Andros is a group of islands in The Bahamas. Although it is treated as one island politically, its total area is larger than all the other 700 Bahamian islands combined. The land area of Andros includes hundreds of small islets and cays connected by mangrove estuaries and tidal swamplands, along with three major islands: North Andros, Mangrove Cay, and South Andros. These three main islands are separated by bights, which are large, open areas of water that divide the island from east to west. Andros is 167 kilometers (104 miles) long and 64 kilometers (40 miles) wide at its widest point. It is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Nassau, the capital city of New Providence, and is separated from Nassau by a deep channel called the Tongue of the Ocean. As of 2022, Andros has a population of about 8,000 people.

The Andros Barrier Reef, the sixth-longest coral reef in the world, runs along the eastern side of the island for about 225 kilometers (140 miles), averaging a distance of 2–3 kilometers (1–2 miles) from the shore. The island is home to the world’s largest collection of blue holes, which are underwater caves with water-filled entrances. Off the island’s west coast lies the Great Bahama Bank.

The Lucayan people were the original inhabitants of Andros. In the early 1500s, Spanish colonizers enslaved the Lucayans and moved them to other islands, leaving Andros mostly uninhabited for about 130 years. After a long period of British rule, which began around the mid-1600s, the Bahamas became an independent country in 1973. The population of Andros has included people who moved from the United States after the American Revolution and brought enslaved people with them, Black Seminoles and escaped slaves who fled Florida in the 1800s, Africans freed from slave ships, other settlers and immigrants, and their descendants. Traditional culture in parts of Andros shows influences from West Africa and the Seminole people.

Major employers on Andros include the Bahamian government, the U.S. Navy Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, commercial fishing, and tourism. Tourism is the largest industry and includes activities such as scuba diving and recreational fishing, especially bonefishing.

Etymology

The Lucayan people, who lived on the island before European arrival, called it Habacoa (or Babucca), which means "large upper outer land." The Spanish named the island Espiritu Santu. Later, during British rule, the island was renamed Andros. Some 18th-century British papers mention it as Andrews Island, and a map from 1782 shows it as San Andreas.

The name "Andros" is thought to honor Sir Edmund Andros, a British official who led military forces in Barbados in 1672 and later governed New York, Massachusetts, and New England. He played a key role in the fall of the Dominion of New England, after which he was removed from his position and imprisoned by colonists who were upset with his leadership.

Some sources suggest the island may have been named after people from St. Andrews Island, near the Mosquito Coast of Honduras. About 1,400 people reportedly moved to Andros in 1787. However, official records from 1788 and 1807 show fewer than 400 people lived on Andros during that time. Only 2,650 people were evacuated from the Mosquito Coast in 1787, and 2,214 of them settled in Belize. A misunderstanding likely came from a misinterpretation of a report by the Royal Geographical Society about the migration. By 1879, about 1,400 descendants of the migrants lived in northern Andros, but this number was different from the original group in 1787.

Another idea is that the island was named after the Greek island of Andros, where Greek sponge fishermen once lived.

The most widely accepted explanation is that the island was named after Sir Edmund Andros.

History

The Lucayans, a group within the Taíno people, lived in The Bahamas when Europeans arrived. Archaeological items and remains have been found in Morgan's Cave on North Andros and in the Stargate Blue Hole on South Andros. The population of The Bahamas was estimated to be about 40,000 Lucayan-Taíno people when the Spanish arrived in the region.

Spain claimed The Bahamas after Christopher Columbus arrived on the islands. His first landing in the Western Hemisphere may have been on San Salvador, a Bahamian island. The Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, for whom the Americas are named, explored The Bahamas on a Spanish mission from 1499 to 1500. He mapped part of the eastern shore of Andros Island.

Spanish use of native labor on nearby Hispaniola caused the population there to drop rapidly. The governor of Hispaniola complained to the Spanish crown about this. After Columbus died, Ferdinand II of Aragon ordered in 1509 that people be brought from nearby islands to replace the lost population. The Spanish began capturing Lucayans in The Bahamas to work as forced laborers in Hispaniola. Within two years, the southern Bahamas were nearly empty. By 1513, the Spanish may have taken as many as 40,000 Lucayans. A Spanish expedition in 1520 found only 11 people in The Bahamas. The Lucayans were nearly wiped out from these islands, and the islands remained uninhabited for about 130 years.

The Bahamas changed hands between Spanish and British rule for 150 years. Britain gained control in 1783 after the American Revolutionary War, when it exchanged East Florida with Spain for The Bahamas.

In 1648, English settlers from Bermuda started a colony on Eleuthera. In 1666, the English founded Charles Town, later renamed Nassau, on New Providence.

During the late 1600s and 1700s, pirates and buccaneers visited Andros Island. In 1713, the Bahama Islands were declared a Republic of Pirates. Morgan's Bluff and Morgan's Cave on North Andros are named after Henry Morgan, a famous pirate. Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum is also named after him. It is said that the Andros settlement of Small Hope Bay got its name because Morgan believed there would be little chance of finding the treasure he hid there. Pirates who attacked Spanish ships from Cuba lived on South Andros.

Loyalists fleeing the United States after the American Revolution settled on Bahama Islands, including Andros, bringing their slaves with them. Many families also moved to Andros after being displaced from the Belize logwood industry in 1787. By 1788, The Bahamas had 3,000 white people and 8,000 Black people. The 1788 census for Andros reported 22 white family heads, with 132 slaves, who farmed 329 hectares (813 acres) of land.

After the United States took Florida from Spain in 1821, some Seminoles and Black American slaves escaped and traveled to Andros by boat, where they settled in Red Bays. Hundreds more Black Seminoles and slaves arrived later by canoe and boat. These people, sometimes called "Black Indians," now identify as Bahamians while recognizing their connections to the American South.

In 1807, the British Empire banned the international slave trade in its colonies through the Slave Trade Act. Some U.S. ships involved in the domestic slave trade were wrecked on Bahama islands or reefs. Before slavery was abolished in British colonies in 1834, some Caribbean governments freed enslaved people from American ships like the Comet and Encomium.

Bahamian sailors also attacked illegal slave ships and freed enslaved Africans. These freed people entered systems of apprenticeship or forced labor in The Bahamas. Later, many moved to the Out Islands, including Andros, creating a culture closer to West African traditions than most other Black cultures in the Western Hemisphere.

From 1841 to 1938, Greek spongers came to Andros to fish for sponges on the Great Bahama Bank. For many years, sponging was The Bahamas' largest industry. In the 1930s, a Red Tide infestation destroyed the sponges. The industry collapsed, and many spongers moved to Key West and Tarpon Springs, Florida. Thousands of unemployed Bahamians also moved to Coconut Grove near Miami.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Owens Lumber Company, a U.S.-owned business, cut down much of the native pine forests on North Andros. Poor planning led to overcrowded forests of young trees on the island today.

In the 1960s and 1970s, The Bahamas, led by Sir Lynden Pindling, a member of Parliament for Kemps Bay on South Andros, negotiated independence from Britain. The country gained self-rule in 1964 and full voting rights in 1967. The Bahamas became independent on July 10, 1973. One of the last actions by the British was to give AUTEC a long-term lease on land in Andros, similar to the U.S. lease for Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Sir Lynden became The Bahamas' first Prime Minister. He remained in office until 1992, when his party lost control of Parliament. He continued to represent South Andros.

Geography

Andros is known for its unique mix of ocean features and ecosystems. To the east of the island lies the Tongue of the Ocean, a deep underwater area measuring 2,000 meters (6,600 feet). The Andros Barrier Reef is the sixth longest reef in the world, stretching 225 kilometers (140 miles) and typically located 2–3 kilometers (1–2 miles) from the island's shore. To the west, northwest, and south of Andros are the large, flat underwater areas of the Great Bahama Bank. Andros is also home to the world's largest collection of blue holes, which are deep underwater caves.

Geographically, North Andros is the sixth largest island in the West Indies, covering about 6,000 square kilometers (2,300 square miles) and measuring 167 kilometers (104 miles) long and 64 kilometers (40 miles) wide at its widest point. It is the 153rd largest island on Earth. When including all three main islands of Andros, it becomes the fifth-largest island in the West Indies, following Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Though its total area is similar to the U.S. state of Rhode Island (3,140 square kilometers, population 1.05 million) and Long Island, New York (3,600 square kilometers, population 7.5 million), Andros has a population of about 8,000 people. Most of these people live in a narrow area near the Queen Elizabeth Highway along the island's eastern coast.

Andros is located 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, which is on New Providence Island. The northern tip of Andros is 233 kilometers (145 miles) from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Geologically and geographically, the Bahamas, including Andros, are not in the Caribbean Sea. The northern edge of the Caribbean is marked by the Windward Passage, while the Bahamas are in the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, the Bahamas were part of the British West Indies and are culturally linked to the Caribbean. The English spoken in the Bahamas has a distinct Caribbean style, similar to that of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, which were also part of the British West Indies.

The town of Fresh Creek is home to the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC), operated by the U.S. Navy. The United Kingdom and the United States conduct special military training, sonar and submarine research, and other operations in the Tongue of the Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard also performs rescue missions and drug interdiction operations from AUTEC.

Climate

Andros is located just north of the Tropic of Cancer. Its temperatures are usually mild because it is close to the Gulf Stream to the west. The island has a tropical climate with only two seasons: summer (May–November) and winter (December–April). During midsummer, temperatures range from 27–29 °C (81–84 °F), and the air is 60 to 100 percent humid. In winter, temperatures range from 21–24 °C (70–75 °F), and they can drop to 5 °C (41 °F) at night. Andros Island is hit by a hurricane about every 2.5 years. The Great Florida Hurricane of 1929 is called the Great Andros Hurricane in The Bahamas. Other notable hurricanes in recent times include Betsy (1965), David (1979), Arlene (1987), Andrew (1992), Lili (1996), Floyd (1999), Michelle (2001), Wilma (2005), and Matthew (2016). Hurricane Matthew caused a lot of flooding and damage on the north end of the island near Morgan's Bluff, Lowe Sound, and Nicholl's Town. Many people say Matthew was the worst hurricane on Andros in nearly 90 years.

Economy

The largest employers on Andros Island are the Bahamian government and the AUTEC base at Fresh Creek.

Although Andros Island has a small population, it has many businesses that are still operating. Western Air has its main office in a new building at San Andros airport. A farm run by Mennonites was started in 1983 near Blanket Sound. It grows habanero peppers, sorghum, potatoes, and has fruit trees and bee hives. The Mennonites also operate the largest car repair and carpentry shops on the island. Androsia, a batik fabric factory started in 1972 at Fresh Creek, makes colorful fabric that is part of the national dress of The Bahamas. GreenLife Growers, a tree nursery in Young Sound, sells plants to developers and government projects in The Bahamas.

Fishing is a major part of the economy. People catch conch, lobster, snapper, and grouper to sell locally and in Nassau. Seasonal crabbing involves catching crabs and raising them in pens to sell in Nassau, giving locals extra money.

Handicrafts like wood carvings and woven baskets made in the Black Seminole style are made by people in Red Bays. A sample of Red Bays baskets is kept by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

A new conservation effort on Andros works to protect the island's ecosystems with the help of the Bahamian government and groups like The Nature Conservancy and Project AWARE. They supported the creation of the Central Andros National Park in 2002. Most conservation work is managed by Andros Conservancy & Trust Bahamas (ANCAT), which encourages eco-tourism to help preserve the island's habitats. GreenForce Global Volunteering/Bahamas, an international group based in the UK, does environmental research from its operation at Stafford Creek on North Andros. It also offers diving and science programs for conservationists.

The Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) is also located on Andros.

Tourism is the biggest industry on Andros and the largest employer in the private sector. The Bahamian tourism industry promotes Andros as the least-explored island in the chain. Between Nicholls Town in the north and Little Creek in the south, there are about 35–40 hotels, motels, resorts, guest houses, and lodges with around 400 rooms. Most visitors are scuba divers, attracted to the barrier reef, Tongue of the Ocean, and the Blue Holes, as well as bonefishing anglers and people seeking relaxation.

Andros was the site of two of the first dive-dedicated resorts in the world, both started by Canadians. Small Hope Bay Lodge near Fresh Creek was started by Dick Birch in 1960. His children now own and manage it as a dive resort.

The second resort, Andros Reef Inn in Blanket Sound, was started by Archie Forfar in the 1960s. After he died in a diving accident in 1971, the property was bought by International Field Studies, Inc. in 1977. It was renamed Forfar Field Station and now uses the area for science education and research for students, non-profit groups, and researchers.

Andros has many fishable flats with permit, tarpon, and especially bonefish. The island is called the bonefish capital of the world. Bonefish are top gamefish for anglers. Deep sea fishing in the Tong

Festivals

Andros supports several festivals throughout the year. These include the Crabfest at Fresh Creek in June, the annual regatta at Morgan's Bluff, the Conch Festival, a local Junkanoo and Goombay festival from Christmas to New Year's, the Pirates' Festival, and the Annual Seafood Splash & Chickcharnie Festival. In addition, ANCAT organizes many events focused on protecting the environment for both visitors and local residents.

Flora and fauna

Andros has more types of plants than any other island in The Bahamas. Its barrier reef and the Tongue of the Ocean help create a wide variety of animal life. The island has many different land areas, such as hardwood coppice, pineyards, scrub, saltwater marshes, rocky and sandy beaches, palm savannas, and mangroves. Areas not near the coast are called "the bush." Coastal areas with mangroves and estuaries are called "the swash" or saltwater marsh. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Owens Lumber Company, a U.S.-owned business, cut down many of the native pineyards on North Andros. Timber was not taken from western Andros because the forests there are surrounded by wetlands and could not be harvested economically. Today, some of the largest remaining pines in The Bahamas grow there. The land on North Andros now has crowded forests mostly made up of young trees.

Andros is home to The Bahamas' only freshwater river, which helps support its many types of life. Rainwater collects underground in large water storage areas called aquifers. Every day, 19 million liters of freshwater are sent by barge to Nassau through a pumping station in Morgan's Bluff.

Andros has several types of lizards, including the Andros Island iguana (Cyclura cychlura cychlura), a large endangered type of Northern Bahamian rock iguana. This species is listed as endangered and can be found on the IUCN Red List. About 3,500 of these iguanas live on the island.

The barrier reef and the Tongue of the Ocean, along with mangrove swamps, rocky tidal pools, and estuaries, provide homes for many young marine animals. Andros has many ecosystems near the shore that may be unique on Earth, such as inland and ocean blue holes, shallow sand and mud flats, tidal estuaries, mangrove swamps, the deep ocean area that drops 2,000 meters just 1.6 kilometers from shore, the third-largest barrier reef in the world, and large underground freshwater storage areas. The marine life here is supported by the rich life in mangrove marshes and estuaries and by cool water rising from the Tongue of the Ocean, creating a wide variety of sea life.

Humpback whales, which live in all the world's oceans, follow a regular migration path. They spend summers in temperate and polar waters to feed and winters in tropical waters to mate and give birth. Humpback whales used to be common near the Tongue of the Ocean off Andros and are still seen there occasionally. Pilot whales are also sometimes seen near Andros.

Inside the Andros Barrier Reef, corals such as staghorn and elkhorn grow in shallow waters 3–6 meters deep. Beyond the shallow reefs are small islands and islets, and the ocean floor gradually deepens until it reaches "The Wall," a steep cliff that drops 2,000 meters into the deep ocean.

Four types of turtles live in Andros' waters: loggerhead, green, hawksbill, and, rarely, leatherback.

Most bird species that live in The Bahamas are believed to have moved north from the West Indies because winds and ocean currents help animals travel from the south and southeast. About 225 bird species are known in The Bahamas. Andros, with its large areas of undeveloped land, is home to many of them. The Bahama oriole lives only on Andros. It is critically endangered, with as few as several hundred remaining. The great lizard cuckoo is found only on Andros, New Providence, and Eleuthera. The rare Kirtland's warbler—about 600 remain—was first seen on Andros in 1879, and some spend winters there. The endangered Atlantic subspecies of the piping plover prefers the rocky shores and sandy beaches of Andros. Other rare birds found near Andros include the Bahama yellowthroat, Bahama woodstar, Bahama swallow, West Indian whistling duck, and Key West quail dove.

More than 50 types of wild orchids grow in the subtropical forests and swamps of Andros, which cover more than 104 square kilometers. Many of these orchids are found only on Andros, including three types of the climbing orchid Vanilla. Some commercial flower collectors have burned pineyards to collect Bletia purpurea, a type of orchid that grows in ashy soil. The orchid genus Epidendrum has nine species found only in The Bahamas, all of which are on Andros.

According to local stories, two mythical creatures are said to live only on Andros: the Lusca and the Chickcharney (also spelled "Chickcharnie"). The Lusca is described as a giant creature that is half-octopus and half-shark and is said to swallow whole boats. The Chickcharney is a furry, feathered creature about 1 meter tall with one red eye and three-toed claws. Some believe it may be based on the prehistoric barn owl Tyto pollens, although no remains of this owl have been found on Andros. The oldest fossils found on the island are from a time before the arrival of the first humans, the Lucayans.

Blue holes

The island's blue holes are underwater caves that attract divers from around the world.

All the main islands of The Bahamas have blue holes, but those on Andros are the most famous. Andros has 178 blue holes on land and at least 50 in the ocean. Blue holes are openings to complex cave systems that stretch beneath the island and the ocean floor. These openings are often found in shallow creeks, inland lakes, and the shallow areas of The Bahamas. The caves formed within the Bahamian carbonate platforms can extend for many kilometers side to side and reach depths of ten to several hundred meters.

In 1970, oceanographer and environmentalist Jacques Cousteau visited Andros Island to explore and film the Andros Blue Holes. A video from this trip, titled The Secret of the Sunken Caves, is included in the 2005 Cousteau collection, The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey: The Complete Collection. Cousteau studied several ocean blue holes and inland blue holes named Uncle Charlie's, Church's, and the Guardian.

National Geographic magazine has written about the Andros Blue Holes in multiple articles over the past thirty years, with the most recent article published in August 2010.

Transportation

Andros Island has four airports with paved runways: San Andros Airport in Nicholls Town, Andros Town International Airport in Fresh Creek, the Clarence A. Bain Airport in Mangrove Cay, and Congo Town Airport in South Andros. Andros Town International Airport is an international port of entry for private pilots. The island has multiple daily flights from Nassau operated by Jet 1, BahamasAir, Watermakers Air, Western Air, and LeAir. Flights to any of the four airports take between 15 and 25 minutes. Scheduled flights from Nassau connect to cities such as London, Paris, New York City, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Jacksonville, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando, and other major cities, making it easy to travel from Andros to other parts of the world.

Regularly scheduled charter flights provide direct service from Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Andros Town.

Andros is connected to Nassau by Sea-Link ferry, which runs daily to Morgan's Bluff on the north end of the island and Fresh Creek in central Andros. The island is also reachable by mailboat from Nassau and by mailboat for travel between islands, with stops at many settlements on Andros. There is no public transportation on Andros Island, but a private shuttle bus service on North Andros connects Nicholls Town and Behring Point. Taxi service is available at all four airports.

Political organisation

Andros is divided into four districts: North Andros, Central Andros, South Andros, and Mangrove Cay. It also has ten townships: Mastic Point, Lowe Sound, Nicholls Town, Staniard Creek, Fresh Creek, Cargill Creek, The Bluff, Long Bay Cays, Kemps Bay, and Deep Creek. In the national parliament, North Andros and South Andros each have one representative. Many small communities are located along the island’s east coast, including Blanket Sound, Love Hill, Davis Creek, Small Hope Bay, Calabash Bay, Bowen Sound, Behring Point, and Little Creek. One community, Red Bays, is located on the west coast at the island’s northwestern tip. This area was historically settled by American fugitive slaves and Black Seminoles.

Religion

There are several church groups found in Andros. In North Andros, the Anglican Church has churches in St. Margaret's Parish. This parish has two churches: St. Margaret's, which is in Nicholls Town, and St. Mary Magdalene, which is in Mastic Point. Methodist churches are also located in Stafford Creek, Nicholl's Town, and Mastic Point.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nassau provides priests for churches across Andros. On South Andros, Sacred Heart Parish is in Little Creek, and St. Robert Bellarmine Parish is in High Rock. Mangrove Cay has St. Benedict's Parish, and Central Andros has St. John Chrysostom Parish in Fresh Creek and Christ the King Parish in Cargill Creek. Catholic services are also held on Saturday evenings at the AUTEC Navy Base chapel.

The Blanket Sound Mennonite Church is located in Blanket Sound on Andros. The congregation is part of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church.