The Tribune

BAHAMAS National Trust (BNT) Executive Director Eric Carey has added his support to the movement to name the waters of the Bahamas The Lucayan Sea.

“Why have a country with a rich history and an array of magnificent islands floating in unnamed waters?” Mr Carey declared this week.

His formal endorsement came as he met Captain Tellis A Bethel, Commander (Acting), Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the author and historian who proposed giving the 100,000-plus square miles of open, unnamed waters a name that paid tribute to the indigenous people who first inhabited the islands.

Capt Bethel spent decades plying the sea, first working aboard a cruise ship, later rising through the ranks of the Defence Force. From the beginning, it troubled him that the waters - the most appealing and prominent geographical feature of the Bahamas - had no individual identity, but were merely a part of the Atlantic Ocean. Over the past 20 years, as he delved deeper into the birth of the New World and the role the Lucayan Indians and the Bahamas played in it, he became convinced the only proper name for the waters that would pay tribute to history and secure an identity for the future was The Lucayan Sea.

“From the moment I heard about the idea, I was sold,” said Mr Carey who, like Capt Bethel, has spent years on and around the waters, overseeing the Exuma Land and Sea Park and other marine resources.

“Everywhere else you go, the waters have a name,” said Mr Carey. “The Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Pacific Ocean. The Caribbean Sea doesn’t touch any of our islands and here we are in the birthplace of the Americas with waters with no name, just part of a larger Atlantic. We should have our own identity.”

According to Capt Bethel, the initial declaration of The Lucayan Sea would cover waters 12 to 200 nautical miles from the outermost points of Bahamian landmass according to international law. The proposed sea would not include the national waters of the neighbouring countries of Cuba, the United States and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Capt Bethel presented Mr Carey with a copy of The Lucayan Story, his recently–published second book on the subject, at historic Fort Montagu. “Among other features, we have the tongue of the ocean,” said Capt Bethel. “The purpose of a tongue is to help tell a story. We have a story to tell and it begins with the Lucayans.”

Mr Carey’s endorsement is the latest in a growing list of notables that includes many marina operators, several civic organisations and the country’s first Olympic gold medallist and best-known sailor, Sir Durward Knowles.