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The Bahamas Tribune, Miami Herald
Dredging Killing Fish Concern As Bimini Work Resumes
By Gustavius Smith
April 8, 2002
Dredging work at the Bimini Bay development project has started again amidst
demands of environmentalists and scientists for better protection of the area's
sensitive marine environment. Local fishermen have also complained of losses
because of the dredging.
"The unprecedented ecological disaster in the North sound lagoon of Bimini via the
Bimini Bay development is proceeding full speed ahead despite cries of locals and
scientists alike. While the so-called 'lead agency' whose mandate demands protection to those resources remained quiet on the issues, environmental groups, Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation (BREEF), Earthcare, and reEarth, are protesting the continued destruction", wrote Sam Duncombe of reEarth in an email message forwarded to members of the other environmental watchdog organizations. Mrs. Duncombe said the large-scale controversial Bimini Bay development continues to wreak havoc on the ecosystem there, compromising Bimini's culture and environment.
Bimini Bay's developer, American Gerardo Capo is "bulldozing" his way through
pristine ecologically important nursery sea beds for cheap fill, she claimed.
In 1997, after 10 years of legal wrangling, Mr. Capo and the government of the
Bahamas signed the agreement for the construction of the Bimini Bay Hotel, Marina
and Casino.
The original project called for four hotels, 500, 250, 150 and 80 rooms, a 10,000
square foot casino, a retail shopping area, a commercial and entertainment area,
and 18 hole golf course, 578 residential lots, 552 two story condominiums, 2,300
condominium apartments, a heliport/seaplane terminal, boating access channels, a
dock master customs/ centre, an anchorage basin and dry storage area for boats and
two marinas (one of 300 slips and the other 100 slips). It has been scaled down to roughly half its size to please government and reduce the impact on the environment.
Bimini Bay is located in North Bimini. Bimini itself is seven miles long and just
over a quarter of a mile wide. The area in question had been slated by government as part of a marine protected area (MPA), which if implemented would allow young fish to grow undisturbed until entering the ocean reef ecosystems. The government has identified five MPAs throughout the Bahamas. The lagoon serves as the only nursery in the area that supplies large areas of the Great Bahama Bank with fish.
Colin Higgs, Ambassador to the Environment, said he was not aware that the project
had restarted after work had stopped in the last quarter of 2001. The developers were awaiting the approval of a number of permit applications, including the excavation permits for the marina and the entrance to the channel, which have to be renewed annually with the department of physical planning. The environmental stipulations attached to the permit remain the same as they were from the beginning of the project.
"They had to put in silt screens to prevent the siltation of the lagoon area. To
confine the suspended sediment from the dredging operation to the work area", he
said. The silt turns the ocean water milky as the fine limestone blocks the sunlight. The
loose sediment can cause fatal harm to the marine environment in the area as fisherman Fabian Stuart found out before the Easter holiday weekend. He lost 800 conchs in a crawl planted in the lagoon area due to the silt caused by the development.
"I had conch there like a couple of times, but ain't nothing ever dies like that. Maybe from the octopus, one or two or something like that. I have had that crawl there for about 10 years now. I had my conchs stored up there for the regatta, we do conch salad at the regatta. The value in the conchs were about $1,000 if I were to sell them wholesale, but if I were to make conch salad you talking about $4,000-$5,000. Nobody came and asked me about it. Most everybody know about it. The MP (David Wallace) asked me about it, he said OK, and that was it. The developers who are doing the job, don't speak the English language, but I didn't tell them about it. The put down some stuff a couple months ago to catch the silt. The fellow who put the barrier down said it is not going to do anything. He said the system was not the best system. They moved it altogether afterwards, " he said.
"There is no silt trap there," said Dr. Samuel Gruber who left the island on Sunday. Dr. Gruber has been studying lemon sharks in the lagoon for 22 years and is currently working on a full issue of the Bahamas Journal of Science that will address a number of environmental problems linked with the development. "I now have hard evidence that the dredging has caused a major stress to the nursery area that grow these animals and they are now nearing death, " he said.
On May 18th Dr. Gruber will report to the Bahamas National Trust the goings on at
Bimini.
"Our final goal is we don't want him to do any more. Our goal is to get him not to
dredge in the North Sound. If we can have that we will be sound. Do not destroy the
lagoon it is the only nursery, there is no reason to do it he can get his fill from other places, " said Dr. Gruber. The Tribune called the offices of Gerardo Capo in Miami, but was told Mr. Capo could not be reached.
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