Grand Cayman - Event

The Cayman Turtle Farm at North West Point is a matter of national pride. The farm has saved a beautiful species from extinction, releasing thousands of carefully-reared turtles back to the wild since 1980 and so replenishing the area's stocks. They haven't quite got back to the levels they were when Columbus first saw them, when the islands were so covered in turtles that he thought they were rocks!

The farm is the only one of its kind in the world. It is devoted to the turtles' breeding - eggs are taken from the turtles and carefully hatched under controlled conditions in order to ensure their survival.

There are also plenty of adult turtles to admire and inspect in the special holding tanks where they are kept. They can be anything from a few inches across to hundreds of pounds in weight.

Visitors get photo opportunities with the turtles and two shops to purchase mementos from. However, the farm is above all a dedicated conservation centre and tourists are asked to respect that.

The turtles suffered a setback when their home was blitzed by the ferocious hurricane Michelle in 2001 - and it was only possible to release 30 turtles back into the wild the following year. Fortunately the farm did not suffer significant damage when Hurricane Ivan hit the islands in September 2004.