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Tourist board for Bay Islands

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Sept. 23, 2014, 6:30 p.m.

Group champions islands' beauty and lifestyle.

Thanks to Bay Islands Chamber of Commerce, the bay islands now have a tourism board that will promote and market the islands' rare features and opportunities

THE bay islands now have a dedicated tourism board championing their unique beauty, lifestyle and opportunities.

The board was formed at the September meeting of the Bay Islands Chamber of Commerce and the members are Steve Morgan, Bob Turner, Petrae Mclean, Kayleen Higgs and Maggie Carstairs.

Chamber president Col McInnes, of Lamb Island, said the board's role would be to promote the bay islands and act as a conduit for marketing possibilities for island-based businesses in tourism.

"They will also coordinate events and form close contacts with other tourism organisations," he said.

"The board will achieve some very good things for the islands and will help make many people aware of all that's good about them.

"The islands have so much going for them.

"Where else can you buy a home for $300,000 and, from your bedroom window, see your boat anchored out in the water?

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Tourist board for Bay Islands

Answer to restoring lost island biodiversity found in fossils

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Many native species have vanished from tropical islands because of human impact, but University of Florida scientists have discovered how fossils can be used to restore lost biodiversity.

The key lies in organic materials found in fossil bones, which contain evidence for how ancient ecosystems functioned, according to a new study available online and in the September issue of the Journal of Herpetology. Pre-human island ecosystems provide vital clues for saving endangered island species and re-establishing native species, said lead author Alex Hastings, who conducted work for the study as graduate student at the Florida Museum of Natural History and UF department of geological sciences.

"Our work is particularly relevant to endangered species that are currently living in marginal environments," said Hastings, currently a postdoctoral researcher at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. "A better understanding of species' natural roles in ecosystems untouched by people might improve their prospects for survival."

Thousands of years ago, the largest carnivore and herbivore on the Bahamian island of Abaco disappeared. The study reconstructs the ancient food web of Abaco where these two mega-reptiles, the endangered Cuban Crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) and the now-extinct Albury's Tortoise (Chelonoidis alburyorum), once flourished. Today, there is no modern terrestrial ecosystem like that of ancient Abaco, with reptiles filling the roles of largest herbivore and carnivore.

In the study, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and National Geographic Society, researchers embarked on the difficult task of reconstructing an ecosystem where few of the components still exist. To understand these missing pieces, scientists analyzed the types of carbon and nitrogen in well-preserved fossil bones from the Cuban Crocodile and Albury's Tortoise, which was unknown to scientists before its 2004 discovery in the Bahamas. The data reveal the crocodile and tortoise were both terrestrial, showing that reptiles "called the shots" on the island, Hastings said.

The terrestrial nature of these creatures is a great indicator of how biodiversity has changed in the Bahamas and what the ideal circumstances would be for these or similar species to return, said Florida Museum ornithology curator and study co-author David Steadman.

"On islands like Abaco that have always been dominated by reptiles, the flora and fauna are more vulnerable because they have evolved to lead a more laid back, island existence," Steadman said. "Understanding this is important to designing better approaches to conservation on the island."

Early paleontological sites in the Bahamas have yielded bones from numerous species of reptiles, birds and mammals that no longer exist on the islands. James Mead, a vertebrate paleontologist with East Tennessee State University, said more research into the evolutionary history of native plants and animals on Abaco is needed as well as conservation programs based on paleontological research that aims to restore these species.

"The Cuban crocodile is living today in small numbers in Cuba, but this new research shows that it is not living to its fullest potential," Mead said. "The crocodile could live more abundantly in a much wider habitat if we allowed it."

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Answer to restoring lost island biodiversity found in fossils

Villa Monaco Adeje Tenerife Canary Islands Luxury Villa For Sale – Video

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  1. Islands