Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine - June 2018

Caribbean ECO-News
Bonaire Salt Ponds Named Area of Regional Importance for Shorebirds
The Cargill Salt Ponds on Bonaire have been named as a Western Hemisphere
Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) site of Regional Importance. This is only the
second WHSRN site in the Caribbean, following the Cabo Rojo Salt Flats in southwestern
Puerto Rico. BirdsCaribbean collaborated with Cargill Salt Bonaire BV, owners
of the site, on the nomination of the Salt Ponds for WHSRN status. The process
began with surveys during 2015.
BirdsCaribbean biologist Fernando Simal counting shorebirds in the solar evaporation
ponds of Cargill Salt Bonaire, with salt pyramids in the background
Below: Greater Yellowlegs, one of 17 migratory shorebirds
recorded in large numbers at the salt ponds
The privately owned saltproduction facility in
southern Bonaire consists mainly of artificial
wetlands covering 2,700 hectares. These ponds
fill up with brine shrimp, while brine flies cover
the dikes running between them. For migratory
shorebirds stopping over or wintering in the
area, this is a delicious menu. The Caribbean
is a vital link on the Atlantic Flyway, so the
protection of sites such as these is critical.
The WHSRN designates important habitats in
the Americas with the aim of protecting and
sustaining the region’s shorebirds. Cargill Salt
Ponds Bonaire is the 103rd site to join the network
and the first site in the Dutch Caribbean. WHSRN sites cover nearly 15 million
hectares (38 million acres) in 17 countries. The Bonaire site is also a Ramsar Wetland
of International Importance, and forms part of an Important Bird Area.
LISA SORENSON JEFF GERBRACHT
The coastal estuaries, wetlands, rivers, beaches and mud flats where shorebirds
stop and feed on their journeys are disappearing owing to development. Other
threats to these fragile populations include predators, pollution, hunting and the
global impact of climate change.
BirdsCaribbean surveys revealed that more than 20,000 shorebirds of 17 different
species visit this large wetland complex every year. This large concentration of shorebirds
includes at least one percent of the world’s population of the Short-billed
Dowitcher and the threatened rufa subspecies of the Red Knot, further supporting
the designation.
The salt ponds support large numbers of several other species of migratory shorebirds,
including Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper,
Semipalmated Plover, and Sanderling. Wintering and breeding populations of Snowy
Plover use the site. One of the Caribbean’s largest populations of American Flamingo
nests in the area, which also nurtures Bonaire’s only known breeding spot for the
Royal Tern.
Barbados’s Carlisle Bay to be Marine Protected Area
Carlisle Bay, the popular anchorage, swimming and dive spot on Barbados’s west
coast, is set to be designated a marine protected area.
Dr. Leo Brewster, Director of the Coastal Zone Management Unit, explains that a
marine protected area is a marine or coastal location that has been identified as a site
of special scientific interest, where there is a major need for a conservation zone and
a need to protect or preserve the habitat within the area because of its uniqueness.
—Continued on next page
CELIA MASON
JUNE 2018 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 11