Savannes Bay tide times

A RAMSAR site is a wetland designated under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, a multilateral treaty signed in Ramsar, Iran in 1971. Designation recognises that the wetland meets criteria for international significance — typically based on the diversity and abundance of waterbirds, fish, or plant communities, or on the ecological functions the wetland provides such as flood regulation, water purification, and carbon storage. Savannes Bay is listed for its intact mangrove and seagrass communities and their support of regional fisheries productivity. The designation commits Saint Lucia to maintaining the ecological character of the site but does not exclude human use — guided kayaking and low-impact fishing are compatible with RAMSAR management.

The lagoon is accessible to independent kayakers who arrive with their own equipment; there is no permit required for recreational paddling. The practical challenge is access — the bay's road access is limited and there is no commercial kayak rental point at the bay itself. Operators in Vieux Fort provide guided tours with transport, equipment, and ecological interpretation. If paddling independently, enter on a rising tide from the southern channel entrance and carry a tide table for the day. The tidal range is small (approximately 0.4 metres) so the margin for getting stuck is tighter than in higher-range estuaries.

Hawksbill turtles are regularly observed feeding on the seagrass beds within the lagoon; green turtles are also present. The seagrass beds (turtle grass and manatee grass on the lagoon floor) are prime hawksbill foraging habitat — hawksbills are spongivores on the reef but graze seagrass in lagoon environments. The best turtle sightings are in calm conditions when the water is clear enough to see the lagoon floor from a kayak or from the sandbar. Nesting does not occur in the lagoon itself; hawksbills nest on nearby Atlantic beaches at night from June through October.

Resident species include great blue heron, tricoloured heron, yellow-crowned night-heron, snowy egret, and green heron in the mangrove margins. Magnificent frigatebirds roost in the mangrove canopy year-round. Belted kingfisher is a reliable year-round resident at the lagoon. From September through November, migratory shorebirds use the exposed mud flats: semi-palmated sandpiper, least sandpiper, and short-billed dowitcher pass through in numbers. White ibis occasionally visits. The lagoon and adjacent wetland is one of the better birdwatching sites in southern Saint Lucia and can be combined with the Maria Islands boat trip from Vieux Fort.

The tidal exchange through the narrow entrance channel at the south end of the sand bar renews the water in the inner lagoon on each tidal cycle — flushing out organic waste products, replenishing dissolved oxygen, and maintaining the salinity conditions that the mangrove and seagrass communities require. If the entrance channel were blocked, the inner lagoon would become hypersaline and hypoxic within days. The relatively small tidal range (0.4 metres spring) means the exchange volume per cycle is modest — this makes the system more vulnerable to blockage or sedimentation of the entrance channel than a high-range system would be. The Saint Lucia National Trust monitors the entrance channel as part of the RAMSAR management plan.