Bimini /ˈbɪmɪniː/ is the westernmost district of the Bahamas and comprises a chain of islands located about 80 kilometres (50 mi) due east of Miami.

Scuba diving and snorkeling are also popular activities, as there are many shipwrecks in the area, such as the wreck of the SS Sapona, which ran aground in 1926 during a hurricane.

Chalk's International Airlines operated seaplane flights between Miami Harbor and the Bahamas from 1917, so the company was an island institution for generations.

The bar is remembered for the photographs and memorabilia of Ernest Hemingway that lined its walls and were lost in the fire, which also took the life of owner Julian Brown.

Found within the brackish mangrove swamp that covers 6 kilometres (3+1⁄2 mi) of the shoreline of North Bimini is The Healing Hole, a pool that lies at the end of a network of winding tunnels.

The smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata) is one of the rarest fish in the world, sometimes listed as a critically endangered species by conservation groups.

Along with the species featured below, the BBFS has witnessed and recorded captures of shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus), spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), and sixgill (Hexanchus sp.)

He worked on To Have and Have Not and wrote a few articles, but mostly he fished aboard his boat Pilar, trolling the deep blue offshore waters for marlin, tuna and swordfish.

Hemingway was attracted to Bimini by tales of the incredible fishing available in the Gulf Stream, the legendary “river” of warm water that rushes north past the Bahamas.

[12] An Atlantic blue marlin with a mass of 500 pounds (230 kg) caught off Bimini allegedly inspired Hemingway to write The Old Man and the Sea and Islands in The Stream.

[20] While not a resident of the islands, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited in 1964 and worked on his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech while there.

[22] Among Port Royale's notable residents was Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who was excluded from the U.S. House of Representatives because of allegations that he misappropriated committee funds for personal use.

He stayed in Bimini from January 1967 to April 1969 in self-imposed exile until the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the House had acted unconstitutionally when it excluded Powell, a duly elected member.

The veracity of this story was deemed questionable by Thompson, as he had heard it secondhand from the individual whose boat Acosta had borrowed for the smuggling attempt.

In May 1987, Colorado Senator Gary Hart's presidential bid was derailed after media reports exposed a relationship with model Donna Rice.