Whilst looking at old paperwork from the history of the project I found this very interesting paragraph.
‘The beach at Pasture
Bay is historical and natural, although it has been greatly modified in the
last century by man. Pasture Bay forms a cul-de-sac facing into the easterly
prevailing winds, with extensive shallow reefs of coral and marine algae
occurring immediately offshore. Wave chains entering the bay from the east are
deflected to the southwest by Homer Point so as to apply maximum energy levels
to the central portions of the Bay. Beach sand is calcareous, derived primarily
from fragments of calcareous algae and, to a lesser extent, from coral.
Historically, Pasture Bay beach vegetation was a mixed maritime forest
community of trees and shrubs growing densely to the high water line. Sand,
moved by the wind and waves onto the beach, was trapped within a few meters of
the water’s edge by the dense vegetation. Wind rows of algae and marine grasses
were deposited on the high tide line, providing a source of nutrient rich
organics to be mixed into the sand. A sloping dune of 1 to 3 meters in height,
stabilized by the shrubs and the trees, rose gradually from the water’s edge to
provide the nesting habitat most preferred by Caribbean hawksbills. Because of
the protection … the shoreline probably did not fluctuate by more than a meter
in any year. An extensive deposit of sand was held by the beach forest to
provide continuously available nesting habitat, regardless of the erosional or depositional
cycle of the shoreline.’
‘At some point in the
previous decades, the maritime forest was cleared from Pasture bay for grazing
sheep … recreational access to a sandy beach with scattered clumps of seagrapes
… . As a result foreshore (0 -10m) beach sand was blown back and away from the
high water line, forming a vegetated rear dune too distant from the water for
the hawksbill to use. The problem has been exacerbated … by intense cleaning of the beach and berm …
such that no blade of grass or fragment of leaf was left to slow the wind with
its drifting sand. Without dynamic offshore sand bars to replenish the loss,
existing supplies of sand were robbed from the lateral ends of the Pasture Bay,
and the overall shoreline has receded, perhaps as much as 10m from historic
dimensions. By 1986, conditions had
deteriorated until significant portions of the beach were rendered unsuitable
for nesting because of exposed limestone rock, cobble beach, eroded root mats, and
permanent pasture.
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| Pasture Beach, Middle section c.2000. The planting of the veg beds. ©JBHP. |
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| Pasture Bay Beach, North end c.1990. ©JBHP |
The text is an extract from :
Hoyle, M. and Richardson, J.I. (1993).
Survivorship, Mortality, Recruitment and Reproductive biology and Behavior of
Adult Female Hawksbill Sea Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) Nesting at Pasture
Bay, Long Island, Antigua, W.I. 1987 – 1992. Technical Report prepared by The
Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia,
Athens, Georgia. 25 July 1993.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Antigua and Barbuda? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Antigua and Barbuda in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely