Tobago

Tobago lies 34 kilometres northeast of Trinidad across the Columbus Channel, and its coastal character is distinct from the oil-industry-influenced main island. The island receives Caribbean trade wind swells from the northeast year-round and Atlantic ocean swells that wrap around the northern tip in winter. The tidal regime at Tobago is mixed semidiurnal and microtidal: spring range approximately 0.4 to 0.6 metres on the Caribbean-facing western coast. The northeastern coast is Atlantic-exposed and can run rough in the December to March trade wind season. The Speyside to Charlotteville coast on the Atlantic side of the island has the best diving in Tobago and among the best in the eastern Caribbean — Goat Island and Little Tobago Channel host manta rays year-round at a cleaning station, large brain coral heads that are centuries old, and a reef fish density that has been compared favourably to Maldivian surveys. The Buccoo Reef on the southwestern tip is the most accessible snorkel site — a patch reef in 1 to 3 metres of water reached by glass-bottom boat tours from Store Bay — and the Nylon Pool is a famous shallow sandbank behind the reef where the sand is said to have cosmetic properties, a claim the tour operators maintain with enthusiasm. Tobago has largely been spared the industrial development that characterises Trinidad's western coast; the island's economy runs on tourism and fishing. Main Ridge Forest Reserve, the oldest protected rainforest in the Western Hemisphere (1776), covers the spine of the island and drains to both coasts. The Trinidad and Tobago Hydrographic Survey Office and the Institute of Marine Affairs in Chaguaramas are the domestic authorities for tide data and marine environmental monitoring.