Booby Island (Saint Kitts and Nevis)

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Booby Island
Booby Island, Saint Kitts and Nevis 3.png
Booby Island in 2019
Booby Island (Saint Kitts and Nevis)
Geography
Location The Narrows, Saint Kitts and Nevis
Area1 ha (2.5 acres)
Length38 m (125 ft)
Highest elevation38 m (125 ft)
Administration
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Demographics
Population0
Additional information
Time zone

Booby Island is an uninhabited islet in Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is found in The Narrows, the channel between the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, about midway between the two. Booby Island is cone-shaped, consisting of a steep hill and a rocky shoreline. The island is designated as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International to protect its bird population. The Booby Island Sailing Regatta has been held annually in the waters around the island since 2008.

Contents

Geography

Booby Island lies in The Narrows, the channel between the islands of Nevis and St. Kitts, where it is an approximate midpoint between the two islands. [1] It is one of two islands in The Narrows, alongside Cow Island, which measures about 1.8 metres (6 ft) high and 2 metres (6.6 ft) across. [2] [3]

Booby Island is a cone-shaped islet, [4] measuring approximately 1 hectare (2.5 acres) in area. The island predominantly consists of a steep hill with rocky outcroppings, while its shoreline is made up of large rocks. [1] The length across the island and the height of its peak are both approximately 38 metres (125 ft). [2] [3] The interior of the island contains dense populations of brushy plants; no mammals were found on the island in a 2004 survey. [1] A sample of basaltic andesite from Booby Island's southeast coast was predominantly composed of silicon dioxide by weight (56.41%). [5]

Bird population

The sooty tern is the most common seabird on Booby Island. Sterna fuscata.JPG
The sooty tern is the most common seabird on Booby Island.

Booby Island is a major seabird nesting site in St. Kitts and Nevis. [1] [4] BirdLife International designated Booby Island as an Important Bird Area, which includes the entire island and seas up to one kilometre away. [1] Eight species of seabird are found on Booby Island, where nesting season begins in April or May and ends between August and October. [4] Booby Island is not subject to any special environmental protections. [1]

A 1997 survey of the island's seabird population found that it hosted 400 to 600 nesting pairs, [4] and in 2008, it was estimated that there were approximately 425. [1] The most common in the 1997 survey were sooty terns, followed by bridled terns, laughing gulls, roseate terns, and brown noddies. [4] Red-billed tropicbirds can also be found on Booby Island. [1] All of these species are rare to St. Kitts and Nevis and are not found in any part of the country besides Booby Island. [6] The island also has a population of brown pelicans, which are colloquially referred to as "boobies" despite not being members of the Sula genus. [7] The seabird population is fragile, as eggs are easily accessible and chasing birds from their nests causes the eggs to quickly overheat. Fifteen pairs of roseate terns were identified in 1997, but only two were found the following year. [4]

Human interaction

Booby Island is uninhabited. It is controlled by the government of Saint Kitts and Nevis and is not privately owned. The island's geography makes human access challenging, as boats cannot dock and visitors must swim over the rocky shoreline. [1] Fishermen sometimes collect the eggs of laughing gulls and other species of bird, which may have a negative effect on the bird population. [1] [4] Over time, the fishing community of Newcastle has shifted its fishing grounds from the coasts of Nevis and St. Kitts to the coast of Booby Island, to save on fuel use and to avoid overfished areas. [8]

Since 2008, the Booby Island Sailing Regatta has been held annually to promote tourism outside of the usual tourist season. [9] [10] It historically lasted one day, but it deviated from this in 2015 with a three-day event. The main event is the Booby Island Cup, in which sailors race around Booby Island in an informal, open-entry boat race. [9] [11] Three boats participated in the first Booby Island Sailing Regatta, with that number growing to 16 by 2014. [12]

An American student was bitten by a tiger shark while swimming off the island's coast in 2021, resulting in amputation above the knee. [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Kitts and Nevis</span> Country in the West Indies

Saint Kitts and Nevis, officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles. With 261 square kilometres (101 sq mi) of territory, and roughly 48,000 inhabitants, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population, as well as the world's smallest sovereign federation. The country is a Commonwealth realm, with Charles III as King and head of state. St. Kitts and Nevis offers an economic citizenship programme the oldest of this kind in the world, criticised due to the risks of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tern</span> Family of seabirds

Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae, that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated in eleven genera in a subgroup of the family Laridae, which also includes several genera of gulls and the skimmers (Rynchops). They are slender, lightly built birds with long, forked tails, narrow wings, long bills, and relatively short legs. Most species are pale grey above and white below with a contrasting black cap to the head, but the marsh terns, the black-bellied tern, the Inca tern, and some noddies have dark body plumage for at least part of the year. The sexes are identical in appearance, but young birds are readily distinguishable from adults. Terns have a non-breeding plumage, which usually involves a white forehead and much-reduced black cap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common tern</span> Migratory seabird in the family Laridae with circumpolar distribution

The common tern is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. Breeding adults have light grey upperparts, white to very light grey underparts, a black cap, orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed bill. Depending on the subspecies, the bill may be mostly red with a black tip or all black. There are several similar species, including the partly sympatric Arctic tern, which can be separated on plumage details, leg and bill colour, or vocalisations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roseate tern</span> Bird in the family Laridae

The roseate tern is a species of tern in the family Laridae. The genus name Sterna is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and the specific dougallii refers to Scottish physician and collector Dr Peter McDougall (1777–1814). "Roseate" refers to the bird's pink breast in breeding plumage.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Skerries, Isle of Anglesey</span> Group of rocky islets in Wales

The Skerries, coming from the Old Norse word sker, are a group of sparsely vegetated rocky islets (skerries), with a total area of about 17 hectares lying 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) offshore from Carmel Head at the northwest corner of Anglesey, Wales. The islands are important as a breeding site for seabirds, and they attract divers, who come to visit the numerous shipwrecks. The Skerries Lighthouse sits atop the highest point in the islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint George Basseterre Parish</span> Parish in Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint George Basseterre is one of 14 administrative parishes that make up Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is the largest parish on Saint Kitts and the second largest parish in Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is by far the most populous parish in the federation, holding nearly a third of the country's population. It is home to the city of Basseterre, capital of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and also has a longer coastline than any other parish in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great frigatebird</span> Species of bird (Fregata minor)

The great frigatebird is a large seabird in the frigatebird family. There are major nesting populations in the tropical Pacific Ocean, such as Hawaii and the Galápagos Islands; in the Indian Ocean, colonies can be found in the Seychelles and Mauritius, and there is a tiny population in the South Atlantic, mostly on and around St. Helena and Boatswain Bird Island.

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Petite Canouan is one of the Grenadines – small islands which lie between the larger Caribbean islands of Saint Vincent and Grenada. Politically, it is part of the nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Its area is approximately 0.15 km2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bird colony</span> Large congregation of birds at a particular location

A bird colony is a large congregation of individuals of one or more species of bird that nest or roost in proximity at a particular location. Many kinds of birds are known to congregate in groups of varying size; a congregation of nesting birds is called a breeding colony. Colonial nesting birds include seabirds such as auks and albatrosses; wetland species such as herons; and a few passerines such as weaverbirds, certain blackbirds, and some swallows. A group of birds congregating for rest is called a communal roost. Evidence of colonial nesting has been found in non-neornithine birds (Enantiornithes), in sediments from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Romania.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seabird breeding behavior</span>

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Collier, Natalia; Brown, Adam (2008). Wege, David C.; Anadón-Irizarry, Verónica (eds.). Important Bird Areas in the Caribbean: Key Sites for Conservation . BirdLife International. p. 276. ISBN   978-0-946888-65-8.
  2. 1 2 Patuelli, Jacques (1980). Guide des Antilles : croisières de Grenade aux Îles Vierges[Guide to the West Indies: cruises from Grenada to the Virgin Islands] (in French). Neptune nautisme. p. 119. ISBN   9782857130161.
  3. 1 2 Doyle, Chris (1989). Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands . Cruising Guide Publications. pp. 156–157. ISBN   0-944428-04-5.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Horwith, Bruce; Lindsay, Kevel (1999). Towle, Judith (ed.). A Biodiversity Profile of St. Kitts and Nevis (PDF) (Report). Island Resources Foundation. p. 36.
  5. ↑ Baker, P. E. (1984). "Geochemical evolution of St Kitts and Montserrat, Lesser Antilles" . Journal of the Geological Society. 141 (3): 404. Bibcode:1984JGSoc.141..401B. doi:10.1144/gsjgs.141.3.0401. ISSN   0016-7649.
  6. ↑ Horwith, Bruce; Lindsay, Kevel (1999). Towle, Judith (ed.). A Biodiversity Profile of St. Kitts and Nevis (PDF) (Report). Island Resources Foundation. pp. 37–38.
  7. ↑ Vitaliev, Vitali (1 May 2017). "After All: Transport- A Real-Life Caribbean Techno Dream in St Kitts". Engineering & Technology. 12 (4): 98. doi: 10.1049/et.2017.0439 . ISSN   1750-9637.
  8. ↑ Granderson, C.; Ramkissoon, A. (2022). Report of the vulnerability and capacity assessments in coastal and fishing communities in Saint Kitts and Nevis. Caribbean Natural Resources Institute. p. 41. ISBN   978-92-5-135162-8.
  9. 1 2 "Booby Island Sailing Festival in May". Caribbean Compass. April 2015. p. 11.
  10. ↑ "Brantley Phillips Make North America Tourism Blitz Press Release". The St Kitts Nevis Observer. 31 October 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  11. ↑ "Nevis Booby Island Regatta and Sailing Festival". Yahoo Finance. Marketwired. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  12. ↑ "May 8–10: Nevis Booby Island Cup and Sailing Festival". All At Sea. April 2015. p. 61.
  13. ↑ "News item: Young woman seriously injured after shark attack in Saint Kitts and Nevis". Faxinfo. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  14. ↑ "US student fights off shark in Caribbean waters". Loop News. 15 January 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2024.

17°13′37″N62°36′38″W / 17.22681°N 62.61053°W / 17.22681; -62.61053

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