[Applause]
what do you look at when you drive to
work every morning if you’re like me I’m
looking at the blue sea the green
hillsides the white sandy beaches or do
you just take it for granted that that
view will always look like that small
islands are very unique ecosystems
different to large land masses
everything is connected and everything
has a role to play from the tops of the
hillsides to the valleys and the guts to
the coasts with the mangroves and the
salt ponds each part is connected
they’re like pieces of a puzzle over the
last years I’ve had the pleasure of
working in protected area conservation
in the British Virgin Islands I want to
share with you today some of the stories
of conservation and in the environment
this view is from the top of great
thatch how many times have you sat on a
ferry going to st. Thomas and run right
past this island have you ever looked
and wondered what’s at the top of that
hill I’m very happy to say I’ve been to
the top of that hill and it’s probably
not going to happen again because it was
a very steep climb but it’s amazing
sometimes you have to get out and nature
to look at it from a different
perspective this is a view looking east
of the BVI if you’re not out in nature
how can you appreciate it
we have so much endemic and endangered
flora and fauna in the BVI this is an
orchid cycle yzma Canelli it’s found in
abundance on Anegada and elsewhere in
the BVI but sometimes things that are
found in abundance can be very simply
and quickly cleared with the backhoe
this is actually a Puerto Rico Bank
endemic that means is only found in
Puerto Rico the US and British Virgin
Islands so whilst we have it in
abundance globally it’s very rare this
one is even rarer Croton fish Loki I
only known on Tortola and Virgin Gorda
in fact the population on Tortola we
only discovered
last year previously only had seen
before in the 1970s so we were extremely
excited it’s one of the privileges I
feel in my job that everyday you don’t
know what you’re gonna discover you
don’t know what you’re gonna find
something new to science something
rediscovered but the population on
Virgin Gorda is only protected in a very
small area on Gorda Peak National Park
most of these are on private property so
some of the things that we do is we map
the location of endangered plants and
animals using GPS and then we put it in
GIS geographic information systems and
create digital maps that we can overlay
with different things like roads and
land parcels and ownership so we can
understand more about where these
endangered plants animals are whilst
we’re out in the wild we come across
scenes like this an invasive beetle has
been attacking the century plan agaves
mission um many of you might be familiar
with this is used for Christmas trees
but you don’t see them flowering so much
anymore this photo was taken at great
Tobago National Park there’s no people
living there nobody really goes there
apart from us when we’re doing research
on the frigate birds but yet that beetle
is on great Tobago and it’s killing all
of the agave I was there twice this week
and we were actually mapping the
location of these raghava and there’s
nothing we can you can’t take away the
beetle you can’t stop it spreading all
we can do is collect seeds from the
plants and try to grow them so that
they’re not lost this is a view from the
top of leveraged Bay at North Sound
Virgin Gorda we were there that day
collecting seeds and plant specimens
because a lot more of my work now I do
is working with the Town and Country
Planning Department and other agencies
to try and be a part of the development
control process to try and understand
well we can’t save everything but maybe
if we’re part of the dialogue with
landowners we can help them understand
what’s even there do you know what
plants are on your property probably not
so more and more we find people coming
to us saying please come to our land
come and have a look and tell us that
we’ve got endangered plants animals be
proud you might have a very rare species
on your property there was a parcel of
land
we were there that day there were like
three endemic species endemic means
found nowhere else in the world on a
very smart piece of land I took a photo
and I had three rare species to me it’s
like so exciting but so sad like the
name of my Thoth control conserving the
environment it’s like peeling an onion
you have to keep peeling back the layers
to realize that there’s so much more
than just having protected areas the way
we develop here in the BVI people like
to see their land they clear-cut their
property before they build we have often
many times scenes like this dirt roads
not paved and hillsides left bare but to
the landowner it’s actually much more
costly because you end up putting in
retaining walls to hold up these these
these hillsides that the tree roots have
been naturally doing it for you for free
and this is what happens when it rains
this is a picture from the North Shore
of Tortola after a heavy rainstorm all
the dirt from those unpaved roads coming
right down into the sea on the coral
reef smothering them we need to have
better planning joined-up dialogues
between landowners so that instead of
all the zigzag roads going across our
tell sides maybe we had one doesn’t that
make sense but the way that land
ownership is here in the BVI you might
have a whole family of twenty people
owning one parcel of land and
everybody’s not talking to everybody
else let alone their neighbor but this
is the solutions we need to kept to seek
health bay the mangroves mangroves used
to be in all the sheltered bays across
the BVI but in small islands it’s a
competition for land area and the coasts
are always the first places to go for
marinas reclamation how do we prevent
all of these mangroves being lost
conservation is all about finding
solutions it’s all about partnerships
this is a very successful mangrove or
planting project that we’ve been doing
here in the BVI since 1999 it’s very
simple it uses a PVC pipe with a slit
down the side and you just bang it into
the substrate and then you put a red
mangrove sealing into it it’s very low
maintenance we try and do this with
civic groups students members of a
community get people involved so you
feel if you planted something maybe
you’ll help protect it you have
ownership over it we have a critically
endangered Roch iguana upon an iguana
Cyclery pengus it makes me sad sometimes
to think that more people have been to
Florida than they’ve been to Anegada
actually gonna ask put your hand up if
you’ve been to a Nagata well I’m happy
to see that’s very good but sadly that’s
not usually the case we need to have
pride in what we have here there are
less than 500 of these iguanas in the
wild and the psyche syrup Angus is the
basal species of all iguanas of the
Caribbean rock iguanas that means that
the cycler a species in the Cayman
Islands in Jamaica are all evolved from
this one but there’s threats from feral
cats you think why feral cats because
people who live on Anegada might have
pet cats but if they don’t spay and
neuter them they become feral and now
there’s a massive cat problem up there
you say well why don’t they say a new to
them because vets don’t regularly go to
Anegada
you have to bring your cat to Tortola
anybody who goes to Anegada knows how
hard it is you’ve Steven on the ferry to
get yourself in your shopping let alone
your cat so we thought okay partnerships
conservationists we need to start taking
vet so just last week I was on a Nagato
we took two vets and we just free spay
and neuter and you know it’s just a
really simple thing like you have to
understand why do people interact with
the environment in the way they do are
they deliberately doing it or is it just
that there’s other reasons and we have
to get to the bottom of that as I said
it’s the layers you have to understand
to get to the bottom of it so also we
were trying to find a way to save the
little juvenile iguanas so that’s really
when they’re at their most threatened by
the cats so we have a program where with
iguana scientists that we work with we
survey and map the nesting grounds which
are the sandy dunes on Anegada
and we map in GPS their nests flag them
with metal flashing and then around the
time when they’re ready to hatch we go
and catch the little babies because
they’re really pretty stupid about
and they just stand still and like just
stand there like uh come catch me so you
know it’s very easy to catch them and we
put them in a headstart facility we
reared them until they’re large enough
to be released so it’s usually about
four hundred grams so and then they’re
safe from predators which are really
snakes and the cats not all iguanas are
the same this is the green iguana iguana
iguana very different to our native rock
iguana the green is when they’re in
their juvenile form and has to become
older there’s brown people I’m sure
you’ve all seen this and you all will
poorly think they’re great they’re cute
lots of people haven’t pets to us this
is public enemy number one and we never
want to see how Nana got it we have had
a sighting of one but unfortunately we
had to deal with that so what can happen
why should you care is because these
breed twice as fast they lay twice as
many eggs and they can out-compete very
fast that’s what means invasive why
should you care because this can happen
this is what happens when green iguanas
get out of control fortunately this
picture was not taken here this is from
Grand Cayman one of my colleagues over
there shared this with me because it’s a
warning this is what can happen they
have a problem of 800,000 green iguanas
have been recorded before this year’s
breeding season they’re doing a massive
culling of these they have to kill 1,000
every day five days a week if they even
want to half the population why because
it’s an actually a problem for people
doing construction because they nest in
the sand so they have to sift the sand
before constructing their uprooting
roads because Cayman Islands is very
like Anegada very sandy we don’t ever
want to see this happen here so a little
bit of fear is good
the Magnificent frigate bird I love this
picture because I remember the day I was
there it had just rained they had bad
hair day sticking up everywhere but it’s
just amazing I feel like I’m in a
National Geographic every time I go
there it’s just beautiful there soaring
overhead
it’s just an amazing experience to be
done you know and that’s something that
I was so happy to be able to share these
stories with you because most people
will never see these things and so is it
that if you don’t see it you don’t care
about it but if you know the story
maybe you’ll help so these frigate birds
nest at great Tobago national park but
they fly all over the Caribbean local
scientists here have been GPS tracking
their movements seeing where they go
because wasli nest here they are moving
around so are they are birds you know or
are we just the caretakers of these
birds in their nesting habitat we have a
responsibility to protect where they’re
nesting but they have threats it’s quite
traditional here to have goats on a lot
of the islands but goats cause huge
erosion through many conversations with
communities a lot of people don’t
understand why we want to get rid of the
goats and remove goats from certain
islands now like don’t you like goats
I’m so now that I have a personal thing
about goats but they’re not found in the
wild they’re farm animals that have been
introduced and they cause massive
erosion after one heavy rainstorm we had
a landslide come down and knock out the
trees of nesting frigate birds and
killed the birds we’re actually doing a
whole assessment of monitoring the
vegetation on this island now to see as
if ghosts become removed how much the
vegetation grows back and the frigate
Birds population can expand but another
threat to the frigate birds is fishing
line if anybody’s ever seen a frigate
bird they’re very common over all the
bays so even though they nest a great
tobago they flying all over the BVI and
it’s the largest colony in the Eastern
Caribbean but the fishing line is a
major threat these birds
steal fish from other birds that’s how
they get it they can’t land in the water
their wings can’t get wet so they have
to steal fish either from fishermen or
other birds and a lot of the time
fishermen just cut the line they don’t
bring in the bird and unhook it properly
so what happens the birds fly back to
the colony and they literally hang
themselves so we have to go my
colleagues and I fellow conservationists
and go cut the fishing line because
birds will still fly into that fishing
line back in the colony education of
fishermen is also one of the things
we’re trying to do educate people on uh
maybe this don’t realize it maybe I’m
naive sometimes and I after 20 years I’d
like to think you can’t ever become
bitter sometimes you have to think
people just don’t know and maybe if they
knew they would help the BVI is more
marine environment than it is land I was
really fortunate to be part of a project
a research project to survey the marine
environment of the BVI we were looking
to try to decide where were the most
important places to protect and include
in a protected area network so it’s a
tough job but somebody had to do it swim
around the island snorkel you know see
what was there it was amazing you know
there’s still places you can see out
corn coral even though there was a
massive die-off in the 1980s of the
spiny sea urchins which caused so much
algae to grow on coral reefs that a lot
of our shallow corals died there are
still places they are coming back but
there are a lot of threats you know not
only human threats the climate change
coral bleaching all of these things are
happening you see it we’re a major
marine tourism industry here we have
over 800 charter boats registered in the
BVI and that doesn’t include all the
boats coming from the US Virgin Islands
and all the other private boats just
going around the Caribbean we have a
major industry and that’s not just for
shipping we also have mega yachts also
have barges that’s a lot of boats and
our bays aren’t getting any bigger one
of the major problem is is anchoring
anchor damage you have a lot of
inexperienced boat captains who just
don’t know what they’re doing we call
them credit card captains they have the
money but they don’t necessarily know
what they’re doing is it our fault for
letting them go out there should we make
them all have crews on board who know
where they’re going because this is the
result anchors in our coral reef and
it’s not just the anchor damage we find
a lot more ship groundings a few years
ago a vessel grounded a carrot shawl and
dropped 30 tons of lead shot on the reef
there was some cleanup but you can’t
clean it all up LED shot pellets you’re
just moving around in the ocean current
and what’s we don’t know what the impact
will be in the long run we don’t know
what the fish eat that everybody likes
to eat fish here but you could have
solutions like I said and there’s a
great example in the video we’ve had a
wonderful moring boy program for marine
conservation since 1991 the dive
operators actually were the first ones
who recognized the problem their
livelihood depended on it there they
were diving and they’re seeing anchors
destroying the same reefs that they’re
taking these tourists to so they could
she came up with a solution what should
we do so they came to the authorities
like the National Parks we’re gonna
install mooring boys and we’ll do it as
a partnership and we now have over 200
morning boys and 62 sites around the BPI
but it’s still not enough we have to
have legislation to stop anchoring cuz
right now there’s no law saying you
can’t drop your anchor right next to
that mooring boy what it’s a start and
it was a great idea and they came to us
because they realized there that their
livelihood depended on the health of
that environment tea turtles we have
four species of sea turtles here
leatherback the loggerhead green and
hawks ville people love to see a sea
turtle when they’re on a boat
there’s turtle encounter programs where
people can pay and go swim with the
turtles and help tag them and these are
wonderful opportunities because actually
the tourists is paying for the cost of
the materials to tag the turtles we’ve
had research scientists here for years
for over 20 years documenting the
nesting beaches understanding what the
patterns of the foraging and the nesting
of these Turtles all these things it’s
important information that we need to
know understand the whole history of
turtles it’s an amazing fact to think
that a female turtle returned to the
same beach in which it laid its eggs and
which it was born but sadly we still
allow Turtles to be caught here hoaxes
bill and green turtles and there are
size restrictions of what you’re
supposed to catch and not catch but as
the photo shows sometimes that isn’t
always enforced
yes cultural habits of wanting to eat
turtle meat are important to recognize
and we have to understand why people do
things you can’t always just come in and
say no we should stop catching Turtles
you have to understand you have to make
people buy into the ideas that’s one
thing I have absolutely found in all my
years now working conservation is that
you can’t make somebody do something
they have to want to do it and they have
to understand why you need to do it when
you see a picture like this
these are conk mittens upon Anegada
makes you wonder there’s any conch left
in the sea there’s conch and lobster
nearly every menu in the BVI but when
you look at this picture
are we just focusing on our needs of
today and not thinking about tomorrow
the DVI has changed so much from the
1960s to the 1980s we’ve had a rapid
pace of development my father actually
came here in 1968 with Royal Engineers
to build the airfield at beef island
it was operation Treasure Island funnily
enough he stayed after that because he
thought it was quite a nice place to
live but the pace of development is
accelerating
we need strong environmental legislation
to balance not saying that development
shouldn’t take place but we have to have
a balance we have to have limits or else
the environment will lose protected
areas have a really important role to
play these are the places that are
trying to protect the most important
habitats the areas with the rarest
species are landscapes that are the most
unique to the BVI that we want to make
sure are there for my children your
children their children into the future
these are wonderful learning
opportunities for students to go out and
experience nature we always say the
environment is wonderful classroom but
unfortunately I found through a lot of
conversations there’s a lot of fear in
people when you talk about protected
areas people feel as if you’re taking
something away from them and I don’t
understand that it’s like this is an
opportunity for your future we’re trying
to safeguard your future we’re giving
you fish
for the future these habitats the same
green hillsides and blue seas you want
to see them tomorrow and the other
curious thing is over 90 percent of land
in the BVI is privately owned not
protected areas so we all have a role in
conserving the environment have you ever
seen a child when they’re in nature in
the environment they’re so excited they
want to see and touch and feel
everything this is my daughter Zara and
we were bird-watching at hands feet beef
island look at her face she’s so happy
to be on that beach she has her
binoculars she’s running she’s just
loving it and that’s one thing I want to
make sure that she always keeps that
love of the environment and that
knowledge of the environment has a value
in just existing not for what it can do
for us but just by being every person
leaves a footprint from every walk of
life in every industry imagine how much
more we can do if we work together thank
you
[Applause]
what do you look at when you drive to
work every morning if you’re like me I’m
looking at the blue sea the green
hillsides the white sandy beaches or do
you just take it for granted that that
view will always look like that small
islands are very unique ecosystems
different to large land masses
everything is connected and everything
has a role to play from the tops of the
hillsides to the valleys and the guts to
the coasts with the mangroves and the
salt ponds each part is connected
they’re like pieces of a puzzle over the
last years I’ve had the pleasure of
working in protected area conservation
in the British Virgin Islands I want to
share with you today some of the stories
of conservation and in the environment
this view is from the top of great
thatch how many times have you sat on a
ferry going to st. Thomas and run right
past this island have you ever looked
and wondered what’s at the top of that
hill I’m very happy to say I’ve been to
the top of that hill and it’s probably
not going to happen again because it was
a very steep climb but it’s amazing
sometimes you have to get out and nature
to look at it from a different
perspective this is a view looking east
of the BVI if you’re not out in nature
how can you appreciate it
we have so much endemic and endangered
flora and fauna in the BVI this is an
orchid cycle yzma Canelli it’s found in
abundance on Anegada and elsewhere in
the BVI but sometimes things that are
found in abundance can be very simply
and quickly cleared with the backhoe
this is actually a Puerto Rico Bank
endemic that means is only found in
Puerto Rico the US and British Virgin
Islands so whilst we have it in
abundance globally it’s very rare this
one is even rarer Croton fish Loki I
only known on Tortola and Virgin Gorda
in fact the population on Tortola we
only discovered
last year previously only had seen
before in the 1970s so we were extremely
excited it’s one of the privileges I
feel in my job that everyday you don’t
know what you’re gonna discover you
don’t know what you’re gonna find
something new to science something
rediscovered but the population on
Virgin Gorda is only protected in a very
small area on Gorda Peak National Park
most of these are on private property so
some of the things that we do is we map
the location of endangered plants and
animals using GPS and then we put it in
GIS geographic information systems and
create digital maps that we can overlay
with different things like roads and
land parcels and ownership so we can
understand more about where these
endangered plants animals are whilst
we’re out in the wild we come across
scenes like this an invasive beetle has
been attacking the century plan agaves
mission um many of you might be familiar
with this is used for Christmas trees
but you don’t see them flowering so much
anymore this photo was taken at great
Tobago National Park there’s no people
living there nobody really goes there
apart from us when we’re doing research
on the frigate birds but yet that beetle
is on great Tobago and it’s killing all
of the agave I was there twice this week
and we were actually mapping the
location of these raghava and there’s
nothing we can you can’t take away the
beetle you can’t stop it spreading all
we can do is collect seeds from the
plants and try to grow them so that
they’re not lost this is a view from the
top of leveraged Bay at North Sound
Virgin Gorda we were there that day
collecting seeds and plant specimens
because a lot more of my work now I do
is working with the Town and Country
Planning Department and other agencies
to try and be a part of the development
control process to try and understand
well we can’t save everything but maybe
if we’re part of the dialogue with
landowners we can help them understand
what’s even there do you know what
plants are on your property probably not
so more and more we find people coming
to us saying please come to our land
come and have a look and tell us that
we’ve got endangered plants animals be
proud you might have a very rare species
on your property there was a parcel of
land
we were there that day there were like
three endemic species endemic means
found nowhere else in the world on a
very smart piece of land I took a photo
and I had three rare species to me it’s
like so exciting but so sad like the
name of my Thoth control conserving the
environment it’s like peeling an onion
you have to keep peeling back the layers
to realize that there’s so much more
than just having protected areas the way
we develop here in the BVI people like
to see their land they clear-cut their
property before they build we have often
many times scenes like this dirt roads
not paved and hillsides left bare but to
the landowner it’s actually much more
costly because you end up putting in
retaining walls to hold up these these
these hillsides that the tree roots have
been naturally doing it for you for free
and this is what happens when it rains
this is a picture from the North Shore
of Tortola after a heavy rainstorm all
the dirt from those unpaved roads coming
right down into the sea on the coral
reef smothering them we need to have
better planning joined-up dialogues
between landowners so that instead of
all the zigzag roads going across our
tell sides maybe we had one doesn’t that
make sense but the way that land
ownership is here in the BVI you might
have a whole family of twenty people
owning one parcel of land and
everybody’s not talking to everybody
else let alone their neighbor but this
is the solutions we need to kept to seek
health bay the mangroves mangroves used
to be in all the sheltered bays across
the BVI but in small islands it’s a
competition for land area and the coasts
are always the first places to go for
marinas reclamation how do we prevent
all of these mangroves being lost
conservation is all about finding
solutions it’s all about partnerships
this is a very successful mangrove or
planting project that we’ve been doing
here in the BVI since 1999 it’s very
simple it uses a PVC pipe with a slit
down the side and you just bang it into
the substrate and then you put a red
mangrove sealing into it it’s very low
maintenance we try and do this with
civic groups students members of a
community get people involved so you
feel if you planted something maybe
you’ll help protect it you have
ownership over it we have a critically
endangered Roch iguana upon an iguana
Cyclery pengus it makes me sad sometimes
to think that more people have been to
Florida than they’ve been to Anegada
actually gonna ask put your hand up if
you’ve been to a Nagata well I’m happy
to see that’s very good but sadly that’s
not usually the case we need to have
pride in what we have here there are
less than 500 of these iguanas in the
wild and the psyche syrup Angus is the
basal species of all iguanas of the
Caribbean rock iguanas that means that
the cycler a species in the Cayman
Islands in Jamaica are all evolved from
this one but there’s threats from feral
cats you think why feral cats because
people who live on Anegada might have
pet cats but if they don’t spay and
neuter them they become feral and now
there’s a massive cat problem up there
you say well why don’t they say a new to
them because vets don’t regularly go to
Anegada
you have to bring your cat to Tortola
anybody who goes to Anegada knows how
hard it is you’ve Steven on the ferry to
get yourself in your shopping let alone
your cat so we thought okay partnerships
conservationists we need to start taking
vet so just last week I was on a Nagato
we took two vets and we just free spay
and neuter and you know it’s just a
really simple thing like you have to
understand why do people interact with
the environment in the way they do are
they deliberately doing it or is it just
that there’s other reasons and we have
to get to the bottom of that as I said
it’s the layers you have to understand
to get to the bottom of it so also we
were trying to find a way to save the
little juvenile iguanas so that’s really
when they’re at their most threatened by
the cats so we have a program where with
iguana scientists that we work with we
survey and map the nesting grounds which
are the sandy dunes on Anegada
and we map in GPS their nests flag them
with metal flashing and then around the
time when they’re ready to hatch we go
and catch the little babies because
they’re really pretty stupid about
and they just stand still and like just
stand there like uh come catch me so you
know it’s very easy to catch them and we
put them in a headstart facility we
reared them until they’re large enough
to be released so it’s usually about
four hundred grams so and then they’re
safe from predators which are really
snakes and the cats not all iguanas are
the same this is the green iguana iguana
iguana very different to our native rock
iguana the green is when they’re in
their juvenile form and has to become
older there’s brown people I’m sure
you’ve all seen this and you all will
poorly think they’re great they’re cute
lots of people haven’t pets to us this
is public enemy number one and we never
want to see how Nana got it we have had
a sighting of one but unfortunately we
had to deal with that so what can happen
why should you care is because these
breed twice as fast they lay twice as
many eggs and they can out-compete very
fast that’s what means invasive why
should you care because this can happen
this is what happens when green iguanas
get out of control fortunately this
picture was not taken here this is from
Grand Cayman one of my colleagues over
there shared this with me because it’s a
warning this is what can happen they
have a problem of 800,000 green iguanas
have been recorded before this year’s
breeding season they’re doing a massive
culling of these they have to kill 1,000
every day five days a week if they even
want to half the population why because
it’s an actually a problem for people
doing construction because they nest in
the sand so they have to sift the sand
before constructing their uprooting
roads because Cayman Islands is very
like Anegada very sandy we don’t ever
want to see this happen here so a little
bit of fear is good
the Magnificent frigate bird I love this
picture because I remember the day I was
there it had just rained they had bad
hair day sticking up everywhere but it’s
just amazing I feel like I’m in a
National Geographic every time I go
there it’s just beautiful there soaring
overhead
it’s just an amazing experience to be
done you know and that’s something that
I was so happy to be able to share these
stories with you because most people
will never see these things and so is it
that if you don’t see it you don’t care
about it but if you know the story
maybe you’ll help so these frigate birds
nest at great Tobago national park but
they fly all over the Caribbean local
scientists here have been GPS tracking
their movements seeing where they go
because wasli nest here they are moving
around so are they are birds you know or
are we just the caretakers of these
birds in their nesting habitat we have a
responsibility to protect where they’re
nesting but they have threats it’s quite
traditional here to have goats on a lot
of the islands but goats cause huge
erosion through many conversations with
communities a lot of people don’t
understand why we want to get rid of the
goats and remove goats from certain
islands now like don’t you like goats
I’m so now that I have a personal thing
about goats but they’re not found in the
wild they’re farm animals that have been
introduced and they cause massive
erosion after one heavy rainstorm we had
a landslide come down and knock out the
trees of nesting frigate birds and
killed the birds we’re actually doing a
whole assessment of monitoring the
vegetation on this island now to see as
if ghosts become removed how much the
vegetation grows back and the frigate
Birds population can expand but another
threat to the frigate birds is fishing
line if anybody’s ever seen a frigate
bird they’re very common over all the
bays so even though they nest a great
tobago they flying all over the BVI and
it’s the largest colony in the Eastern
Caribbean but the fishing line is a
major threat these birds
steal fish from other birds that’s how
they get it they can’t land in the water
their wings can’t get wet so they have
to steal fish either from fishermen or
other birds and a lot of the time
fishermen just cut the line they don’t
bring in the bird and unhook it properly
so what happens the birds fly back to
the colony and they literally hang
themselves so we have to go my
colleagues and I fellow conservationists
and go cut the fishing line because
birds will still fly into that fishing
line back in the colony education of
fishermen is also one of the things
we’re trying to do educate people on uh
maybe this don’t realize it maybe I’m
naive sometimes and I after 20 years I’d
like to think you can’t ever become
bitter sometimes you have to think
people just don’t know and maybe if they
knew they would help the BVI is more
marine environment than it is land I was
really fortunate to be part of a project
a research project to survey the marine
environment of the BVI we were looking
to try to decide where were the most
important places to protect and include
in a protected area network so it’s a
tough job but somebody had to do it swim
around the island snorkel you know see
what was there it was amazing you know
there’s still places you can see out
corn coral even though there was a
massive die-off in the 1980s of the
spiny sea urchins which caused so much
algae to grow on coral reefs that a lot
of our shallow corals died there are
still places they are coming back but
there are a lot of threats you know not
only human threats the climate change
coral bleaching all of these things are
happening you see it we’re a major
marine tourism industry here we have
over 800 charter boats registered in the
BVI and that doesn’t include all the
boats coming from the US Virgin Islands
and all the other private boats just
going around the Caribbean we have a
major industry and that’s not just for
shipping we also have mega yachts also
have barges that’s a lot of boats and
our bays aren’t getting any bigger one
of the major problem is is anchoring
anchor damage you have a lot of
inexperienced boat captains who just
don’t know what they’re doing we call
them credit card captains they have the
money but they don’t necessarily know
what they’re doing is it our fault for
letting them go out there should we make
them all have crews on board who know
where they’re going because this is the
result anchors in our coral reef and
it’s not just the anchor damage we find
a lot more ship groundings a few years
ago a vessel grounded a carrot shawl and
dropped 30 tons of lead shot on the reef
there was some cleanup but you can’t
clean it all up LED shot pellets you’re
just moving around in the ocean current
and what’s we don’t know what the impact
will be in the long run we don’t know
what the fish eat that everybody likes
to eat fish here but you could have
solutions like I said and there’s a
great example in the video we’ve had a
wonderful moring boy program for marine
conservation since 1991 the dive
operators actually were the first ones
who recognized the problem their
livelihood depended on it there they
were diving and they’re seeing anchors
destroying the same reefs that they’re
taking these tourists to so they could
she came up with a solution what should
we do so they came to the authorities
like the National Parks we’re gonna
install mooring boys and we’ll do it as
a partnership and we now have over 200
morning boys and 62 sites around the BPI
but it’s still not enough we have to
have legislation to stop anchoring cuz
right now there’s no law saying you
can’t drop your anchor right next to
that mooring boy what it’s a start and
it was a great idea and they came to us
because they realized there that their
livelihood depended on the health of
that environment tea turtles we have
four species of sea turtles here
leatherback the loggerhead green and
hawks ville people love to see a sea
turtle when they’re on a boat
there’s turtle encounter programs where
people can pay and go swim with the
turtles and help tag them and these are
wonderful opportunities because actually
the tourists is paying for the cost of
the materials to tag the turtles we’ve
had research scientists here for years
for over 20 years documenting the
nesting beaches understanding what the
patterns of the foraging and the nesting
of these Turtles all these things it’s
important information that we need to
know understand the whole history of
turtles it’s an amazing fact to think
that a female turtle returned to the
same beach in which it laid its eggs and
which it was born but sadly we still
allow Turtles to be caught here hoaxes
bill and green turtles and there are
size restrictions of what you’re
supposed to catch and not catch but as
the photo shows sometimes that isn’t
always enforced
yes cultural habits of wanting to eat
turtle meat are important to recognize
and we have to understand why people do
things you can’t always just come in and
say no we should stop catching Turtles
you have to understand you have to make
people buy into the ideas that’s one
thing I have absolutely found in all my
years now working conservation is that
you can’t make somebody do something
they have to want to do it and they have
to understand why you need to do it when
you see a picture like this
these are conk mittens upon Anegada
makes you wonder there’s any conch left
in the sea there’s conch and lobster
nearly every menu in the BVI but when
you look at this picture
are we just focusing on our needs of
today and not thinking about tomorrow
the DVI has changed so much from the
1960s to the 1980s we’ve had a rapid
pace of development my father actually
came here in 1968 with Royal Engineers
to build the airfield at beef island
it was operation Treasure Island funnily
enough he stayed after that because he
thought it was quite a nice place to
live but the pace of development is
accelerating
we need strong environmental legislation
to balance not saying that development
shouldn’t take place but we have to have
a balance we have to have limits or else
the environment will lose protected
areas have a really important role to
play these are the places that are
trying to protect the most important
habitats the areas with the rarest
species are landscapes that are the most
unique to the BVI that we want to make
sure are there for my children your
children their children into the future
these are wonderful learning
opportunities for students to go out and
experience nature we always say the
environment is wonderful classroom but
unfortunately I found through a lot of
conversations there’s a lot of fear in
people when you talk about protected
areas people feel as if you’re taking
something away from them and I don’t
understand that it’s like this is an
opportunity for your future we’re trying
to safeguard your future we’re giving
you fish
for the future these habitats the same
green hillsides and blue seas you want
to see them tomorrow and the other
curious thing is over 90 percent of land
in the BVI is privately owned not
protected areas so we all have a role in
conserving the environment have you ever
seen a child when they’re in nature in
the environment they’re so excited they
want to see and touch and feel
everything this is my daughter Zara and
we were bird-watching at hands feet beef
island look at her face she’s so happy
to be on that beach she has her
binoculars she’s running she’s just
loving it and that’s one thing I want to
make sure that she always keeps that
love of the environment and that
knowledge of the environment has a value
in just existing not for what it can do
for us but just by being every person
leaves a footprint from every walk of
life in every industry imagine how much
more we can do if we work together thank
you
[Applause]
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