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Whales Beached in Nevis

On Saturday 10th February, 2018, Nine Short-Finned Pilot Whales beached themselves on Dog Bay and at Garlin Bay at Indian Castle, Nevis.

There were mammoth efforts to save three of the nine whales and transport them to be released back into the ocean. Unfortunately one died while being transported. Therefore, two of the nine Pilot Whales were saved and released into the ocean.

Permanent Secretary Huey Sargeant-Ministry of Fisheries et al. in Nevis, Thema Ward – Physical Planning and Environment, Nevis and Lemuel Pemberton- Nevis Turtle Group were leading the efforts. They were then assisted by a delegation from St. Kitts namely Kharim Saddler-Fisheries Assistant (DMR), Sara Ramirez -St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network, Paul Fyre and Kelsey Johnson – ROSS University School of Veterinary Medicine.

Necropsies were performed and samples taken in order to help determine a possible cause of beaching. Of the nine whales; 2 were females, 3 were males and the other sexes unknown. The average length of the whales were 3.6 meters or 11.8 feet.

The Department of Marine would like to extend gratitude to the Indian Castle/Gingerland and surrounding area community members, fishers, students, volunteers, researchers and Government entities such as the St. Kitts Nevis Coast Guard, Department of Agriculture St. Kitts, Physical Planning and Environment Nevis.

 

 

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Impact of Hurricane Irma on fish landing sites

September 6th 2017, the record breaking category 5 Hurricane Irma forced her way through the Leeward Islands like a bulldozer demolishing not only the landscape but the coastline of these islands.

Irma’s recorded maximum wind speed hit 185 mph on Wednesday, with some gusts of wind moving as fast as 215 mph. High speed winds formed  large waves, which when reaching the coast, they no longer have the deep ocean to continue the cycle hence pushing waves onto the land, known as storm surges. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s website has defines storm surge as an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, this is usually above and over the normal or predicted ocean tide.

Traditionally, our fish landing sites are found along the coastlines of St.Kitts and Nevis. The major landing sites in St. Kitts are Dieppe Bay, Sandy Point, Old Road and Basseterre. The major landing sites in Nevis are Newcastle, Charlestown and Indian Castle.

Without barriers of protection the coastlines are vulnerable to the effects of storm surges. Barriers such as coral reefs act as buffers that help waves to break in the ocean before they reach land. As a buffer, the reefs reduce the impact that the waves and storms have on the land. When storm surges have direct impact on the coastline then beach erosion can occur. In this case, beach erosion can cause the removal of sand from the beach by currents or waves. The photos below highlight the damage to the coastlines of local landing sites by Hurricane Irma.

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