The tiny Gumelemi Cay, at the northeastern tip of Great Guana Cay, is home to nesting sea turtles. The Bakers Bay Development plans five mansions for this caylet, which is adjacent to one of the world's most important ecological sites.

Incidentally, it was the passage between these two cays which the silt of the Disney dredging project passed into the coral reef systems, killing 30-40 percent of the reef heads in the area offshore the proposed golf course.

Photo courtesty Toby Strong

Sullivan Sealey's next email indicated she was not happy with my map, even though the map is precise and without any faults. The map simply indicated that the entire beach was turtle breeding grounds, which is a well known fact reported by both locals and scientists. She wrote me after I had repeatedly tried to contact her by phone. "My office number has changed, but I can not say I am very willing to talk with you, you are downright dishonest in presenting this turtle issue." And then she wrote, "What right do you have to comment on the policies of this country?...This makes me wonder who is paying you?"

The Bakers Bay Golf Club and Marina is a vast project which will consume over a third of the island. This gated community (a laughable concept for a seven mile island) will take up the entirety of the northeastern end of the cay. Although the development is on the northeastern end of the island, that end is swollen, so it consumes the most land.

But Sullivan Sealey writes me to say, "Bakers bay is only one small part of Guana Cay, The cay is seven miles long, but Bakers Bay is one of THREE residential developments on the island. What turtle protection is there on the rest of the island? Orchid Bay does nothing, the settlement does nothing...they even had the chance to move back off the dune when rebuilding after the hurricanes...Why don't you ask Nippers to nix the beach lights there?"

Sullivan Sealey is correct to say that the old settlement of Guana Cay does not have perfect sea turtle conservation habits, but her statement is misguided on several accounts. The settlement, for one, is not even on the windward side of the island, but rather hugs the harbor on the leeward side. The settlement and Nippers Beach Bar & Grill, for example, are much smaller and much less invasive than the proposed development.

Orchid Bay, a small community on the leeward side of the island, was built without much regard to environmental concerns, but is built near the villages' harbour, and therefore has little to do with sea turtles.

Although the Nippers bar is ecologically wrong to have beach lights on sea turtle nesting grounds, Nippers is a small bar in a very uncrowded part of the island. And in fact, the highest concentration of sea turtle nesting activity is on the northeastern end of the island, which hosts broader beaches and better coral formations. Traditional islanders in their native dwellings cannot be expected to have the same environmental knowledge as a modern American golf course developer. But the point is almost a moot one. The 170 residents of Guana Cay lead simple, non-invasive lives. Their incomes depend on the natural beauty, the natural resources, and the quiet, kickback lifestyle of the island. Even if they are relatively ignorant to modern, up-to-date sea turtle conservation, their effect on the nesting and foraging areas is minimal. loggerheads elsewhere in the world?"