Qualla: Desecheo Island

Desecheo Island: Introduction

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USDA, DRNA PR, CC BY-SA 4.0. You cannot set foot on Desecheo Island. Federal law enforcement officers will arrest you if you try. The reason is unexploded military ordnance buried across the island from its years as a U.S. bombing range -- but the prohibition has had an unintended benefit. Left alone since 2017, when the last invasive rats and rhesus monkeys were removed, this small uninhabited speck in the Mona Passage has begun to heal itself. Endangered cacti are flowering for the first time in decades. Seabirds are returning to nest. And the waters surrounding the island offer some of the clearest diving visibility in the Caribbean, a reef system thriving in the shadow of an island that humans nearly destroyed.

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Image: USDA, DRNA PR | CC BY-SA 4.0

Desecheo Island: Pirates, Bombs, and Monkeys

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Desecheo's history reads like a list of bad ideas. Christopher Columbus spotted the island on his second voyage, but no one bothered to name it until 1517, when Spanish explorer Nunez Alvarez de Aragon got around to it. No evidence of pre-Columbian settlement has ever been found ...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Desecheo Island: Three Lizards and a Cactus

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tom Vazquez, Public domain. Despite the abuse, Desecheo harbors species found nowhere else on Earth. Three endemic lizard species evolved here in isolation: Pholidoscelis desechensis, Anolis desechensis, and Sphaerodactylus levinsi. The island has been geologically isolated since at least the Pliocene epoch...

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Image: Tom Vazquez | Public domain

Desecheo Island: The Restoration

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Island Conservation, and the USDA launched a coordinated effort to remove every invasive black rat and rhesus macaque from Desecheo. One year later, the island was declared free of invasive mammals for the first time in nearly a centur...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Desecheo Island: The Reef and the Radio Waves

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oquendo, CC BY 2.0. Beneath the surface, Desecheo's waters are spectacular. Visibility commonly ranges from 100 feet and beyond, drawing diving enthusiasts to the healthy reef system surrounding the island. Diving is permitted in the waters around Desecheo even though the island itself remains close...

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Image: Oquendo | CC BY 2.0