Warderick Wells, Exuma Cays, Bahamas

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park is a 456-square-kilometer marine protected area established in 1958 — the first marine park of its kind in the world — encompassing a chain of small cays, channels, and reef plateaus in the central Exumas. The park includes a designated no-take replenishment zone that has produced some of the healthiest reef ecosystems in the Caribbean, with Nassau grouper, schoolmasters, Caribbean reef sharks, large barracuda, and sea turtles all noticeably more abundant than in unprotected waters. Dive sites within the park range from shallow patch reefs to small wall sections to current-swept channels between cays. Visibility is consistently excellent thanks to the clear oligotrophic Bahamian waters and minimal anthropogenic disturbance. The park is managed by the Bahamas National Trust and is accessible only by boat, with operators based in Staniel Cay and elsewhere in the Exumas providing guided dives. Permits and park fees apply, and visitors must follow strict no-take rules across the protected zone. The park has served as a global model for marine reserve design and is widely cited in fisheries and conservation literature as one of the earliest examples of effective ecosystem-scale protection in the Caribbean basin.