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News : New Providence Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM


Save The Bays Praises Government for Marine Protected Areas, Calls it ‘Single Most Important Act Ever to Protect Our Waters’
By Save the Bays
Nov 7, 2015 - 12:54:57 PM

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Environmental movement Save The Bays lauds government for announcing 18 Marine Protected Areas but urges declaration of the long-promised North Bimini Marine Reserve. Photos show dredging and land acquisition underway this week, churning and silting waters, suffocating sea grass and impacting coral reefs, taking its toll on both sides of the island, the ocean and critical wetlands that serve as nurseries for marine species and protect the islands and the population against hurricanes and storm surge.

Urges Protection of North Bimini, ‘Under Worsening Threat Every Day’

Nassau, Bahamas - Fast-growing environmental movement Save The Bays today praised Environment Minister Kenred Dorsett and government for what it called “the single most important act ever undertaken to protect the waters of The Bahamas” – naming 18 new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), including Southwest New Providence.

“The incredible waters of The Bahamas are what defines us geographically and sets us apart from all other nations and destinations,” said Save The Bays Chairman Joseph Darville. “This single act, the most important ever undertaken to protect our waters, will help turn the tide of years of neglect, particularly off the southwest coast of New Providence which has been especially vulnerable and where scientists have said we have already lost up to half of our precious coral reefs and the marine life they support.

“We congratulate the government which listened to all those voices who called for greater protection of our 100,000 square miles of open ocean and our many bays and cuts.”

At the same time, said Darville, Save The Bays and its community partner Bimini Blue Coalition are increasingly worried about what is happening to those waters and urged government to “take the bold and necessary step of creating the long-promised North Bimini Marine Reserve before it is too late and we lose some of the most precious coral reefs and wetlands on the planet.”

The Coalition’s Facebook page featured a photo on November 3 taken the day before polluted waters, gray-green with silt from dredging. There was no curtain to buffer the impact and it takes little to smother the reefs, suffocating living coral to death. On the other side of the island, dredging is silting up waters bordering on wetlands that Darville says are essential not only as nurseries for young species but to protect the islands against strong surges and hurricanes.

Some 22,000 have visited the Facebook page with photos the organisations both say are mind-boggling and heartbreaking.

ocean-side-silting-nov-2015.jpg
Environmental movement Save The Bays lauds government for announcing 18 Marine Protected Areas but urges declaration of the long-promised North Bimini Marine Reserve. Photos show dredging and land acquisition underway this week, churning and silting waters, suffocating sea grass and impacting coral reefs, taking its toll on both sides of the island, the ocean and critical wetlands that serve as nurseries for marine species and protect the islands and the population against hurricanes and storm surge.

Save The Bays CEO Vanessa Haley-Benjamin, who began working on the establishment of marine protected areas while heading up the research arm of another environmental organization before being named to head Save The Bays, echoed Darville’s words about the team effort.

“This action demonstrates that when environmental groups work together, our voices are heard,” said Haley-Benjamin, noting that The Nature Conservancy, BREEF and the Bahamas National Trust along with Save The Bays had urged government to declare the marine protect areas. Southwest New Providence was one of the bodies of water of greatest concern.         

The new Southwest New Providence Marine Managed Area will encompass the waters of Clifton Bay and further south, a vast area that has been a major attraction for divers, snorkelers and researchers studying its array of corals and marine species. More recently, the Southwest Bays have been the dumping ground for oil leaks that have left those once-enamored divers covered in oil, and the country’s largest dive operator, Stuart Cove Dive, battling to keep its passengers, guests and boats free of the thick black goo. Photos with divers from around the world emerging with oil on wet suits and faces looking like they were dressed for Halloween have spread through social media.     

“We are particularly pleased by the announcement of the Southwest New Providence Marine Managed Area,” Haley-Benjamin said. “When Save The Bays was launched in April 2013, one of our original six goals was to stop unregulated development in Clifton Bay and to protect these very waters off southwest New Providence. We have been campaigning for this ecologically significant and diverse area to be protected against the many threats it currently faces due to industrial pollution and unregulated development.”

Creation of the new MPAs is part of a bid to preserve 20 percent of near shore environment by the year 2020 – an international goal that includes deep-sea habitats, coastal waters and the continental shelf.

The Nature Conservancy has been at the forefront of that mission. Last year when its local branch commissioned a survey of some 900 persons some 90% of respondents said government should do more to make protecting the environment a priority and more than 80% said they would vote for a government that protected the environment. Even among those who make their living directly or indirectly from the sea, including fishermen, the support for marine protection to avoid overfishing was overwhelming.

“This is an important victory, 18 steps in the right direction, but there is one more step that would show absolute commitment and that is the creation of the North Bimini Marine Reserve, protection which has been promised, but not realized,” she said. “Along with our community partners and sister conservationists, Save The Bays urges protection of that slice of our unique ecological heritage.”

 

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