Mission Aquarius: Journey To The World’s Last Undersea Research Station

For 50 years, the underwater Aquarius Reef Base in the Florida Keys has been an important center for oceanic exploration. Today, it is the last remaining undersea research station in the world. But funding for the program is about to be cut and unless a new source is found, Aquarius will soon be shut down.

To bring attention to this issue, One World One Ocean and MacGillivray Freeman Films are teaming up for Mission Aquarius, a six-day underwater expedition and media campaign headed up by Dr. Sylvia Earle, an oceanic research pioneer and National Geographic Explorer-In-Residence. By documenting the expedition, these parties hope to bring attention to the accomplishments of the Aquarius Reef Base, as well as highlight the importance of oceanic research and the challenges facing the world’s oceans.

“We know more about the moon than we do about our ocean, which sustains all life on this planet,” Earle said in a release. “Only by making undersea exploration and research an international priority can we learn what we need to know about the ocean to protect it and protect ourselves.”

Mission Aquarius, which runs from July 16 to 21, will provide a fascinating glimpse at life 60 feet under the sea. Individuals will be able to dive into real-time footage on Ustream.TV, explore related content on One World One Ocean‘s website and sign an online petition to signal their support for continued program funding.


Leatherback Turtle Eggs Destroyed In Trinidad


Construction workers moving sand on Grande Riviere beach in Trinidad have accidentally crushed a large number of leatherback turtle eggs. The workers used bulldozers to redirect a river that was eroding the beach, popular with tourists who like to see the turtles hatch.

BBC reports that 20,000 leatherback turtle eggs were destroyed, while Trinidad Express Newspapers quotes Environmental Management Authority CEO Dr. Joth Singh as saying, “only a few hundred” were destroyed.

The Grande Riviere River was encroaching on the beach and the turtle nesting area, and a local hotel owner asked the government to shift its course. The workers ended up bulldozing a portion of the nesting site.

Leatherback turtles, which are a critically endangered species, are famous for laying their eggs in the same spot where they were born. Trinidad’s north coast has huge nesting areas that have become popular with visitors. The Trinidad Express reports that locals and tourists have joined together to sift through the wreckage in search of hatchlings that can be saved.

[Photo courtesy Crazy Creatures]

Swimming With Pigs In The Bahamas (GALLERY)


While some little piggies go to market, a lucky bunch calls their home a beautiful beach in the Caribbean. These pictures were taken on a place underwater photographer Eric Cheng says the locals affectionately called “Pig Beach” on Big Major, Exumas, Bahamas. The family of pink and brown pigs pictured above and in the gallery below not only spend their days lying around on white sand beaches and showing off their aquatic skills in the cool waters, but they’ve also become so accustomed to being fed by locals that they’ll swim out to boats to greet people. The pigs are so friendly and cute that they’re fast becoming a tourist attraction on the island. Would you snorkel next to a pig on your next vacation to the Bahamas?

%Gallery-158427%

Cruise Line Builds Tropical Paradise, Again

To many cruise travelers, “cruising” means “Caribbean” and a growing number have sailed to and around the warm blue waters there many times. Tiring of the same ports, those travelers want variety but don’t want to travel internationally. Cruise lines answer the call by literally “building” new destinations that add variety and help out local economies as well.

This week, Carnival Corporation, parent to a number of cruise lines, broke ground on the Amber Cove Cruise Center, a new $65 million facility in the Dominican Republic to be built exclusively for cruise ships.

“With this cruise terminal, tourism and economic activity in Puerto Plata and the north region will rise to occupy a pre-eminent regional position in the entire Caribbean,” said Dominican Republic president Leonel Fernandez Reyna in an article for Breaking Travel News.

The new two-berth Amber Cove Cruise Center will be able to accommodate up to 8,000 cruise passengers and 2,000 crew members daily. The facility is expected to host more than 250,000 cruise passengers in its first year of operation.

Amber Cove will feature a welcome center with a variety of retail offerings, including a marketplace for locally sourced Dominican crafts and souvenirs, as well as a wide range of themed restaurants and bars, water attractions and a transportation hub allowing visitors easy access by land and sea to the surrounding destinations and attractions.

Cruise line cruise centers have been gaining in popularity with Mahogany Bay Cruise Center in Honduras, another Carnival-sponsored destination, welcoming over one million cruise passengers since opening in 2009. The Roatan, Honduras, location is on 20 acres of waterfront property and is an attractive area for guests of Carnival Cruise Lines and also host to sister-lines Seabourn, Princess Cruises, Holland America, Costa Cruises and P&O Cruises, as well as non-Carnival Corporation vessels.

The Amber Cove Cruise Center opens in 2014.


Photo: Chris Owen

Haiti tourism revival underway, in spite of itself

Haiti is one of the most fascinating destinations in the Caribbean but travelers still stay away, more than two years after an earthquake nearly destroyed much of what they came to see in 2010. Now, conditions are beginning to improve in Haiti and a revival of tourism is underway.

A construction development now in progress in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince includes a recently-completed five-star Occidental Luxury Hotel. A Marriott hotel is also set to open in 2014. These are two of seven hotels on the books to be built in Haiti soon.

“Together, the projects add up to well over $100 million in new investment and will generate several thousand jobs in a nation still struggling to emerge from years of natural disasters and political turmoil,” says Bloomberg Business Week.

In order to further reinforce Haiti tourism revival, major airports are also being repaired and updated. The Port-au-Prince International Airport (PAP) is currently going through a multi-million dollar reconstruction project. Another airport, Cap-Haitien International Airport (CAP), is also scheduled to be launched in 2013.

These rebuilding efforts will draw funds from what is being called a “tourist card” which will be mandated to all non-Haitian vacationers and tourists.

Soon, anyone without a Haitian passport will be required to purchase a $10 tourist card upon arrival. Taxes will also increase from $25 to $55 on airline tickets, similar to that in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

“This approach will incorporate tax levies on various tourism prerequisites such as plane ticket prices,” says Tourism Reivew.

“Of course this would mean that tourists who wish to visit the country are expected to spend more than the usual, but the government and other tourism experts are convinced that this will eventually prove beneficial to all individuals and groups involved, especially for the people of Haiti.”

All this activity is the result of sustained and united efforts from the Haitian government, non-profit organizations, corporate entities, and the worldwide community.

Still, its a slow road to recovery in Haiti, bogged down further by reports of brutal rape and poverty, not exactly the worldwide image that lush, tropical tourist destinations need to flourish.


Flickr photo by by caribb