White Cay

White Cay, located on the south-eastern edge of the Caicos Banks.

White Cay is a remote and uninhabited island, located on the southeastern edge of the Caicos Banks. The cay has a landmass of about 8.5 acres (3.4 hectares). Along with the adjacent Indian Cay and several other small cays, White Cay is part of the Seal Cays Wildlife Sanctuary.

Wildlife and Terrain

As a small coastal cay directly exposed to the ocean, the vegetation is stunted, of low height, and is salt-resistant. Most notably, there’s a dense patch of mule pear cactus on the small central plane. As is the case for several of the remote cays on the southern and eastern reaches of the Turks and Caicos, the cay is an important nesting site for seabirds, including sooty terns and brown noddies.

Poachers

The dense cactus patch.

The southern edges of the Caicos Banks is exploited by foreign poachers at times, and White Cay is one site that shows evidence of such poaching, as there is often trash left on the small leeside beach.

Other cays that exhibit this are Bush Cay and Indian Cay, which are located to the east. As has been seen when vessels have illegal foreign fishing vessels been detained and seized by the Turks and Caicos marine police, a very wide range of marine life is typically collected, including parrotfish.

A mooring point installed on the lee of the White Cay suggests that more than occasional visits to the area are made by the poachers.