Jamaica travels

So admittedly we are not at all animal people. But the crocodile, which we briefly mentioned on our St. Elizabeth page, is special and warrants a dedicated post. After all, it’s important enough to the country to be a part of the Jamaican coat of arms and the Bank of Jamaica logo!

There’s only one species of crocodile in Jamaica, the American crocodile, and it’s mainly found along the south coast. However, numbers are dwindling at an alarming rate – crocodiles are being killed by hunters, are losing habitat, and are falling victim to plastic pollution like so many other animals around the world. Fortunately, the law is on the crocodiles’ side – it is illegal to provoke, hunt, kill, capture, possess, or otherwise molest crocodiles in any way, BUT these things continue to happen anyway in Jamaica, showing the need not just for laws but also for education and action. Thankfully, the Holland Bay Crocodile Sanctuary in St. Thomas is working to fix that. The sanctuary is home to crocodiles of all ages, some of whom have been rescued and some of whom have been born there, with the goal of safely releasing them back into the wild. A nice extra touch from a sustainability point of view is that the sanctuary is completely self-sufficient for water and electricity. We would love to visit on a future trip, and importantly, to donate.