Current News about the Cayman Islands in the Foreign Press

Monday,  August 22, 2005

British government cash for Cayman Islands study

LONDON, England: BBC News, August 19, 2005 – Scientists in Cornwall, England have been given £250,000 to help restore wildlife destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in the Cayman Islands. The work will concentrate on restoring habitats for species like the Hawksbill turtle, birds and plant populations. 

Dr Brendan Godley from the University of Exeter in Cornwall said the hurricane had stripped the coral reefs on which the turtles scrape for food. The work is being funded by the British Government under the Darwin Initiative. 

Part of the project being undertaken by the university is to see how badly the turtles have been affected by the devastation. The hurricane, with winds reaching up to 160mph, also ripped up most of the islands’ trees and killed off about 90% of their birds. 

Dr Godley has studied the migratory habits of turtles around the world using satellite technology. He is particularly concerned about the effects on the Hawksbill turtle. 

He said: “Their bills are shaped like hawks, which they use to scrape food, but the reefs have been scrubbed clean by all the debris and we don’t know how the young turtles are feeding.” 

During the three-year project, which also involves the RSPB and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the team from Cornwall will be encouraging local people to plant and cultivate the best species of plants to encourage the recovery of the whole islands’ ecology. 

Dr Godley said: “It was a lush Caribbean island, but every single leaf from every single tree was destroyed by the hurricane.”

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