Current view: Text account
Site description (2006 baseline):
Site location and context
Abandoned salt-pans, wells and adjacent coasts throughout Grand Turk, including ones viewable in the centre of TCI's capital. Includes Town Salina, North Salina, South Salina, Great Salina, Hawkes Pond Salina & Hawkes Nest Salina and nearby shores.
An important site bioregionally for waterbird populations. The Vulnerable Piping Plover has been seen during the Non-breeding season. Other waterbirds with populations of Caribbean significance include: Brown Pelican
(60 individuals)
; Wilson's Plover
(30 breeding pairs)
, Laughing Gull (900 individuals)
, Royal Tern (40 individuals), and Sandwich Tern (60 individuals)
. Non-bird biodiversity: Turtle nesting areas on some beaches: Chelonia midas (EN), Eretmochelys imbricata (CR), Caretta caretta (EN), with important nesting beaches.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Salt-pans are regarded as waste-land rather than the unique resource that they are, and are being in-filled. They need Statutory Nature Reserve status for both their historic interest and as a major wildlife feature in town. The TCI Government Development Manual requires an Environmental Impact Assessment for any development in a salina, but the Department of Planning does not enforce this requirement.
Unprotected.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Grand Turk Salinas and Shores (Turks and Caicos Islands (to UK)). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/grand-turk-salinas-and-shores-iba-turks-and-caicos-islands-(to-uk) on 23/12/2024.
