![Laughing Gulls on sand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Laughing_Gulls_on_sand.jpg)
Great Salt Pond is a 188 ha water body in the country of
Sint Maarten
Sint Maarten () is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of , it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the north ...
on the island of
Saint Martin in the
Dutch Caribbean
The Dutch Caribbean (historically known as the Dutch West Indies) are the territories, colonies, and countries, former and current, of the Dutch Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean Sea. They are in the north and south-wes ...
. It has been identified as an
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
by
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...
because it supports a large seasonal aggregation of
laughing gull
The laughing gull (''Leucophaeus atricilla'') is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. Named for its laugh-like call, it is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the Atlantic coast of North Am ...
s. It borders the capital city of
Philipsburg and is the largest pond on the island. It has a high salinity (27-38 parts per thousand) and suffers pollution from landfill and urban runoff.
[ ]
References
Important Bird Areas of the Dutch Caribbean
Natural history of Sint Maarten
Bodies of water of Sint Maarten
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