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This report was a volunteer activity. There was no contract and no payment for the report, and none was requested. The study was conducted in response to a request from Dario Sandrini and Dr. Marina Fastigi, Directors of the Kido Project Environmental Station in Carriacou, as a follow-up to a previous request by the Carriacou Environmental Committee to the Bellairs Research Institute in Barbados for a scientific survey of the coral communities at Sandy Island. I had been working at the Bellairs Research Institute in late May 1996 and was planning a holiday visit to Carriacou for a 5 day period in June 1996. As I had some familiarity with Sandy Island from a visit there in 1969, I volunteered to make a quick survey and give a preliminary assessment of its condition. Permission to conduct the survey was granted by the Chief Fisheries Officer for Grenada, James Finlay. The visit to Sandy Island on June 20, 1996 was facilitated by Mrs. Ester Fleary, Director at the Grenada Board of Tourism for Carriacou. Cuthbert Snagg volunteered transportation. The Kido Project Environmental Station provided on-site support, and computer facilities for preparing an initial draft of the report. I discussed my observations and conclusions with Dr. Hunte of the Bellairs Research Institute, who was working currently on coral reef ecology (I was not, but had done so 25 years earlier). My participation was financed indirectly and in part by the Bellairs Research Institute and through my employment at Dalhousie University. Hard copies of the report were submitted to the Grenada Board of Tourism & the Kido Project Environmental Station, Carriacou. I prepared this Web version in Sept, 1999, following many requests for copies of the report and photographs from Carriacouans. The text and figures are unchanged, except that footnotes are identified by bracketed numerals rather than as superscripts.
I have not been back to Carriacou since 1996, and do not have ongoing research on coral reefs. It was my hope that this report would be helpful to Carriacouans. I understand that some efforts have been made to implement some of the suggestions that I made in the report. For updates, I suggest contacting the Kido Foundation (see link on Home Page) -David Patriquin, Sept. 12, 1999 |