Bermuda: Nonsuch Island and Walsingham Pond

This morning we headed by boat to Nonsuch Island – a truly remarkable place. Nonsuch is an ongoing restoration project (a living experiment) that was developed essentially by one man, David Wingate. Wingate was an early conservation officer on Bermuda and had the inspiration approximately 40 years ago to identify the native/endemic flora and fauna of Bermuda and to establish it on one of the smaller islands, which now carries the name of Nonsuch. Using historical records (ship logs and journals), Wingate developed an understanding of the historical flora and fauna of Bermuda and set out to find living specimens (if possible) and cultivate them in a protected environment – Nonsuch Island.

The island had been previously used by William Beebe as a field station for his early oceanographic work, as a yellow fever quarantine hospital, and as a prison for juveniles. Wingate’s original motivation was to restore habitat for the Bermudian Petrel (Cahow), which was thought to be extinct until some juveniles and dead chicks were found on smaller islands near Nonsuch. In addition, a scale infection had wiped out 97% of the native Bermuda Cedar (which is actually a juniper) yet a few resistant individuals remained on Nonsuch. Thus, Wingate was also tasked with propagating and restoring the cedar as well. The stories and lessons learned by Wingate’s efforts are amazing but in short, the major habitats are now represented on Nonsuch and current conservation efforts on the islands have been enhanced by the knowledge that Wingate gained over the 40 years that he labored on the Nonsuch project.

Today access to the island is somewhat limited. An old ship, originally taken to the island and subsequently sunk by William Beebe had served as a breakwater and a dock for numerous years (and as a holding tank for a number of Beebe’s specimens). However, the winds and waves generated by Hurricane Fabian in 2005 (?) finally did the old boat in and it is no longer stable enough for boats to tie up to (although some new 2x4s suggest that the current Conservation Minister might be making us of it). So the current strategy is that visitors are taken to the island by boat and then swim in. We went in on the south beach and it was a little like D-Day with 20+ people swimming a shore with towels and shoes held high above their heads. Two dry bags allowed for the transport of cameras and some additional dry clothes. After touring the island on foot we were treated to a swim off the south beach. Having been a protected area for such a long time, the fish that are present around the island are much larger than there mainland counterparts (at least in our limited sampling over the past few days). One of today’s highlights – a spiny lobster that was more than a foot in length. We’re thinking maybe 1.5 feet but there is that magnification by water that needs to be taken into account.



In the afternoon we visited Walsingham Pond. Walsingham is a saltwater pond, which although it appears to be cut off from the ocean has several underground connections to the oceans. It is thought to be the “filter feeding metropolis of Bermuda” with a high density of sponges, tunicates, tube worms, etc. but in truth, the real heroes are the Upside Down Jellyfish that line the bottom of the pond and the resident green turtle (there might be more than one) that makes only periodic appearances. Today was turtle free and oddly the jellyfish were releasing stinging cells making the water somewhat “tinglely.” A couple of student projects went down the drain as they swore never to enter that water again.



And now, what you’ve been waiting for – the moped update. Today may have been our first accident free day (or at least no one has informed me of any incidents). One student did run out of gas on the road in front of the airport (about a mile from the station). My colleague took care of getting the gas can (from the Moped dealer – they must think we’re crazy) and retrieving the bike. All in all, it was a minor inconvenience and much more pleasant than finding antibiotic cream and Band-Aids for road rash.