Dominica - "The Nature Island" of the Caribbean

2012 May 11--18
Dominica, in the eastern Caribbean

Nobody told On Wings Of Care that 2300 statute miles over open ocean was too ambitious a trip for a small plane, even for dedicated conservationists and experienced pilots. So we went. And was it ever worth it.

We went there to help biologists in Dominica working with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). (More about the good work they're doing there later.) In short, they want to understand the varieties and numbers of whales and sea turtles that inhabit the deep waters that surround this uniquely undeveloped and steep island. Said to be the only remaining island in the eastern Caribbean that Christopher Columbus would recognize, Dominica has cherished itself as the "nature island" of the Caribbean and has deliberately preserved much of the natural state of the island. To scuba divers, snorkelers, and whale watchers, Dominica is a unique treasure. Because the ocean floor falls off as steeply as the rest of the island (at about 1000 feet per mile), one can find sperm whales, beaked whales, pilot whales, and huge leatherback sea turtles within a few miles of the shoreline. While it seems obvious that much of Dominica's surrounding waters deserves to be protected as a marine reserve, there are political and economical battles that challenge the accomplishing of that protection. On Wings Of Care was asked to come down and try to establish, through aerial surveys, the extent to which these species are present.

Barring bad weather, aerial surveys of ocean wildlife are work-as-usual for On Wings Of Care. But Dominica offered some unique challenges, over and above being about 2000 miles away with not much land betweeen there and Florida, USA. The island is not large -- oblong in shape, slightly smaller than New York City at about 188 square nautical miles with 225 nautical miles of coastline. But it is very steep with mountains in the center as high as 4,750 ft. Winds often come from the east and northeast, leaving waters on the eastern side of the island quite rough and difficult for aerial viewing of ocean life. But worse, these winds come over the island and down the steep western side, making the air quite rough on the west side. So the very place we wanted to look for whales and such -- on the western side -- was merciless in terms of air turbulence for much of the time we were there.

In fact, the winds were so rowdy the first day we arrived (Friday May 11) that just prior to our arrival, a regional cargo plane, a Cessna Caravan, abandoned its approach to land, and not long after, the airport closed! Not realizing just how bad the air could be within about four miles of the western shore, we approached to size things up for ourselves, only to have quite an exciting time turning around and circling back toward our alternative airport -- Melville-Hall, on the eastern side of the island. Landing Melville was an adventure too, but a fun one -- high hills made for a very tight, low pattern for landing since rain and low clouds were closing in as we arrived there. After landing, we discovered that contrary to advertising, there was no aviation fuel available anywhere on the island, and no place for small aircraft to tiedown! We taxied over to the local fire station, enlisted the help of the local firemen to push an old tractor and an old barrel into position on the grass to serve as tiedown stakes, and then pushed Bessie (our plane) into her homemade personal parking spot for the night.

We were thrilled to have arrived there (even if it was the wrong side of the island), and it turned out that there was one commercial airplane coming in that afternoon, and it had on it two IFAW biologists coming to help with placing satellite tags on leatherback sea turtles! We joined them on an exciting taxi ride across to the western side of the island for our first night, then rode back the next day and flew Bessie over to Canefield, her homebase for the week on the western side of Dominica. Each day thereafter that we flew aerial surveys, we had to finish up by flying 50 miles south to the French island of Martinique in order to refuel. After a few days of flying in the changing weather and micro-weather climates of that area, we became so used to reading the weather patterns that the usual 1000' overcast and winds from opposite directions at each end of the runway barely made us squint. Seatbelts, though, remained the rule most days until we got at least six miles from the coast and the air smoothed out. The videos you'll see below are a little shaky as a result -- that was the airplane, not the videographer!

A word about IFAW's work there, and then on to the photos and videos and critters and scenery: For years, IFAW staff and volunteers have been providing "floating classroom" sessions to local schools and providing general marine education to the locals, who appreciate their unique "nature island" and are eager to protect its ecosystems. IFAW has also been supporting locals who have now virtually ended the poaching of sea turtles from Dominica and become exemplary protectors of these fantastic animals. IFAW has pioneered the placement of satellite tracking devices on leatherback sea turtles in this area and have advanced our understanding of these animals' lives and migratory and breeding habits enormously.

Here are a few previews of some of the favorite sights we were treated to. First the sperm whale families -- at least ten in one family, divided into seven and three who swam nearby. Then a couple of photos (taken necessarily in full darkness, sorry!) of our placing a satellite transmitter on the back of a lovely 1200-pound, 85-year-old lady leatherback who visited us as we slept on the sand at Rosalie Beach one night and built her nest and lay over 100 beautiful eggs! Photos following that are of Rosalie Beach and surroundings, including some beautiful fresh sargassum that had washed ashore overnight with several Portuguese men-of-war floating in it. Then a photo of something that had us absorbed for about 10 minutes as we flew over and around it several times, wondering if we were looking at a dead whale. Close inspection of the photo makes us think maybe we were looking at vegetation; such are the trials of looking from 500 ft above at 60 knots, wishing at that moment that we had a helicopter instead! Then a 360-degree rainbow that greeted us our last day there (a video of that is included below, to prove that it really was a full circle!). Finally, you'll see some of the clouds we had to climb through toward the end of our trip, and a few of the IFAW gals (including Bonny from On Wings Of Care) who flew with us on several occasions.

And a few more photos, not as good as the ones above or even as good as the ones in the gallery below, but we just found them so here they are. The first three were an exciting surprise for us -- one beaked whale in the southwest corner of the island, near the existing marine reserve. Very unusual to see one at the surface at all, let alone long enough for us to get a photo. The turbulent air didn't help the photo-taking any thought, sorry about that. Then a couple of frigate birds, the most prevalent bird we saw there. Then another small pod of sperm whales down at the south end of the island. Some sargassum there, also. Then our only decent (sort of) photo of a turtle! Although we saw over 12 turtles, it seemed like each time we did, the water was too choppy or air too turbulent or we just didn't get the camera there in time. And finally, some beautiful shot of one of Les Saints islands just to the north of Dominica.

VIDEOS

Next, here are some videos. A reminder again -- the shakiness reflects the air turbulence often experienced on the west side of the island. Sorry we weren't prepared with some special way of dealing with that; we're working on that for next year!