* Cayman Islands ( UK )

; Cayman Islands

Cayman Island Brewing ( George Town, Cayman Islands ): Ironshore Bock ( 7. 5 % abv )

The Cayman Islands are a Caribbean British overseas territory that have been under various governments since their discovery by Europeans.

Christopher Columbus sighted the Cayman Islands on May 10, 1503 and named them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles seen swimming in the surrounding waters.

The first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1700.

These first settlements were abandoned after attacks by Spanish privateers, but English privateers often used the Cayman Islands as a base and in the 18th century they became an increasingly popular hideout for pirates, even after the end of legitimate privateering in 1713.

The Cayman Islands historically have been popular as a tax haven.

From 1670, the Cayman Islands were effective dependencies of Jamaica, although there was considerable self-government.

The Cayman Islands were officially declared and administered as a dependency of Jamaica from 1863, but were rather like a parish of Jamaica with the nominated justices of the peace and elected vestrymen in their Legislature.

In 1959, upon the formation of the Federation of the West Indies the dependency status with regards to Jamaica ceased officially although the Governor of Jamaica remained the Governor of the Cayman Islands and had reserve powers over the Islands.

Upon Jamaica's independence in 1962, the Cayman Islands broke its administrative links with Jamaica and opted to become a direct dependency of the British Crown, with the chief official of the islands being the Administrator.

In 1953 the first airfield in the Cayman Islands was opened as well as the George Town Public hospital.

In 1971 the governmental structure of the Islands was again changed with a Governor now running the Cayman Islands.

Athel Long CMG, CBE was the last Administrator and the first Governor of the Cayman Islands.

Although all administrative links with Jamaica were broken in 1962, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica continue to share many links and experiences, including membership in the Commonwealth of Nations ( and Commonwealth citizenship ) and a common united church ( the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands ) and Anglican diocese ( although there is debate about this ) as well as a common currency ( until 1972 ).

Also, by 1999, 38-40 % of the population of the Cayman Islands was of Jamaican origin and in 2004 / 2005 little over 50 % of the expatriates working in the Cayman Islands ( i. e. 8, 000 ) were Jamaicans ( with the next largest expatriate communities coming from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada ).

Archaeological studies of Grand Cayman have found no evidence that humans occupied the islands prior to the sixteenth century.

The Cayman Islands have a coastline of.

The Cayman Islands have a tropical marine climate, with a wet season of warm, rainy summers ( May to October ) and a dry season of relatively cool winters ( November to April ).

Therefore, native Caymanians do not have any Amerindian heritage from their own islands ; however, a significant number of Jamaicans have settled in the Cayman Islands over the years, so they and their descendants may have some Amerindian blood via Jamaica.

With its success in the tourism and financial service industries, the Cayman Islands have attracted many international businesses and citizens to relocate.

In order to work in the Cayman Islands, foreigners must have a job offer before immigrating.

Though the Cayman Islands are involved in no major international disputes, they have come under some criticism due to the use of their territory for narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

Due to their status as an overseas territory of the UK, the Cayman Islands have no representation either on the United Nations, or in most other international organizations.

They have been introduced to Grand Cayman, Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, and the United States Virgin Islands .< ref name =" wildblue "> Though the species is not native to Martinique, a small wild colony of released or escaped Green Iguanas endures at historic Fort Saint Louis.

have revealed three clades: the nominate group from Jamaica, Hispaniola and the Cayman Islands, the bahamensis group from the Bahamas and Quintana Roo, and the bartholemica group from South and Central America, Mexico ( except Quintana Roo ), the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico.

Grand Cayman residents have a choice of telecommunications services from Digicel, LIME, Logic and TeleCayman.

Accounts circulated of Morgan's having assumed a new identity and settled in Albany, in Canada, or the Cayman Islands, where he was said to have been hanged as a pirate.

In addition, prehistoric fossils of similar owls have been recovered from many islands in the Caribbean ( Barbuda, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Mona Island, and Puerto Rico ).

The airline struggled throughout the early 1990s, however financial assistance from the Cayman Islands Government, financial re-structuring, a new fleet and the addition of new destinations ( Chicago, Boston, Fort Lauderdale and Havana ) seems to have helped the airline.

The governments of the United States, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas have banned fishing for the Nassau Grouper in recent years.

The sheer wall dropoffs in Little Cayman, and Bloody Bay Wall in particular, have been a source of exaggeration-not of its degree of verticality, but of the depth to the bottom of the wall: local Dive Resort Divemasters typically claim the proximate depth to be or.

Major law firms such as Maples and Calder have established themselves in the Cayman Islands.

Since 1987, research teams from the museum have undertaken surveys and excavations in Antigua, the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Note-Three British Overseas Territories have their own NOCs and are not connected with the BOA: Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.

A motorsport-tuned model, the Cayman RS, is rumored to have been tested at the Nürburgring that same year.

A 2005 estimate of land use determined that the Cayman Islands ' had 3. 85 percent arable land and no permanent crops.

Grand Cayman encompasses 76 % of the country's entire land mass.

Fauna seen in various locations around the island include Blue Iguanas ( Cyclura lewisi ), Grand Cayman Amazon parrots ( Amazona leucocephala caymanensis ), Central American Agouti ( Dasyprocta punctata ), Central American Agouti at Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park and Gecarcinus ruricola, a species of land crab.

Blue Iguana in forest off Wilderness Trail in Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, Grand CaymanThe Blue Iguana is the largest native land animal on Grand Cayman with a total nose-to-tail length of and weighing as much as.

On the Cayman Islands the parrot lives in dry forest and on agricultural land.