Green Island (Antigua and Barbuda)

History

Colonel Richard Ayres was granted the lease of Green Island in 1673. By 1731 it was owned by Stephen Blizard, and was still owned by Blizard's heirs in 1790. The heirs of Robert Maginley owned the island in 1921. Maginley and his three brothers were immigrants to Antigua from Ireland and eventually owned 4,500 acres making them the largest landholders on Antigua. A plantation was established on Green Island, very little evidence remains of the sugar mill on Green Island.

Geography

Green Island is located off the southeastern peninsula of Antigua, at the southern entrance to Nonsuch Bay. Towards the mainland, the Green Bay, a bay-like strait south of the island, in front of Cape Cork Point, Green Island is only about 350 meters away from Antigua island.{{cite book |author-link= Administratively, it belongs to the Saint Phillip Parish.

Environment

The island itself measures about two kilometers from west to east; its width varies by two south-facing peninsulas in the range of a few hundred meters (maximum 650 m), forming several sheltered bays. Altogether, the island has an area of about 40ha. A sea-side peninsula ends in the Man of War Point, as the eastern tip of Antigua (as a region, east point of the main island the Neck of Land), from which the Atlantic Ocean{{cite book |access-date=29 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008191433/http://www.iho-ohi.net/iho_pubs/standard/S-23/S23_1953.pdf |archive-date=2011-10-08 The island rises only a few meters above sea level, and is composed of tropical brushwood and partly lined by rock, partly by pure white beaches. On both sides are reefs and rocks in front, the northern reef blocks the entire Nonsuch Bay and extends to Long Bay.

Important Bird Area

The island forms part of Antigua’s Offshore Islands Important Bird Area (IBA), designated as such by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of various bird species, including West Indian whistling-ducks, brown pelicans, laughing gulls, and least and royal terns.

References

References

1. Agnes Meeker. (16 March 2020). "Plantations of Antigua: the Sweet Success of Sugar: A Biography of the Historic Plantations Which Made Antigua a Major Source of the World's Early Sugar Supply". AuthorHouse.
2. [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sitefactsheet.php?id=20751 AG006 Offshore Islands, Important Bird Areas factsheet]
3. . (2024). ["Offshore islands"](https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/offshore-islands-iba-antigua-and-barbuda). *BirdLife International*.