Cay Sal Bank is the third largest (after Great Bahama Bank and Little Bahama Bank) and the westernmost of the Bahama Banks. It is located between 23º27'N - 24º10'N and 079º25'W – 080º35'W. In a geographical sense, it is separate from the Bahamas proper as it is much closer to Cuba (from which it is separated by Nicholas Channel, at a distance of 50 km) than to the closest Bahamian island. It is separated by Santaren Channel from the Great Bahama Bank, the western rim of which is 50 km to the east. The Straits of Florida separate it from the United States mainland and the Florida Keys (Key Largo is 100 km to the north). Administratively, the bank and its islands are part of Bimini district of The Bahamas, the main islands of which are 150 km to the north. The closest point of any other named Bahamian land to the bank is Orange Cay (24.94°N, -79.14583°W), the southernmost island of the Bimini Chain. The distance between Orange Cay and the nearest dry land of Cay Sal Bank, the Dog Rocks, is 120 km. The westernmost tip of Andros is the second closest point of land, approximately 145 km east of Cay Sal Bank.

Geography

Cay Sal Bank is an atoll of roughly triangular shape, with a base along the south rim of 105 km, and a width of 66 km north-south. With a surface of 5,226.73 km² it is one of the largest atolls of the world. Among the atolls with some land area (i.e. disregarding totally submerged atoll structures), Cay Sal Bank is second only to Great Chagos Bank. The lagoonal surface has a depth of 9 to 16 m. The individual islands (i.e. islets or cays) are 96 in number. Cay Sal Bank has numerous islets along its rim, except along the south side facing Nicholas Channel, where it has only rocky coral heads. It has a total of 96 islands, islets and rocks awash, with a total land area of 14.87 km².

Features

The islands, rocks and reefs along the rim of the atoll are listed clockwise from southwest to southeast. There are also a number of smaller, unnamed cays or rocks. Some of the historical Spanish language names of the features of the bank were replaced by English names when the Bahamas became a British Crown colony in the 18th century.

History

Spanish navigators visited the area plotting it for the first time on a map in 1511 as Los Roques and it was mapped by subsequent cartographers often with its adjacent Placer. The atoll was subsequently claimed for the Spanish crown by Juan Ponce de León. The bank was under the Spanish rule for about two centuries until 1718 when the Bahamas became a Crown colony of the British Empire. In 1825 Alexander Von Humboldt highlighted that the 'Salt Cays' were a danger for navigation, but that the waters had been previously well charted by Francisco de Seixas in 1692: "But such precise coordinates, so important for ships wishing to avoid Florida's sand bars in leaving the Channel and the Placer de los Roques (Salt Keys), can already be found in Captain Francisco de Seixas y Lobera's old unpublished maps from 1692." Cay Sal Lighthouse, a tall stone lighthouse was built by the British on the island of North Elbow Cay in 1839 along with some small buildings. It marked the southern entrance to the Florida Straits from the Gulf of Mexico and was active until the 1940s. The abandoned lighthouse was briefly reactivated during the 1970s, when the Royal Bahamas Defence Force set up a post on nearby Cay Sal Island to watch for drug smugglers. The small outpost on Cay Sal island included the only airstrip on Cay Sal Bank and was kept from the 1960s to late 1970s. Currently Cay Sal Bank is known for its many scuba diving spots, but good weather is needed in order to approach the reefs without danger.

Cartography

Ancient maps and nautical charts show Los Roques or Elbow Cays with or without the Placer or Pracel to the east. In the older maps the size of the cays and their adjacent bank was often exaggerated and merged with the Great Bahama Bank.