Great Guana Cay is an

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanen ...

The Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archi ...

. It is a long, narrow islet, long. It is in the centre of the

Abaco Islands Abaco is a variant Italian form of the Biblical name " Habakkuk" (but normally Abacùc or Abacucco). Abaco may refer to: People *Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco (1675–1742), Italian composer and violinist *Joseph Abaco (1710–1805), Belgian compos ...

and is near Gumelemi Cay. It is about 8 miles from Marsh Harbour. Approximately 150 people live on the island, mostly along the five and a half mile long stretch of beach. Great Guana Cay's settlement is known for its loyalist culture and architecture, as well as its social scene. Several traditional loyalist homes are in the settlement, which wraps around a natural harbor.

Overview

Great Guana Cay is an Abaco

barrier island Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a ...

that hosts elkhorn and

staghorn coral The staghorn coral (''Acropora cervicornis'') is a branching, stony coral with cylindrical branches ranging from a few centimetres to over two metres in length and height. It occurs in back reef and fore reef environments from depth. The upper ...

reefs. It also contains a large amount of virgin forest, where migrating birds and resident Abaco species live.

Loggerhead sea turtle The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully ...

green sea turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

s and

hawksbill sea turtle The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution, that is large ...

s nest on the island's beaches. Both white-crowned pigeons and

white-tailed tropicbird The white-tailed tropicbird (''Phaethon lepturus'') is a tropicbird. It is the smallest of three closely related seabirds of the tropical oceans and smallest member of the order Phaethontiformes. It is found in the tropical Atlantic, western Pac ...

s nest on the island. Before removal of the crabbing-ground

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in sever ...

s by a golf development, land crabs such as mountain crabs were common and were hunted for food by the native population. A

cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are of ...

on the island called Kidd's Cove was named after the

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

William Kidd William Kidd, also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd ( – 23 May 1701), was a Scottish sea captain who was commissioned as a privateer and had experience as a pirate. He was tried and executed in London in 1701 for murder a ...

Baker's Bay controversy

Great Guana Cay came to international attention in conservation circles when the residents of the island grouped to form Save Guana Cay Reef, an organization designed to fight the large footprint of the Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club, located at Baker's Bay.

Jean-Michel Cousteau Jean-Michel Cousteau (born 6 May 1938) is a French oceanographic explorer, environmentalist, educator and film producer. The first son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, he is the father of Fabien Cousteau and Céline Cousteau. Life and care ...

's Ocean Futures Society, the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth ...

, Global Coral Reef Alliance, Mangrove Action Network and other conservation groups are working with the native islanders in a battle against the golf resort, which they say will destroy the island's mangroves and coral reef.

References

External links

*
The Abaco Guide
Abaco Islands {{Bahamas-geo-stub