Tobago
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Castara village beach looking south, Tobago |
Tobago is the smaller of the two main
islands that make up the
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern
Caribbean Sea, northeast of the island of
Trinidad and south of
Grenada.
Tobago has a land area of
300 km² (116 mi²), and is approximately 42 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide. It is located at
latitude 11° 9' N,
longitude 60° 40' W, slightly north of
Trinidad. The population is 54,084 (
2000). The capital is
Scarborough, with a population of about 17,000. While
Trinidad is
multiethnic, the population of Tobago is overwhelmingly
Afro-Tobagonian, although with a growing proportion of
Indo-Trinidadians and
Europeans (predominantly
Germans and
Scandinavians). Between
1990 and
2000, the population of Tobago grew by 11.28 percent, making it one of the fasting-growing areas of the country.
See also History of Trinidad and Tobago, Courland colonisation of the AmericasAt the time of European contact, Tobago was inhabited by
Island Caribs. According to the earliest English-language source cited in the
Oxford English Dictionary, it bore a name that has become the English word
tobacco. The island later changed hands between the
French,
Dutch,
British and
Courlanders. It was finally ceded to the British in
1814. From 1833 to 1889, it was part of the British
Windward Islands colony.
Originally a wealthy
sugar colony, Tobago's economy collapsed after the
abolition of slavery. In
1888, Tobago was annexed to
Trinidad.
The island of Tobago is also thought to be the island thet the story Robinson Crusoe was written about.
The climate is tropical, and the island lies just south of the
Atlantic hurricane belt. Average rainfall varies between 3800
mm on the
Main Ridge to less than 1250 mm in the south-west of the island. There are two seasons: a wet season between June and December, and a dry season between January and May.
The principal economic forces in Tobago are
tourism and government spending. Conventional beach and water-sports tourism is largely focussed in the south-east around the airport and the coastal strip; however,
ecotourism is growing in significance, and much of it is focussed on the large area of protected forest in the centre and north of the main island and on
Little Tobago, a small island off the north east tip of the main island.
Tourism is concentrated in the southwest of the island, around Crown Point, Store Bay, Pigeon Point and Buccoo Reef. This area has large expanses of sand and is dominated by resort type developments. Tobago has many idyllic beaches around its coastline, especially those at
Castara, Bloody Bay, and
Englishman's Bay.
Tobago is linked to the world through the airport at Crown Point, and the Scarborough harbour. Domestic flights connect Tobago with Trinidad, and international flights connect with the Caribbean and Europe. There is also a daily fast ferry service between Port of Spain and Scarborough.
Diving
Tobago is also a popular diving location, since it is the most southerly of the Caribbean island with
coral communities.
Trinidad, which is further south, has no significant coral because of low
salinity and high silt content which result from its position close in the mouth of
Venezuela's
River Orinoco.
Diving on Tobago tends to be centred at
Speyside, almost diametrically across the island from the airport.
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Inside The 'Maverick Wreck' |
The island has some of the best diving sites in the Caribbean.
The island has three wrecks located around its shores, but the one usually considered the best is the 'Maverick Ferry', which used to travel between Trinidad and Tobago. The ferry is 350 feet long and has been sunk in 30 metres/100 feet just off Rocky Point, Mt. Irvine. The top of the wreck is at 15 metres/50 feet. The wreck has an abundance of marine life, including a 4 foot jewfish, a member of the grouper family. The wreck was purposely sunk for divers, and so all the doors and windows were removed.
The waters around the island are home to many species of tropical fish, rays, sharks, and turtles.
The Tobago Forest Reserve (or the Main Ridge Reserve) claims to be the oldest protected forests in the Western world. It was designated as a protected Crown reserve on
April 17 1776 following representations by
Soame Jenyns a
Member of Parliament in
Britain who had the responsibility for the development of Tobago. It has remained a protected area ever since.
This forested area has great
biodiversity including many species of
birds, mammals, frog and (nonpoisonous) snakes. It is one of the most approachable areas of rainforest, since it is relatively small and there are government-appointed guides who provide an authoritative guiding service through the forest at a reasonable cost. The guides are knowledgeable about the plants and the animals, and can call down rare and exotic birds from the canopy by imitating their calls.
Little Tobago, the small neighbouring island, supports some of the best
dry forest remaining in Tobago. Little Tobago and St. Giles Island are important
seabird nesting colonies, with
Red-billed Tropicbird,
Magnificent Frigatebird and
Audubon's Shearwater amongst others.
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Red-billed Tropicbird on Little Tobago |
Local Government functions in Tobago are handled by the
Tobago House of Assembly. The current
Chief Secretary of the THA is
Orville London. The
People's National Movement controls 11 seats in the Assembly, while the
Democratic Action Congress controls the other seat.
Although Tobago lies to the south of the hurricane belt, it was nevertheless struck by
Hurricane Flora on
September 30 1963. The effects of the hurricane were so severe that they changed the face of Tobago's economy. The hurricane laid waste to the plantations of
banana,
coconut, and
cacao, which largely sustained the economy. It wreaked considerable damage to the largely pristine tropical rainforest that makes up a large proportion of the interior of the northern half of the island. Subsequently, many of the plantations were abandoned, and the economy changed direction away from cash crop agriculture toward tourism.
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WorldStatesmen- Trinidad and Tobago
