Out Island Institute

A marine research center helping to save the

world’s oceans makes a fascinating stop on a

cruise of the pristine Exumas.

As is often the case at George Town on Great Exuma, the rough water on the Exuma Sound had held boats up in Elizabeth Harbor for many days. When at last the wind subsided, a flotilla of boats, including Monarch, our 52-foot Halvorsen raised pilothouse trawler, took the opportunity to head north. We had a pent-up desire to get out on the big water, and thoroughly enjoyed our cruise to Lee Stocking Island. Alerted by fellow cruisers, we spotted a sperm whale cruising south past us en route.
From Elizabeth Harbor, Lee Stocking Island is just a day’s sail, about 34 nautical miles northwest up the Exuma chain, at the southern end of the Central Exumas. We entered through Adderly Cut. This pass is marked with a stone beacon on Adderly Cay, which we left to starboard. These tall, unlit, stone obelisk markers are common throughout the Exumas.

Lee Stocking features a good harbor tucked under the northwest end of the island. The anchorage has excellent holding in six feet of water with a sand or grassy bottom. Protection here is good in all but southerly winds. Or, you can proceed in a southeasterly direction to Williams Cay and anchor in four to five feet with good protection from the north and east. Williams Cay was once a separate cay but the cut between it and Lee Stocking has filled in over the years. Here on the banks side, keep a close eye on the sand bores, which are the continually shifting sand bars common to this area.
If you prefer to tie up to a mooring buoy, contact the Perry Institute for Marine Science (also known as the Caribbean Marine Research Center in various Bahamas guidebooks), which is located on Lee Stocking. The Perry Institute has about eight moorings that it makes available to cruising yachtsmen, but it’s advisable to inquire about them in advance. The Institute’s staff monitors VHF channels 16 and 61.
Interestingly, this scientific research facility on Bahamian soil partners with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Undersea Research Program, as well as a large number of other oceanographic and marine conservation agencies, and several universities. Scientists, students and educational groups visit the Institute from around the world to conduct ocean research in this remote, pristine stretch of the Caribbean. Both on and around the island, they study coral reefs, fisheries, ocean ecosystems and the biodiversity of undersea life.
In the winter there is a skeleton staff at the Perry Institute, while summer is the peak research season, with about 30 people in residence. The scientists are friendly and offer scheduled tours for visiting yachtsmen a couple of days a week throughout the year. And, even if no tour is offered on the days you are there, exceptions are made if enough boats in the anchorage are interested. Just call the Perry Institute on the VHF to see what can be arranged.
Even though no tour was scheduled the day we arrived, there were a dozen boats at anchor, so the Institute made special accommodations for us, and we hurried in by dinghy to the facility’s sturdy dock.
Perry Institute researchers study changes to the ocean environment, particularly as they affect queen conch, spiny lobster, red tilapia, Nassau grouper and coral. The invasive species lionfish is also a subject of research here. These spiny, venomous fish are native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and washed into the Atlantic after 1992’s Hurricane Andrew smashed an aquarium tank in Florida. Only about a half-dozen lionfish escaped, but they spawned an invasion that could kill off the local fishing industry, along with the tropical fish that draw divers from all over the world to the Bahamas. Lionfish are hard to miss, with their red and white stripes and tall row of spines down their backs, like a lion’s mane. If you see one on a reef, beware its painful sting!
We saw a student working on coral research in one of the Institute’s numerous large saltwater tanks – which looked to us to be about as stimulating as watching paint dry. But these studies, along with the facility’s research into tidal level and sea temperature, are essential to maintaining the health of the oceans.
On our tour, we learned that human impact already has destroyed nearly a third of the world’s coral reefs. Pollution has damaged marine ecosystems around the globe, and overfishing has pushed many marine species toward extinction. This neglect and misuse has not only put our oceans at risk, but it has put us at risk as well – reducing food supplies, threatening fishermen and their industry, and exposing coastal communities to storm damage. Our tour guide pointed out that the ocean research conducted here is relevant and valuable to nearly every marine ecosystem in America – and the world – from Florida’s sunny shores to the Great Lakes and the California coast.
If you like to fish or dive for lobster, please note that all of Lee Stocking Island is a “no take” zone extending out one-half mile from the perimeter of the entire island. This is a small price to pay for research that will help keep ocean stocks viable.
The island’s shoreline is rocky, interspersed with pristine sand beaches, and the area is great for snorkeling, diving, and swimming. We enjoyed warm water temperatures in February. During our tour of the Perry Institute, the helpful guide provided us with a chart indicating 30 dive sites, complete with latitude/longitude positions, depths and special diving condition notations. Some of these sites have available day moorings for your dinghy, but these moorings are for day use only.
With permission from the Institute, you also can hike the island’s many walking paths. One trail leads to Perry’s Peak, the highest hill in the Exuma Cays. Or take a dinghy ride just to the west, to Normans Pond Cay, where there is an abandoned salt drying pond. The eastern rocky shoreline of Normans Pond Cay is excellent for beachcombing with all manner of flotsam and jetsam washing ashore through Adderly Cut.
Very shallow-draft boats with local knowledge can travel southeast along Lee Stocking Island and Williams Cay and re-enter the Sound in a tricky cut between Childrens Bay Cay and Rat Cay. We saw a small sailboat with outboard motor disappear in that direction one evening. But for larger boats with deeper drafts, including Monarch, it’s best to exit the way you came in, through Adderly Cut. Next morning, we were up with the sun and left the stone beacon to port, bidding a fond farewell to beautiful Lee Stocking Island.
Tours of the Perry Institute for Marine Science are free, although the research facility welcomes donations. For more information, visit perryinstitute.org.