[X] My Assistant

[Guana Cay]

Dear Drew,

We are the Bahamian citizens of Great Guana Cay, which you visited last month.

Our ancestors have lived on this island for 200 years. We are proud of our tiny island, with its smiling people, lovely visitors, its blue water, its white beaches.

We are proud of our old loyalist architecture, of our diverse and colorful settlement, the gardens we create, our lovely moon-shaped harbor. We are especially proud to have one of the Caribbean's most spectacular coral reefs - stunning elkhorn and staghorn structures which are home to brilliant angelfish, wily soldierfish, shimmering sardines in our networks of underwater caves. We are proud of our many species of sharks. We hold especially dear our three species of sea turtles that nest on our shores each year. Their offspring will travel the world by ocean current, but they will have been born here, and they will return here.

We are proud of our migrating birds – dozens of species of warbler, bright marsh birds feathered in green, blue and ochre, kestrels, bananaquits, even glossy ibises. We are proud, even, of our mangroves and our deep-rich forest, filled with delicate orchids and primeval bromeliads, and flowers found in few other places around the world. This jungly place produces plenty of mosquitoes, yes, but the mangroves that sustain mosquitoes are necessary as part of our unique ecosystem. Mangroves are the nursery of the coral reef, and mangroves also keep our island intact.

And, it takes a sort of unique person to like a place like Great Guana Cay. It's not for everyone, and we've understood that ever since our ancestors toiled for conch and sisal, and settled in this distant outpost of the western hemisphere. Small spaces, and particularly small islands, make for unique living conditions - it boxes some people in. We thrive here because we love our neighbors and because we see the ocean as part of our backyard, not as our limits.

We understand that you have shown an interest in the issue at the Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club development property, which is under construction on the northeastern end of our tiny island.

For four years, we, the Bahamian residents of this island, have been fighting the Baker's Bay Club on the grounds that it will devastate our sea turtle nesting grounds, our coral reef and our mangroves. If celebrities buy into the Baker’s Bay Club, our children will have no hope. The Sierra Club, the Mangrove Action Network, the Global Coral Reef Alliance, all Caribbean turtle conservation organizations, researchers from NOAA and marine institutions around the world, as well as Jean-Michel Cousteau, the world's most revered marine conservation figure, all support our efforts to save Guana Cay reef. You can learn more at saveguanacayreef.com


Your fans in Great Guana Cay