The Shoal Bay-Island Harbour marine area seeks to protect the extensive patch reef systemthat extends from the western end of Shoal Bay East to just past the eastern end of Island Harbour. As a reef system, the area provides a much-needed habitat for the endangered hawksbill and green sea turtles. At the same time, the reef system, itself, protects the shoreline from powerful wave action and strong storm systems and also helps to replenish the fine white sand that is found on Anguilla’s beaches. Shoal Bay-Island Harbour. Around the bend from Island Harbour, one of Anguilla’s premiere fishing villages, a beach with sparkling white sand stretches out for more than a mile. The village looks out at an expansive patch reef system and an Atlantic Ocean that seems to have no end. Over three miles of coastline and gorgeous mix of topography, the Shoal Bay-Island Harbour area is arguably one of Anguilla’s most popular destinations – a few years ago, Shoal Bay beach was voted as one of the top ten beaches in the world. An impressive feat for an island so small. Little Bay. Sea turtles skirt the coral-spotted cliff-line while pelicans dive-bomb into the blue-green waters. An important seagrass bed lines the sandy sea-bottom. One of Anguilla’s treasures, Little Bay is the perfect place to relax – the soothing pulses of the ebb and flow of the tide combined with its secluded-ness can make you believe (and feel) as if there was nothing else in the world – except for you, the water, and that fish that just skimmed the surface. Little Bay’s seagrass bed is one of the main reasons why the site was designated a marine park. Sandy Island. It could be one of those tropical deserted islands that are seen in those shipwreck-type movies. With only a few palm trees and a make-shift hut for a restaurant, the island is close enough to the mainland to be seen, but far away enough to make you feel as though you are alone. Under the water, fish manoeuvre through patchy reef-building corals and swaying sea fans. It is as peaceful below the surface as it is above it. Prickly Pear Cays. The two islands are lined with scrub and more than just speckled with seabirds. Home to thousands of brown boobies, a walk along the coastline of Prickly Pear East and West shows the rugged terrain of the weather- and sea-beaten cays. Two restaurants cater to the appetites of thousands of visitors – many travelling by charter boat from St. Martin – who want to escape the mainland for a day of swimming, snorkelling, and relaxing. The clear waters provide ideal conditions for coral reef growth while the reefs themselves provide food and shelter to countless numbers of fish.
Villa Azure is a tropical oasis located on Anguilla in the British West Indies overlooking the stunning Shoal Bay Beach. The villa offers 360 degree views of Shoal Bay Beach to the West, St. Martin to the South, Island Harbour to the East and the azure Caribbean Sea and romantic cays to the North. A gated estate, the home was designed to take advantage of one of the most spectacular views in all of the Caribbean. A Mediterranean architectural masterpiece, the home is built of white stucco and offers over 8,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor living space spread over four levels, six decks and terraces. Located in the center of Anguilla's largest marine park with amazing snorkeling and swimming, you will be mesmerized by a thousand of shades of blue, and soothed by the sounds of the waves at this waterfront sanctuary. Overlooking fabulous Shoal Bay Beach, its powder soft sands are available to you any time you desire. The villa offers dramatic architecture. Hand carved eighteenth century doors mark the entryway into the villa. The interiors offer imported terra cotta tiled floors and soaring ceilings as well as dramatic archways. The furnishings are comfortable and relaxing. The entire design of Villa Azure was developed to transform and relax you. The interiors are designed with top of the line interior furnishings, and beautiful imported tile from Spain and Portugal. Villa Azure offers a gourmet kitchen complete with stainless steel appliances to include Viking range, wine refrigerator and Electrolux Icon appliances-truly a chef's dream. A romantic thatched roof dining area is located on the pool deck with inlaid glass tiled wet bar and BBQ grill perfect for preparing Anguilla's famous lobster available from nearby local fisherman. The villa provides state of the art audio and visual systems with CD, DVD, VCR and flat screen televisions, surround sound that is MP3 ready, cable TV with Disney, HBO and Cinimax as well as high speed wireless Internet and Fax.
The information collected represents the first ever record made of what is present within the Parks. Since management and legislation is currently very limited for these special areas, this information can be considered a baseline ‘snapshot’ dataset. Baseline data are essentially a photograph of what exists within a specific area before the introduction of conservation management strategies. The baseline can be referred to later on, after the implementation of such measures, to assess the success of the management strategies. Currently within Anguilla’s Marine Parks, the only major conservation policy in place is one that prohibits anchoring, except in specially designated areas that also have mooring buoys put in place and maintained by DFMR. It is likely that, over the years, this situation will change: more measures will most likely be needed to protect the beauty and ecological integrity of Anguilla’s natural environment from human activities. This will allow future generations to enjoy it as much as we do. The survey effort, conducted jointly by persons from DFMR, ANT, interns, and volunteers, set out to record information at thirty specific locations spread throughout the island’s five Marine Parks. Twelve were located in the Shoal Bay and Island Harbour Marine Park, three in the seagrass beds near Little Bay, four at Sandy Island, eight within the reef areas of Prickly Pear, and three around Dog Island. Full ecological surveys were conducted, with one surveyor concentrating on assessing percentage covers of the various habitat characteristics that are seen in our waters (coral, algae, sponges, sand, sediment etc), while others recorded fish size, abundance and diversity (see photographs). These details not only provide DFMR with the much needed baseline dataset, but also forms the ecological basis for a much larger project run by ANT, entitled ‘Enhancing Marine Park Management’. This two-year project has been funded by the Overseas Territories Environmental Programme (OTEP) Preliminary analysis of the information collected show that the densest fish populations in the coral reef-dominated Marine Parks were found in areas of Dog Island. These areas had over 18,000 fish per hectare of available habitat. Next in line came Sandy Island where there were over 13,000 fish per hectare of available habitat and Prickly Pear with over 12,000. The Shoal Bay-Island Harbour Marine Park was found to house the lowest densities of fish with a little over 10,000 per hectare of available habitat. Little Bay, different from these four Marine Parks because it is dominated by seagrass beds rather than coral reef, demonstrated that it was a very important area for juvenile fish with over 6,000 such individuals residing in certain areas of it. Indeed, it was in Little Bay where the only Nassau Grouper was sighted, a juvenile of less than 10cm in length. Nassau Grouper, which have been historically over-fished by harvesting their spawning aggregations are now the least abundant common grouper species. It is good news, though, that juveniles are still present in our waters. Surveys that investigated fish sizes found that the largest fish, namely certain species of Parrotfish, were found in areas north of Seal Island. As a general pattern, the offshore cay Marine Parks were home to larger fish than coastal ones, with the largest of all fish broadly occurring in the least accessible areas. This suggests that fish size may be linked to human activities, which is an issue that will likely be looked at in more detail during the coming years.
