Welcome to John Smith's Bay Park!
Popular with both tourists and locals, John Smith's Bay is a lovely beach on the far east end of South Shore and is a great place for swimming, snorkeling or just enjoying the scenery.
Bermuda's beautiful marine environment owes much of its biodiversity to the ocean currents that circulate around the island. It is on these currents that larvae of corals, fish and other species have been transported to Bermuda's isolated reef platform, where they have sometimes settled and stayed. It is these currents that also form the boundary of the Sargasso Sea, a fundamentally important part of the open ocean.
The Sargasso Sea is the only sea without a land boundary. Instead, it is defined by biological characteristics and oceanic conditions, bounded only by the ocean currents circulating around the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. Bermuda is located within these boundaries. This sea includes habitats, spawning areas, migration routes and feeding grounds for an extensive range of marine plants and animals.
The Sargasso Sea gets its name from the free-floating seaweed called Sargassum,. Dr. Sylvia Earle has called Sargassum seaweed "the golden rainforest of the ocean", due to the wide array of plant and animals these vast floating mats support.
Throughout the year varying amounts of Sargassum seaweed drifts inshore and washes up onto Bermuda's beaches. While this can be a nuisance for beachgoers it is an important component of Bermuda's beach habitats. It provides critical services for dune formation such as anchoring sand grains to stabilize dunes and providing fertilizer for sand dune plants.
Although it is recognized as a hot spot for marine wildlife, the Sargasso Sea lies beyond existing frameworks of protection and management. It is threatened by human activities such as over-fishing, pollution, ship traffic and the harvest of Sargassum.
Led by the Bermuda Government, the Sargasso Sea Alliance has been formed to draw attention to the international importance of the Sargasso Sea and the threats it faces. The Alliance aims to mobilize support from a wide variety of national and international organizations, governments and donors for protection measures for the Sargasso Sea.
Public Transport
Bus # 1
Disclaimer
- This geocache has approval to be placed at this location on property managed by the Department of Parks.
- The following items may not be placed in the geocache: food, illegal substances, medications, personal hygiene products, pornographic materials, hazardous materials, or weapons of any type.
- By searching for the cache, visitors agree that they are responsible for their own actions, and acknowledge that neither the Bermuda Government nor the cache owner is responsible for any loss or injury that may occur in relation to such search.
- Report any incident, problem, or violation to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
