Nature & Wildlife

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GUIDES

How to Spend an Afternoon Foraging for Wild Sea Grapes

Sea grapes hang in purple clusters along the coasts of The Bahamas, the Caribbean, and South Florida every summer — and for a few hours of low-key picking, you can turn a beach walk into a jar of homemade jam. Foraging for wild sea grapes is one of those activities that costs nothing, needs no reservation, and works for all ages. This article walks you through finding a good spot, picking responsibly, and turning your haul into something worth eating. Sea grape (Coccoloba uvifera) is native to The Bahamas, the Caribbean, South Florida, and tropical and subtropical parts of

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Exploring the Bahamas Best Spots for Underwater Photography

You drop below the surface and the world goes blue. In the Bahamas, that blue is often more than 100 feet of visibility, and below it waits the third-largest barrier reef on the planet, a scatter of shipwrecks turned artificial reefs, and blue holes that drop hundreds of feet into the earth. For anyone carrying a camera, this is one of the most accessible underwater photography destinations in the Caribbean — not just for the clarity of the water, but for the variety of subjects within reach of a shore dive or a short boat ride. This article covers

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Exploring Bahamian Cave Systems Beyond the Tourist Trail

Slip into the tannin-stained water of a Grand Bahama blue hole and within seconds the surface chatter fades. Below the halocline—the swirling boundary where freshwater meets saltwater—visibility opens up and the scale of the Bahamas’ submerged cave network comes into focus. The Old Freetown system alone snakes 23,400 feet (roughly 4.4 miles) through limestone bedrock beneath Freeport. This article covers five cave systems across the Bahamas that reward the extra effort to reach them, from dry caves with Lucayan artifacts to world-class freediving spots. More than 170 blue holes dot Andros Island alone, part of a submerged cave network

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A Beginner’s Guide to Kiteboarding in the Bahamas

The trade winds deliver 15 to 25 knots across the Bahamas from November through April, and nowhere is that more useful than on the ten-kilometer Atlantic beach at Greenwood Beach Resort on Cat Island. This is the one place in the country with a proper kiteboarding school, and it’s where most beginners get their start. Most students achieve their first water starts within three to five days of lessons. If you’ve been eyeing kiteboarding but felt intimidated, the Bahamas offers forgiving flat-water spots and a direct learning path. This guide covers the lesson experience at Greenwood Beach, the gear

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How to Join a Coral Restoration Dive in the Bahamas

Coral fragments grow 2–4 times faster in nurseries than on the natural reef — restoration diving accelerates recovery that would otherwise take decades. Under the surface off Green Turtle Cay, the reef should have been a graveyard. Instead, staghorn coral branches stretched toward the sun in thickets so dense they blocked the light. That difference is what a decade of active restoration looks like. The Perry Institute for Marine Science has planted over 15,000 corals across the Caribbean, and their long-term monitoring shows measurable increases in both coral cover and fish populations. This article walks you through how to

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A Beginner’s Guide to Lobster Diving Season in the Out Islands

A pod of dolphins cruised past our skiff as we anchored off a small cay in the Abacos. Michael was already in the water, mask down, scanning the sandy patches between coral heads for the telltale antennae of a spiny lobster. The Bahamas spiny lobster open season runs from August 1 to March 31 each year, and we had timed it right. This guide covers everything a beginner needs to know about lobster diving in the Out Islands — permits, gear, techniques, locations, and the rules that keep it sustainable. Spiny lobster season in the Bahamas runs August 1

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How to Try Paddleboarding Through Mangrove Creeks

On Shroud Cay in the Exumas, the water is so still at slack tide that the only sound is a turtle surfacing for air. Then the tide turns, and the same creek that looked like a lagoon becomes a fast-moving channel. That shift is the whole trick to paddleboarding through mangrove creeks in the Bahamas — and why getting the timing right matters more than your balance. This article covers the best places to SUP through mangrove systems across the Bahamas, from the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park to the Abacos and Eleuthera. It’s written for anyone who

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Chasing the Green Flash at Sunset Across the Bahamas

I’ve spent a lot of evenings on Bahamas beaches, but the one that sticks with me most is the night we tried to catch the green flash. It lasts only a fleeting second or two — a sharp emerald wink right as the sun vanishes below the horizon. The green flash is an optical phenomenon caused by atmospheric refraction, and the Bahamas, with its clean ocean air and countless western-facing beaches, is one of the best places in the Caribbean to try and spot it. This article walks through what the green flash is, the conditions you need to

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How to Spend a Day Learning to Fillet Fish Like a Local

Late afternoon light slants across the cedar dock, and a Bahamian fisherman named Marcus runs a seven-inch blade along a snapper’s spine in one smooth motion. Most professional anglers carry at least two knives for this kind of work—a fillet knife around seven inches and a longer skinning knife around nine inches. Watching him, I realized that with a sharp blade and a patient teacher, you can pick up the basics in a single day. This article walks through exactly how to organize a day learning to fillet fish like a local, from finding a guide to cooking your

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Exploring the Bahamas Underrated Hiking Trails

Over 50 blue holes dot the island of Andros alone, but most visitors to the Bahamas never see one up close. The country’s hiking trails remain largely overlooked in favor of beach days and boat tours, which means you can often have a remarkable route almost to yourself. This guide covers five of the best hikes across the islands — from a historic Nassau walk to a full-day island circuit on Stocking Island — with the practical details you need to actually get out there. Over 50 blue holes are found on Andros, the Bahamas’ largest yet most sparsely

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