St Eustatius Marine Park Receives National Park Status

This year has been a major milestone for the St Eustatius Marine Park. It is ten years since the Marine Park first opened its office and started operations to install the first moorings for dive sites and yachts.

During this time, the Marine Park has gone from strength to strength in its efforts to protect the 27.5km of coral reef and sea grass beds in the waters around the entire island of St. Eustatius in the Dutch Caribbean.

The events to celebrate this important anniversary commenced on December 3, with an open-house and official opening of the National Park Visitor Centre. The highlight of this event was when Paul Hoetjes of MINA, the Department of Environment and Nature of the Netherlands Antilles, announced that the St Eustatius Marine Park had been designated by the Ministry as a National Park, "St Eustatius has become the first island of the Netherlands Antilles to have two National Parks with the Statia National Marine Park – truly an example to follow for the other islands."