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The Greater Antillean Marine ecoregion is a regionally unique complex of marine ecosystems with unusual features. The Greater Antillean Marine ecoregion is a complex of hundreds of islands notched with quiet inlets and lined with sandy shores. Warm, clear water supports extensive coral reefs that are a marine paradise for diverse species.
The Andros Barrier Reef lies only 1-3 miles (2-5 km) off the coast of the Bahamas. One of the largest reefs in the world and one of the finest in the Caribbean, it is a paradise for queen conchs, sea turtles, and seabirds, as well as an important resource for the fishing industry. Salt and fresh water mix in swamps and tidal basins, which make excellent habitat for endangered American crocodiles.
The waters teem with brightly colored fish, including stoplight parrotfish, spotted drum, clown wrasses, and cherub fish. Soft corals wave in the water as conchs creep about. Calm lagoons are the perfect place for humpback and fin whales to breed and nurse. Some humpbacks that spend summers in New England overwinter here. Both fin and humpback whales are baleen whales. They take large gulps of water to trap food, and expel the water through their sieve-like baleen plates which take the place of teeth. And the skies are filled with white-tailed tropicbirds and sooty and black-capped petrels, which rest on rocks and dive from the sky to catch fish. The redband parrotfish lives among the reefs, scraping away at the coral to eat the polyps inside. The lemon shark, is one of several species that patrol the reefs for fish.
Overfishing, pollution, high human population densities, and tourism all pose threats to this ecoregion.
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