Sound Sailing

26/07/2022

World Mangrove Day
Red, Black and White Mangroves, Grand Cayman

21/07/2022

Mangrove Photography Awards - submit entries by July 22, 2022

30/06/2022

We're super excited to be launching the 8th in a few days! Come and get involved 📸🌱🐦🐅🦞🌠🚣🌅🐍🏞️💚📸

The competition invites of all levels around the world to contribute their images to celebrate the beauty, diversity and fragility of mangrove forests and inspire action to conserve them. are simultaneously one of the world’s most important , and one of the most threatened.

Keep your eyes peeled for the exciting judges, and there's also cash prizes for the first time. There are six categories that appeal to a range of interests and approaches, including a new category; Mangrove Stories, which showcases a photographer’s portfolio of work illustrating a commitment towards and that tells a powerful story about our mangroves.

19/06/2022

Happy Father's Day!
West Indian Mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni) with new, bright green leaves.

22/04/2022

Plant a Tree for the Jubilee! Young Mahogany trees (Swietenia mahagoni) planted around Heroes Square, George Town, Grand Cayman, to commemorate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

22/04/2022

Cayman Islands – Founded Upon The Seas - and Mahogany.
Grand Cayman
The first Land Grants, made by the Governor of Jamaica in Spanish Town, Jamaica (1734 – 1742), were to cut Mahogany for export to Jamaica and thence to England.
1734 The first land grant was to David Campbell, Mary Campbell and John Middleton for 3,000 acres in the area between Prospect and North Sound.
1741 Murray Crymble had a land grant of 1000 acres in Cayman. He was an absentee land patentee, a prominent Jamaican merchant, Receiver-General in Jamaica and extremely wealthy. He seems to have had mercantile dealings with Central America, including Roatán.
1741 Samuel Spofforth, a wealthy absentee merchant, had a land grant of 1000 acres in West Bay. He was a prominent Bermudian shipowner.
1741 William Foster had a land grant from the present centre of George Town south to Pull-and-Be-Damned Point, South Sound. Foster had become acquainted with this area of S.W. Grand Cayman during the 1730s, when he was in partnership with fellow Jamaican, Benjamin Battersby. They had an agreement to fell and cut Mahogany.
1742 Mary Bodden, the final land grant of land of 1,000 acres, in the Newlands area.

17/04/2022

Happy Easter! Mahogany tree at the Hospital cross-roads.

11/03/2022

Plant a Tree for the Jubilee
H.E. the Governor, Cayman Islands:
It was a pleasure to plant a Platinum Jubilee tree outside of the Government Admin Building this afternoon as part of the Plant a Tree for the Jubilee initiative. I had the opportunity of planting Cayman’s National Tree, the Silver Thatch Palm which was donated by Mr Gary Chisholm from North Side and helped Premier Panton with planting a mahogany tree.
The “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee” project has set an ambitious goal to plant 70 trees in each constituency, of which at least 70 will be mahogany trees!
All are encouraged to take part in the National Tree Planting Initiative and pin on the interactive island map.
This initiative aims to add over 1300 native, endemic and fruit trees across our Islands.
A wonderful initiative to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and celebrate the environment.
More information on: https://www.gov.ky/national-tree-planting/

15/02/2022

Pygmy Blue butterflies and their habitat, and rare orchids.

June 2019-July 2019 April 2019-May 2019 Feb 2019-March 2019 Dec 2018-Jan 2019 Oct-Nov 2018 Aug-Sept 2018 Jun-Jul 2018 Apr-May 2018 Feb-Mar 2018 Nov-Dec 2017 Sept-Oct 2017 Jul-Aug 2017 May-Jun 2017 Feb-Mar 2017 Nov-Dec 2016 Sep-Oct 2016 Jun-Jul 2016 Apr-May 2016 Feb-Mar 2016 Dec 2015-Jan 2016 Oct-Nov...

02/02/2022

World Wetlands Day is celebrated each year on 2 February to raise awareness about wetlands. This day also marks the anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands, which was adopted as an international treaty in 1971.
https://www.worldwetlandsday.org/about

02/02/2022

World Wetlands Day
A call to take action for wetlands is the focus of this year's campaign. It's an appeal to invest financial, human and political capital to save the world’s wetlands from disappearing and to restore those we have degraded.
https://www.worldwetlandsday.org/

31/12/2021

Happy New Year!
Mahogany, West Indian Mahogany - Swietenia mahagoni, historically important and culturally significant Cayman tree.
Native to: Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Florida, Haiti, Jamaica, Turks-Caicos Islands.

13/08/2021

Cayman History and Plants are woven together, like the wattles used from native trees, for the construction of wattle and daub houses. Cayman Catboat Club House, North Church St, Aug. 2, 2014.

26/07/2021

Red Mangrove - Rhizophora mangle, is a salt-excluder. It filters salt out at the surface of the prop roots, so that only fresh water goes to the leaves. It cannot tolerate the extreme salty conditions of the Black Mangrove.
Black Mangrove, Avicennia germinans also has roots that filter out salt from the water. Additional salt solution is excreted through specialized glands on the surface of the leaves. The solution evaporates, leaving behind salt-crystals on the leaf surface, which can be seen (and tasted). Black Mangrove roots send up erect pencil-like aerial structures, pneumatophores, which act as breathing tubes. They obtain gases from the atmosphere that are unavailable in the water-logged soils in which they grow.

26/07/2021

World Mangrove Day:
Red Mangrove - Rhizophora mangle:
Red Mangroves, adapted to shallow, salty or brackish water, are sometimes low and shrubby or can grow to 18 m tall. They are readily recognizable by their numerous, reddish, curved prop roots and aerial roots, which catch and hold mud and silt so that coastlines are protected from erosion and extended into the sea. These land-builders filter pollutants, protect the overall balance of nature and act as a buffer zone against storms and storm surge. The submerged, tangled prop roots are a nursery habitat, providing food and shelter for an amazing variety of marine and semi-marine organisms. The branches are a nesting area and refuge for birds and marine animals.

25/07/2021

https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/mangroveday/2018

Mangroves are rare, spectacular and prolific ecosystems on the boundary between land and sea. These extra ordinary ecosystems contribute to the wellbeing, food security, and protection of coastal communities worldwide. They support a rich biodiversity and provide a valuable nursery habitat for fish....

20/06/2021

Happy Father's Day!
Mangroves - Black, Red and White, South Sound, Grand Cayman.

05/06/2021

World Environment Day

31/05/2021

Strumpfia, Mosquito Bush - Strumpfia maritima, a much-branched, bushy shrub (smoke from burning it helped to keep mosquitoes away), grows in dry, rocky shrublands, usually by the sea.
Native to:
Aruba, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Florida, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Mexico Southeast, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Venezuela, Windward Is.

17/05/2021

Anne Bonnie, George Town dock, Grand Cayman, June 17, 1979

17/05/2021

Queen Anne's Revenge, Grand Cayman, Feb.4, 1979

09/05/2021

Happy Mother's Day! Ghost Orchid - Dendrophylax fawcettii, and Old George - Wittmackia caymanensis = Hohenbergia caymanensis, a giant Bromeliad, are two GRAND CAYMAN endemics that grow in the Ironwood Forest, SE of George Town.

08/04/2021

03/04/2021

Happy Easter!

01/03/2021

(CNS): The Department of Environment has said that removing more than four acres of turtle grass in Barkers will adversely affect essential habitat for protected species, that it will destroy live …

04/02/2021

International Space Station

05/01/2021

06/12/2020

Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest planets in the Solar System, will conjoin very closely near Christmas this month, putting on an astral show that hasn’t been seen on Earth for roughly a millennium.
The two planets on Dec. 21 will appear closer together in the sky than at any time in the last 800 years.

Astronomical event to make an appearance just before Christmas.

30/08/2020

Medicinal Plants in the Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands Medicinal and Healing Plants, Bush Medicine and old-time remedies. by Ann Stafford, CaymANNature, August 16, 2019 The information is for educational purposes only and is not intended…