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EXUMAS LAND AND SEA PARK


The Exumas Land and Sea Park is Turquoise Land.  Turquoise water extends in every direction as far as the eye can see.  It's pure turquoise eye candy.  Climbing to the top of our mast is a visual treat.  Tourists would pay big money to see what I get to see for free.

The stated purpose of the park is to preserve natural habitat and aquatic species for future generations.   It's also there so everyone can enjoy the turquoise water now.  The park rangers want visitors to become hooked on turquoise, because they know that turquoise addicts will move heaven and earth - whatever it takes - to keep Turquoise Land alive.

 

Anchoring is restricted in Turquoise Land so yachts don't destroy the coral and sponges found inside the park.  Every time you drop your anchor, the heavy galvanized anchor chain sweeps the seabed clean as the yacht swings to the anchor in the wind and tide.  An anchored yacht with plenty of scope out could wipe out large snorkeling areas in just a few hours, and it could take years for the coral and sponges to recover from a few hours of damage.  That's why they have moorings in place at Warderick Wells Cay.  When a yacht our size comes to visit, it pays ten dollars a night to tie up to a mooring.  That's gives the park needed revenue and guarantees the coral and sponges will live to see another day.
 

Everything is protected in the Land and Sea Park.  All the fish, lobsters, and sea shells go about their business without having to worry about the most dangerous predator of all, man.  When we snorkeled in the southern reaches of the park, we saw a giant lobster scurrying along the bottom in ten feet of water.  He was about a mile inside the park boundary, and that's why he's lived long enough to become a mega lobster in his ripe old age.  He's off limits to human predators.


Protecting large sections of reef are vitally important to the survival of thousands of species of animals who live on those reefs.  It's scary to think about how small the protected areas are, and how easily they could be destroyed because of their physically small size.  People are slowly waking up around the world, and in Australia, large sections of the Great Barrier Reef are now protected.  But even protecting the reefs from fishing doesn't guarantee their survival.  When industry on the mainland produces toxic waste or stirs up silt that goes out to sea, the reef can also die.  Silt is a bad actor that covers up coral polyps killing them.

 

The world is full of beautiful places.  Sometimes the beauty is stark and austere, and sometimes it is as soft as velvet.  Wild places are beautiful because there is a balance in nature that keeps them that way.  Man doesn't need to maintain the balance of nature; he simply needs to not disturb it, and that's the hard part.  We are experts at throwing things out of balance.  We are a bit like the Japanese whalers who call their whaling research; we call our encroachment on and destruction of habitat progress and development.  Like the whalers, we are disturbing the natural order of things.

Places like the Exumas Land and Sea Park are a reminder to us of how beautiful the world can be when we just leave it undisturbed.  That's not much to ask of mother nature, but it's a lot to ask from us.

 

Life is good.


 


Log 1 Peter Pan Around the World
Log 2 Weapons of Mackerel Destruction
Log 3 Pirates of the Malacca Straits
Log 4 Kissing Cobras
Log 5 Debriosaurus Rex
Log 6 Go Ahead - Live Your Dreams

Log 7 The Man Who Built His House on a Rock
Log 8 Ambivalent Eagles
Log 9 One-Shovel Full at a Time
Log 10 Hitchhiker's Guide to Planet Earth

Log 11 Keeshond

Log 12 The Red Sea Blues

Log 13 Feel the Freedom

Log 14 The Danger Zone

Log 15 Lucky Man
Log 16 Dream Machines - Land Rover Defenders

Log 17 Trade Wind Dreams
Log 18 Logs With Fins
Log 19 Everywhere, Everything
Log 20 Shark Slayer Is History

Log 21 Viking Funeral - Burial at Sea
Log 22 Improbable and Impossible

Log 23 Keep on Trucking
Log 24 Dream Machines II
Log 25 Bodysurfing Whales
Log 26 Hitting the Wall
Log 27 Surviving the Savage Seas

Log 28 The Next Step
Log 29 Welcome to Barbados
Log 30 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers
Log 31 The Man with the Unplan
Log 32 Dali Dolphins
Log 33 Flying Like a Turtle
Log 34 The Foolish Man Built His House on a Pitch Lake
Log 35 Go West Young Man
Log 36 Crossing the Atlantic in a Row Boat
Log 37 The Unsinkable HMS Diamond Rock
Log 38 Catamaran Capsize in 170 mph Winds
Log 39 When Are You Coming Home?

Log 40 Master and Commander of Anegada - Frigate Birds
Log 41 Baths of Virgin Gorda - Batholiths of Central Arabia

Log 42 Free at Last
Log 43 Stalking the Wild Manatee

Log 44 Spreaderman
Log 45 Attack of the Flesh Eating Bees
Log 46 Sharks and Coconuts
Log 47 Stingray Picnic
Log 48 Boo Boo Hill
Log 49 Whale Slayers
Log 50 Noddies (Not Naughty)

 

Log 51 Exumas Land and Sea Park
Log 52 David and Goliath
Log 53 Turquoise Clouds of Paradise

Log 54 Momma Nightjar
Log 55 Maximillian The Great
Log 56 Chiton Kingdom
Log 57 Flying and Holding On
Log 58 Far Horizons
Log 59 Clouds Are a Sailor's Friend
Log 60 Getting Connected
Log 61 Fear
Log 62 Grand Schemes and Other Important Things
Log 63 If Jellyfish Had a Brain
Log 64 Cousins That Don't Kiss
Log 65 Swimming With Sharks
Log 66 Perfect the Way You Are
Log 67 Space Travelers
Log 68 Aliens
Log 69 Monsters of the Mind
Log 70 My Butterfly Collection
Log 71 Somewhere Other Than Here Societies
Log 72 Five-Hundred Pound Spiders
Log 73 Red Sea Sunsets
Log 74 Gibraltar Sunrise
Log 75 Big Sea - Small Ship
Log 76 Just Cruising
Log 77 Castle Mania
Log 78 You Must Know the Sea
Log 79 Flying Like a Goat
Log 80 The Joy of Photography
Log 81 Universal Camouflage
Log 82 My Rainbow Collection
Log 83 Indian Ocean Reward
Log 84 Fiber W
Log 85 Turkish Reflections
Log 86 Mirrors and Mirages
Log 87 Lycean Tombs Rock
Log 88 Rigging Emergency
Log 89 Pamukkale
Log 90 Volcano Land
Log 91 Sniffing the Air
Log 92 Why I Don't Kite Surf
Log 93 Resurrecting Exit Only in Turkey
Log 94 Greased Pole Competition
Log 95 Tsunami Damage
Log 96 Afraid of Living
Log 97 Living on the Edge
Log 98 Borneo Adventure
Log 99 Uligamu Tree Tender with Full Benefits
Log 100 God's Fireworks Display

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This web site is a companion to Outback and Beyond.com.

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