Great Goat Island is a

cay A cay ( ), also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, including in the Caribbean and on the Great ...

located less than a mile off the coast of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, southwest of the

Hellshire Hills Hellshire Hills is a region of dry limestone hills in St Catherine Parish, Jamaica, which forms part of the Portland Bight Protected Area. The region supports one of the largest remaining areas of dry limestone forest in the Caribbean, and support ...

. It is part of

Saint Catherine Parish Saint Catherine (capital Spanish Town) is a parish in the south east of Jamaica. It is located in the county of Middlesex, and is one of the island's largest and most economically valued parishes because of its many resources. It includes the f ...

. Along with

Little Goat Island Little Goat Island along with Great Goat Island are the cays that make up the Goat Islands, located less than a mile off the coast of Jamaica, southwest of the Hellshire Hills. It is part of Saint Catherine Parish. Little Goat Island is adjacent to ...

located northwest of it, these two cays make up the Goat Islands, which are within the Portland Bight Protected Area. The Spanish, who occupied Jamaica from the fifteenth century, used the Goat Islands as a part of their defence system: "Don Fernando Melgarejo deCordova, Your Governor of the island of Jamaica,... On the 15th March

598 __NOTOC__ Year 598 ( DXCVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 598 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...

after having driven from the port a hulk and tender of corsairs, he had information that they were three leagues outside the port at a Cay called "The Goats", and crews from the vessels, on the shore cutting Brazil wood and loading it. He went personally in two boats to disembark in some mangrove thickets and swamps, because the port was occupied, and so as not to be detected he went at midnight and supplied the people, at his own expense, with arms and munitions and provisions; and, in an ambuscade that he made, he captured and killed many with great risk to his person on account of the pieces of artillery they discharged." According to the records of Jamaican land grants and patents, the cays were in the hands of private owners for several centuries after the arrival of the English in the 17th century. Most notable of these was Sir Thomas Lynch, a governor of Jamaica, who owned the islands from 1682-1684. According to the Morning Journal, April 16, 1838: "All that valuable and extensive run of land, called Great Goat Island, containing about 1,500 acres, all in heavy wood, upwards of 30 years growth. The above run of land not only abounds in the best hardwood timbers, but also a great quantity of limestone of superior quality; and as a fishing station, Spanish Town and its vicinity is chiefly and abundantly supplied there from." During WWII, an agreement between the UK and the US saw the islands converted to a US naval and air base. These cays were previously home to the

Jamaican Iguana The Jamaican iguana (''Cyclura collei''), also known commonly as Colley's iguana, is a large species of lizard in the family Iguanidae. The species is endemic to Jamaica. It is critically endangered, even considered extinct between 1948 and 1990 ...

until the 1940s, when the population was thought to have become extinct, mainly due to predation by introduced

small Indian mongoose The small Indian mongoose (''Urva auropunctata'') is a mongoose species native to Iraq and northern South Asia; it has also been introduced to many regions of the world, such as several Caribbean and Pacific islands. Taxonomy ''Mangusta auropun ...

s and habitat alteration by feral goats. The island, as of September 2013, was being considered as the base for a Chinese funded transhipment hub. Since then the Jamaican government has committed to establish the Goat Islands as a conservation sanctuary.Jamaica Gleaner:February 10th, 2020:Jamaican government spending JM$ 19 billion to establish Goat Island wildlife sanctuary

References

{{Reflist Islands of Jamaica
Geography of Saint Catherine Parish