Simpson Bay Lagoon | |
---|---|
Simson Bay Lagoon The Great Pond | |
Coordinates | 18°03′07″N63°06′32″W / 18.052°N 63.109°W |
Primary outflows | Baie Nettlé Simson Bay |
Ocean/sea sources | Caribbean sea |
Basin countries | Saint Martin Sint Maarten |
Designation | |
Official name | Mullet Pond |
Designated | 23 May 2014 |
Reference no. | 2270 [1] |
Surface area | 1,250 hectares (3,100 acres) |
Max. depth | 6 metres (20 ft) |
Shore length1 | 4.48 kilometres (2.78 mi) |
Islands | Grand îlet Little Key |
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. |
Simpson Bay Lagoon (also spelt Simson Bay Lagoon, or referred to simply as The Great Pond) is one of the largest inland lagoons in the West Indies of the Caribbean. It is located on the island of Saint Martin. The border between the French and Dutch halves of the island runs across the centre of the lagoon. There are two small islands that lie in the lagoon: the larger, Grand Ilet (also known as Explorer's Island) to the north, is within the French region of Saint-Martin; the smaller, Little Key, to the south, is on the Dutch Sint Maarten side.
The lagoon is connected to the Caribbean Sea via a small channel in the north-west which flows into Baie Nettlé in Saint-Martin and another small channel in the south-east which flows into Simson Bay in Sint Maarten. Sint Maarten's airport, Princess Juliana International Airport lies close to the lagoon's southern shore.
The protected waters of this lagoon provide significant seagrass and mangrove habitats, well known juvenile reef fish recruitment areas which likely feed the marine protected areas of Man of War Shoal Marine Park of St. Maarten and the Reserve Naturelle de Saint-Martin. [2]
Mullet Pond is a section of the Simpson Bay Lagoon which still contains a substantial portion of Red Mangroves Rhizophora mangle. It has been a protected Ramsar site since 2014. [1] [3]
Studies have shown that land-based sewage wastewater entering the Lagoon has resulted in bacterial levels far exceeding acceptable norms. Research by Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) on lagoon and watershed water quality has shown that enterococci bacterial levels exceeded allowable levels in 96% (n=26) of samples. Land-based sites were found to be more polluted than the Lagoon, indicating that a significant portion of contamination originates from the land and not just from boats.
With only two narrow channels which permit the flow of fresh water into this large body of water, certain urbanized areas of the lagoon, such as Cole Bay and Marigot, do not experience sufficient water flow to remove or dilute pollutants. High pollution areas therefore frequently exhibit murky or brown water with a foul odor and excessive algal growth and eutrophication. [4]
The presence of invasive species, such as the seagrass H. stipulacea, poses additional threats to the lagoon environment. [5]
St. Maarten's marine industry, centered around the Lagoon, represents 12.5% of the island economy, compared to 9.5% for the Hotel and Restaurant industry (Central Bureau of Statistics). [6] The calm waters of the lagoon make it a safe harbor for vessels seeking repairs, supplies, and protection from hurricanes. The megayacht charter industry is a conspicuous aspect of the yachting sector.
Protected areas of South Australia consists of protected areas located within South Australia and its immediate onshore waters and which are managed by South Australian Government agencies. As of March 2018, South Australia contains 359 separate protected areas declared under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972, the Crown Land Management Act 2009 and the Wilderness Protection Act 1992 which have a total land area of 211,387.48 km2 (81,617.16 sq mi) or 21.5% of the state's area.
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Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 300 km (190 mi) east of Puerto Rico. The 87-square-kilometre (34 sq mi) island is divided roughly 60:40 between the French Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but the Dutch part is more populated than the French part. The division dates to 1648. The northern French part comprises the Collectivity of Saint Martin and is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic. The southern Dutch part comprises Sint Maarten and is one of four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Even though the island is an overseas possession of two European Union member states, only the French part of the island is part of the EU.
Princess Juliana International Airport is the main airport on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. The airport is located on the Dutch side of the island, in the country of Sint Maarten, close to the shore of Simpson Bay Lagoon. In 2015, the airport handled 1,829,543 passengers and around 60,000 aircraft movements. The airport serves as a hub for Winair and is the major gateway for the smaller Leeward Islands, including Anguilla, Saba, Saint Barthélemy and Sint Eustatius. It is named after Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, who landed there while she was heir presumptive in 1944, the year after the airport opened. The airport has very low-altitude flyover landing approaches because one end of its runway is extremely close to the shore and Maho Beach. While Princess Juliana International is the primary aviation gateway to the island, there is also a smaller public-use airport on the French side, in the French Collectivity of Saint Martin, called Grand Case-Espérance Airport.
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Philipsburg is the main town and capital of Sint Maarten, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The town is on a narrow stretch of land between Great Bay and the Great Salt Pond. It functions as the commercial center of Saint Martin island, whereof Sint Maarten encompasses the southern half. As of 2017, it has 1,894 inhabitants.
The Collectivity of Saint Martin, commonly known as simply Saint Martin, is an overseas collectivity of France in the West Indies in the Caribbean, on the northern half of the island of Saint Martin, as well as some smaller adjacent islands. Saint Martin is separated from the island of Anguilla by the Anguilla Channel. Its capital is Marigot.
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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Collectivity of Saint Martin:
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The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the French overseas collectivity of Saint Martin.
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The Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park is a natural park located in the Sucre and Bolívar Departments on the coast of the Caribbean Region of Colombia, 45 km from the Bay of Cartagena. It was the most visited national park in Colombia in 2009, with 318,473 visitors.
The economy of Saint Martin, divided between the French Collectivity of Saint Martin and the Dutch Sint Maarten, is predominately dependent on tourism. For more than two centuries, the main commodity exports have generally been salt and locally grown commodities, like sugar.
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