Shoal Bay

When its high school students can push through a five-year moratorium on sea turtle catching, you know the future of a Caribbean island is in good hands. Anguilla's student Environmental Club is also monitoring egg-laying on every one of the island's 33 beautiful white beaches. In time the teenagers hope to reverse decades of harvest that have brought leatherback, green and hawksbills to near extinction on the island.

The five year turtle motatorium is a beginning. The Anguilla National Trust and WIDECAST (Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Recovery Network) says to be effective a moratorium must equal life cycle for a generation -- for sea turtles, 25-30 years. No one doubts the students will follow through as adults.

Anguilla, population about 9000, northeasternmost of the Leeward Islands, a coral strip 16 miles long and three miles across at its widest point, usually rates headlines only when it is flattened by hurricanes. This happened twice in 1995, but a year later the Anguillan Beautification Committee (ABC) has replaced more than 60 coconut palms to prevent further erosion on Sandy Ground and Crocus Bay. The local group has also straightened the surviving ficus benjamina tress along Queen Elizabeth Avenue, replanted others and put new flowers on roadsides and schoolgrounds.

It is all part of an island-wide concern for the past, present and future. Having seen what has happened elsewhere in the Caribbean, the local wisdom is to come down on the side of ecologically responsible tourism. Curiously, this self-governing British Territory has started at the top, as a getaway for those who are willing to pay for great beaches and tranquility.

"If I wanted something to do I'd stay in Bel Air," a guest at exclusive Cap Juluca Resort told me. At Sonesta Beach Resort, a couple from Connecticut who have come to the island for ten winters running, recoiled at the idea of having to reserve a table at Blanchard's or Hibernia more than a few hours in advance. "'Life's a Beach, then You Dine'" they said quoting a local maxim. "Let's not complicate it with bus tours and casinos. We have those at home." To be sure, casinos and gridlock are just a 20-minute boat ride away across the strait in St. Martin where, a few years ago, gendarmes had to be imported from Paris to patrol the beaches from roving thugs.

Anguillans are proud and religious people (a reason frequently given for the low crime rate), and they know what the National Trust means when it says sea turtles are "part of our collective soul". Sea turtles "fed our children and sustained those who came before us during periods of poverty and want" they say. Now it's payback time. The islanders bring the same attitude to broader issues of environmental conservation, historic preservation and sustainable tourism. Littering can bring a $100 fine. Boating is the province of those who know enough not to damage coral reef. Jet skiing is banned.

Snorkling and scuba diving are excellent on Anguilla. Among the best are at Cove Bay, the Marine Park of Little Bay, and Shoal Bay (picture above) which has an undersea garden trail. You can rent flippers and masks on the beach or in the dive shop at your hotel. In addition to the natural grottos and reefs, seven derelict ships have been sunk for the pleasure of their exploration and to provide habitat for sea life. They sit straight up on the sea bottom. Spearfishing is limited to residents.

Recognition of the problem is the first step toward solution. Nearshore seagrass pastures which serve as marine feeding grounds are being pointed up as needing protection both from pollution and boat traffic. Island Harbour, with both natural and archaeological significance, wants to be Angulla's first National Terrestial Park. Around the island 500 species of woldflowers and plants have been identified in a massive Flora Project.

Fountain Cavern may soon be a World Heritage Site. At least the first steps are being taken with acquisition of additional land necessary before the formal request goes to UNESCO. Fountain Cavern National Park is more than a gleam, it's a Committee. The site is closed to the public right now, but soon you'll be able to go 50 feet down into a cave with fresh water pools and a dozen or more 1600-year-old Amerindian petroglyphs. Prime treasure is a 16-foot stalagmite carved in the shape of "Jocahu", the supreme god of Tainu (Arawaks). More petroglyphs from 800-1500 A.D. were discovered at the site of what is hoped will be Big Spring National Park. A mini-museum of artifacts is on the premises of the Arawak Beach Resort.

Hurricanes have swept away many of Anguilla's potentially historic monuments. The oldest structures (and they are few) date from the 1700s. You can visit the old Catholic and Methodist churches; Wallblake Historic House and the Warden's Place (now the excellent KoalKeel Restaurant). Amerindian village sites are being uncovered -- the latest at Sandy Ground -- and a fine little museum of ancient and modern island history is in the home of onetime acting-governor Colville Petty O.B.E. It is a labor of love to the public.

Endangered birds include nearly 30 percent of the 120 species regularly visiting. Birders can expect to see American Widgeon, Anguillean Crested Humming Bird, Audubon's Broad-winged Hawk, Pearly-eyed Thrasher, Red-billed Tropicbird and many more. Then there is the iguana including a variety oddly named the Iguana iguana which has appeared only since the hurricanes of 1995. Habitats and behavior are under scrutiny.

Many of the most important ongoing works of environmentalism are not obvious. A Green Certificate award for the protection of biodiversity is being set up by the National Trust. Guinea fowl, once plentiful but hunted to extinction, are being privately reared and put back in the wild. At Sonesta Beach, indigenous plants and animals will be reintroduced to a long-negelected salt pond on the property.

Issue of the moment is admitting cruise ships. Environmentalists point to the damage even several hundred tourists can do to a beach. Having trashed other islands, they say, these Polluting hedonists need new worlds to destroy. The economic benefits may be stretched by a whopping head tax and imposing limits on how many boat-day people can come ashore. Caribbean cruise ships are, often as not, floating cities with populations of 2000 and more. (Even on tourist-greedy St. Thomas, residents stay at home when four or five of the monsters are in port.)

Hoteliers are preparing to implement environmental plans based on flora and fauna studies by the National Trust following an environmental seminar and data collection during a "Greening Your Hotel" program.

The roads are good on Anguilla, and there isn't a whole lot of traffic. Top speed is 30 mph. Bicycles rent for about $15 a day and though the terrain is flat (highest point is 213 feet), the narrow roads and often inexpert drivers make them a risky form of transportation.

Incidentally, the fat brown bird trying to avoid your car is the Turtle Dove (Zenaida Aurita), National Bird of Anguilla. It was elevated from obscurity in 1993 when that great little high school Environmental Club organized and put to national vote its adoption. The peaceful dove won by 70 percent.

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