takes him with Amdeep out in the DECR boat to the project’s research sites to survey nesting beaches, or catch, sample, tag and release turtles on the reefs and seagrass beds.

Despite his sociological leanings, Amdeep admits that these sampling trips are some of the most enjoyable days on the job. “I particularly enjoy the catch, tag and release sampling trips. It’s pretty exciting work and very rewarding, because very little research has been directed towards turtles here in TCI. I caught, tagged and released a loggerhead turtle in February. It was the first loggerhead turtle ever to be tagged in TCI and a very exhilarating experience for me. In fact every turtle we tag, sample and release during this project has the potential to bridge the gaps in our knowledge about these amazing creatures.”

The biological research also benefits from the School for Field Studies’ generous support. Research associate Marta Calosso takes Amdeep, Tom and Tommy to sites close to the School to catch, tag and release turtles. In addition, the School’s students and staff go out and collect these data as part of their program.

Anne and Simon Notley’s practical involvement is also integral to the scope of the research throughout the Islands. As well as funding the project, they bought Salt Dog, a 50-foot Lagoon catamaran yacht. Anne and Simon regularly visit the Islands, when they use Salt Dog to assist with nesting beach surveying and turtle sampling at the more remote cays and reefs in the archipelago, and to indulge Simon’s life-long passion for sailing!  He explains, “I don’t need an excuse to get out on the water. I love it, always have. But the most enjoyable thing about our involvement with this project is the sense of real purpose, having hands-on input and constantly learning about the turtles and the Islands. Anne and I feel unbelievably privileged to part of this ground-breaking project.”

The project is still in its infancy and there is a long way to go. But with two years of full-time presence in the fishing communities, Amdeep and the project team will be well placed to develop legislative change and a new, participatory and sustainable turtle fishery management strategy for Wesley and the DECR to take forward. Amdeep does not pre-empt the results, but is optimistic about the project outcome. “At the moment I imagine that the turtle harvest will eventually be managed by standard fishery measures such as size limits and closed seasons, measures that the fishers already know in the other, more economically important fisheries,” says Amdeep. “But the main challenge for me is whether fishers will be prepared to adhere to such measures. Turtles have been a traditional resource for many Turks & Caicos Islanders and the introduction of new, top-down management measures may cause some alarm, which in turn could lead to non-compliance. This project acknowledges the dangers of that approach and that is why we are working at the fishers’ level. It’s rare to find projects that put so much emphasis on the meaningful participation of all stakeholders. I’m confident that after extensive local consultation, any changes in the management of the fishery will not only be a product of the research, but will also embody the desires and opinions of the people most dependent on the turtles. And if we really get it right, the fishers will be actively engaged in the management of the fishery too.”

In order to complement the data gathered by the project team, the DECR is requesting public cooperation and requesting that any sightings of turtles, turtle nests or turtles landed for consumption be reported to the TCI Turtle Project at (649) 243-4895 or on e-mail to amdeep.sanghera@mcsuk.org. All information will be treated in confidence and will be of great value in ensuring that the project has national coverage and provides a full assessment of the Turks & Caicos Islands’ turtle populations.

To find out more, go to www.mcsuk.org, where we will also be featuring regular updates from the project.