Resort Report

The Lucayan petroglyphs of East Caicos. By Dr. Michael P. Pateman Archaeological studies of the Lucayan Islands (which includes The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands) have mainly focused on settlement surveys and large scale village excavations. However, early archaeologists (late 19th and early 20th century) focused most of their efforts on the cave systems of these ...

Advances in the education of children with special needs in the TCI. By Norah Machia ~ Photos by Anthony Machia Many positive things are happening for children with special needs in the Turks & Caicos Islands as the result of a partnership between the TCI Government, a nonprofit organization of American and Canadian volunteers and a private ...

Slavery and the Loyalists in “Grand Caicos.” By Ben Stubenberg When the first British Loyalists arrived on the shores of North and Middle Caicos and Providenciales following the American Revolution in the late 1700s, they took with them enslaved people and a mindset of entitlement and power that mirrored the mores and hierarchy of the American South. ...

Good news for the TCI’s National Tree. Story & Photos By B Naqqi Manco, TCI Naturalist The Turks & Caicos Islands’ National Tree, the stately Caicos pine Pinus caribaea var. bahamensis, has had a rough few decades recently. Following the introduction of the invasive pine tortoise scale insect, which infests trees through their fatality, as well as ...

Treatment program to fight Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease underway. By the Staff of the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund (TCRF) Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) is a new coral disease that was first discovered off the coast of Florida in 2014. Over the past five years it has spread rapidly up and down the Atlantic ...

Octopus spotting in the TCI. By Dr. Caitlin E. O’Brien, The School for Field Studies Center for Marine Resource Studies Caribbean waters are home to several species of octopus, which are some of the most extraordinary creatures of the ocean. Octopuses (not octopi) can be more difficult to spot than many other marine creatures, but the experience of ...

Chitons possess a range of amazing qualities. By Brian Heagney, B.Sc Marine Biology ~ Photos By Marta Morton, www.harbourclubvillas.com   Tucked away in intertidal rock pools on the southwest point of Gibbs Cay in the Turks Islands, there are clusters of tiny dinosaurs called chitons. These ancient mariners are easily overlooked by the untrained eye, but they do ...

The spin on waterspouts. By Paul Wilkerson ~ Photos By Marta Morton, www.harbourclubvillas.com Waterspouts have been occurring for as long as memories have been recorded. On August 19, 1896 a waterspout developed over Vineyard Sound near Cottage City, Massachusetts. While at the time, it was rare for these to be seen from land, especially in the Northeast, ...

The life and times of Gustarvus O’Neil Lightbourne. By Carlton Mills, Willette Swann & Tanya Parnell ~ Photos Courtesy Tanya Parnell & Bengt Soderqvist Early life Gustarvus Lightbourne (affectionately called Gus) was born on January 27, 1921 to Mr. and Mrs. Emmanuel Lightbourne of Blue Hills, Providenciales. He attended the Blue Hills School in High Rock and was ...

Local students participate in coral reef monitoring program. Story & Photos By Karen R. Cangialosi, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Keene State College For the past four years, I have had the pleasure of tapping into what I consider the Turks & Caicos Islands’ most precious resource: the enthusiasm and imagination of its youth. Since 2008, my colleague ...

Survivors of U-Boats: Vineland in 1942, Part II By Captain Eric Wiberg In the Fall 2019 issue of Astrolabe, the author detailed the sinking of the Canadian dry-bulk ship Vineland, on April 20, 1942 by the German submarine U-154 while it was roughly 90 miles north of North Caicos. The survivors voyaged in three lifeboats until they ...

Searching lost wrecks on Salt Cay. Story & Photos By Dr. Joost Morsink and Dr. Ruud Stelten South of Grand Turk, a small and sleepy island rests in the Atlantic Ocean: Salt Cay. With approximately 90 inhabitants on 2.6 square miles, this is the least populated of the main inhabited islands in the Turks & Caicos Islands. ...

You can’t enjoy one without the other. By William J. Cook ~ Photos By Marta Morton Few places in the world offer the birding paradise that can be found in the Turks & Caicos Islands, and there are many vantage points from which to take in these wondrous, diverse and colorful creatures. Sadly, it’s not uncommon for ...

Funeral traditions in the Turks & Caicos Islands. By Jody Rathgeb Death is not a likely topic for a magazine such as Times of the Islands. The sunshine, blue waters and swaying palms of the Turks & Caicos are so full of life that the alternative seems very far away. Yet people do die here and have ...

Researchers assess the impact of sargassum seaweed in the TCI. By Kristy Lee and Sylvia Myers, MSc students, University of Greenwich; Debbie Bartlett, Ph.D., Faculty of Engineering and Science University of Greenwich; Franziska Elmer, Ph.D. Marine Ecology Lecturer, School for Field Studies Center for Marine Resource Studies From the UK, the Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) are something we ...