Bahamas - AGRRA

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas has more than 700 islands and 2000 cays. The chain of islands extends from southeast of the Florida peninsula to just north of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. The land mass of the islands covers about 13,939 km² while the marine area encompasses almost 500,000 km². The Bahamas are well known for their crystal clear blue waters, luxuriant coral reefs, productive seagrass beds, and intricate mangrove forests.

Fringing and barrier coral reefs are found around most islands on the north and east windward coasts and around bank edges and are often adjacent to steep or vertical walls. Coral reefs cover 1,987 km² (2.2%) of the Great Bahama Bank and 324 km² of the Little Bahama Bank. The longest reef system is found along Andros Island and extends more than 200 km.

Nearly 500 AGRRA reef surveys have been conducted between 1997-2013.

Overall Reef Health

In 2016, The Bahamas Coral Reef Report Card was published based on 214 AGRRA surveys conducted between 2011 and 2013 including reef sites on Cay Sal Bank, Andros Island, the Southern Bahamas, New Providence and Rose Island, the Little Bahamas Bank and partial surveys in The Exuma Cays and Berry Islands. The health of these coral reefs was determined by examining the status of six key indicators on a scale from Poor to Good.

Bahamian Reef Health Index

The Bahamian Reef Health Index (BRHI) provides a comprehensive summary of the health of each patch reef or fore reef by averaging the scores of the indicators. Reef health varied by zone and reef type. The overall BRHI score for most reefs was either Impaired (43%) or Fair (41%), with no reefs scoring in Good health overall. See Bahamas 2016 Coral Reef Report Card by Dahlgren et al. to learn more.

Living oceans foundation launches 2017 interactive atlas of Bahamian coral reefs

The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) has launched a 2017 interactive version of the Bahamas Atlas. The Atlas is a digital flip book that contains detailed reports of the shallow water marine habitats of Cay Sal Bank, Great Inagua, Little Inagua, and Hogsty Reef along with direct links to fine-scale maps of seafloor habitats in these regions.

Benthos and Fish surveys were conducted in Abaco Islands, Andros Island and San Salvador Island using AGRRA protocol 2.2 and are included in the Atoll Research Bulletin, No. 496, Status of Coral Reefs in the Western Atlantic, published 2003.