The Honourable Prime Minister, Perry Gladstone Christie has declared April Coastal Awareness month.
Cat Island fishermen catching tiger shark
The Bahamas is a leader in conservation in the Caribbean and has made some historic decisions that have an impact worldwide. Our country has signed on to International Conventions related to the environment. The Bahamas Government signed the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992, recognizing the importance of marine biodiversity and the necessity to develop mechanisms for the sustainable use of coastal and marine biological diversity.
The country signed the RAMSAR Convention which provides for the protection of wetlands including shallow coastal and marine ecosystems in June, 1997.
The Coastal Awareness Committee has identified 5 threats to our coasts: Habitat Destruction, Climate Change, Pollution/Marine Debris, Overfishing and Invasive Species.
HABITAT DESTRUCTION is a coastal threat. Unfortunately, The Bahamas has not done a great job of preventing habitat destruction.
We have a history of allowing projects on islands that are too small for the size of megaprojects. A good example of this is the Baker’s Bay development which Guana Cay residents protested against from the moment it was announced. They took their battle to the courts however, the project continued. Now, the reefs are dying where the golf course was allowed to be built literally all the way up to the beach itself. Reef biologists predicted the demise of the reefs that is becoming a reality now due to the runoff from the golf course fertilizers. This is a good example of Unsustainable Development.
Young Ms. Martin and her Dad participate in a beach cleanup at Taino Beach organized by Year 6 students Olivia Cafferata and Tenniya Martin to clean the beach in preparation for turtle nesting season which begins in April
Also in Abaco the court case regarding the Wilson City power plant is another example of what not to do with regard to habitat destruction. BEC authorised the construction of a power plant. A group of Abaco residents accused the Corporation of blue hole destruction and not engaging in proper public consultation with stakeholders as well as starting a project without the government issued permits in place. This led to legislation which requires town meetings with stakeholders in a region prior to embarking on developments that will affect the surrounding communities.
Much of the once healthy, extensive mangrove nurseries of Bimini that charmed the late Martin Luther King Jr. have been bulldozed and filled in to make way for a megadevelopment. The habitats of juvenile fish, conch, crawfish were in the acres and acres of vibrant mangroves that have been bull dozed and dredged to make a playground for second home owners.
Damage from storms and hurricanes is greatly increased when land is clearcut, mangrove, wetland areas razed contributing to coastal degradation. It was announced that North Bimini would be the first MPA or Marine Protected Area for the country in the year 2000. The MPA was officially announced in 2008, however, to date it is still not finalized. The developer is still stripping away the mangroves while Governments fail on the oversight of the project that they promised.
On Grand Bahama, Martin Marietta Bahama Rock has been harvesting our land literally. Residents in nearby Eight Mile Rock and in Queen’s Cove complained for years of the damage to their homes and to the wetlands to no avail. At Gold Rock Creek, a “tank” was cut out of the coastline to accommodate filming, however, a proper Environmental Impact Assessment was not completed before the work was begun. The residents in that area are now seeing their beaches impacted by the dredge material of mostly rocks lining their beaches. The initial siltation killed many inshore corals.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Turtle freed from plastic tie in Belize
The Bahamas is one of the lowest lying countries in the world. The low lying countries, island states will be the first to be seriously affected by climate change. Another country very similar to ours is the Maldives. Their Government has been agitating the international community to take the steps needed in order to minimize the effects of Climate Change namely sea level rise. Their leader has had a brilliant idea and has purchased land on the continent of India so that when his country sinks under the waves his environmental refugee citizens will have somewhere to call “home”. Climate change effects include sea level rise, changes in rainfall and weather patterns, more intense and frequent hurricanes, changes in patterns of ocean circulation and increased atmospheric and sea surface temperatures.
Our spectacular coral reefs are at risk from climate change and ocean acidification. When the seawater is warmer than usual for long periods of time the corals become stressed and release the micro-algal cells that live symbiotically within their tissues leaving the coral looking “bleached”. When the temperatures remain high, consistently, corals are susceptible to disease and may even die. Our coral reefs are vital to our tourism industry and commercial fishing interests.
POLLUTION/MARINE DEBRIS is another coastal threat. EARTHCARE has been participating in and supporting International Coastal Cleanup Day for the past 25 years. Marine Debris is waste that gets into the marine environment due to careless handling or disposal. The ability to be blown around and buoyancy affect how easily garbage becomes marine debris. The time it takes to degrade dictates how long it will remain in the marine environment. Some materials take hundreds of years to break down, if they do at all. Marine debris includes all the objects found in the marine environment that do not naturally occur there.
Marine Mammals, turtles, birds, fish and crustaceans all have been entangled in or have eaten marine debris. Many of the creatures most vulnerable to the problems associated with marine debris are endangered or threatened species.
About 100,000 marine mammals die each year from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris. All of the 7 species of sea turtles are endangered and all have been found entangled in different types of marine debris like fishing line, rope and nets worldwide.
Nearly one million seabirds are thought to die from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris annually. All seabirds are now considered endangered due to mainly longline fishing killing many out at sea.
Here are some Boater tips for keeping our coasts clean:
1. Avoid taking plastic products on board, such as six pack rings and bags that are harmful to marine animals, can damage boat props, clog intake valves and litter beaches.
2. Never discard fishing line overboard.
3. Whatever you take out, bring back!
4. If recycling facilities are available use them.
5. Encourage your marina to provide recycling bins and trash bins.
6. Carry trash bags and never throw your garbage overboard.
7. Stow loose items, plastic bags and cans so that they do not blow overboard.
OVERFISHING is occurring all over the world’s oceans. Marine scientists have predicted that if we keep fishing at the rates we are currently extracting marine resources from the world’s oceans that world fisheries will disappear globally over the next 50 years. Fish stocks all over the world have been overfished by industrial fishing fleets. Our Queen Conch and Nassau Grouper populations are dwindling. The Bahamas must change our fisheries management techniques in order to preserve what is left of our once very abundant fisheries resources such as elimination of certain types of fishing gear e.g. hookah rigs, expansion of closed season, limited access and by far the most important, Enforcement of fisheries regulations.
THINGS WE CAN DO
1 Obey fishing regulations, size limits, gear restriction, closed seasons.
2 Harvest only adult conch with well formed , thick flared lips.
3 Catch only as much fish as you need.
4 Do not catch spawning fish as you will limit their capacity to reproduce.
5 Respect boundaries of marine parks and reserves. They act as replenishment zones for fish conch and crawfish.
6 Protect our wetlands, they act as nurseries for commercially important species.
7 Protect coral reefs which are more productive than agricultural farms acre for acre.
8 Support the Dept of Marine Resources and non-governmental conservation agencies.
INVASIVE SPECIES
Invasive species are all over Grand Bahama. Many are doing so well that we have grown to think they are native but they are out competing the indigenous plants and animals, e.g. raccoons, Brazilian pepper or Florida holly, rats to name a few. Exotic dune plants tend to overgrow native plants species and are less effective in maintaining the dune ecosystem such as the Hawaiian Scaevola.
A recent newcomer is the venomous lionfish from the Indopacific. Lionfish fins contain venom which can cause severe pain swelling and numbness and occasionally respiratory distress, muscle weakness or temporary paralysis. The carnivorous Lionfish compete with our commercially important fish for food. Gut content analysis has revealed juvenile Nassau Grouper other finfish stocks as well as crustaceans and mollusks are being consumed by lionfish. With few if any predators lionfish populations have increased exponentially. Breeding females have been caught in our waters each bearing up to 20,000 eggs per spawn. They have been found to spawn every four days.
High reproductive rates and lack of predators allow the lionfish to outcompete native marine species. We must encourage a commercial fishery of lionfish in order to help keep their populations in check.
Ballast water that comes in ships from other countries/regions poses a danger in that the creatures that are non-native can stay alive in the ballast water. Most ships release their ballast water in their tanks once they reach their destination. This dangerous practice can introduce invasive species into our waters. We should look for ways to remove potentially damaging living creatures from the ballast water before ships are allowed to release it into Bahamian waters.
You can help by
1 Aquarists should avoid non-native species and take care to prevent their release or escape.
2 Take measures to prevent the release of pets into the wild as they may become a threat to our native species.
3 Purchase native plants such as cocoplum and sea grapes for use in landscaping.
4 Remove invasive species from your property.
Please keep in mind that every little thing that you as an individual do has an impact. The impact will be felt by our children and their children. What sort of world do we want to leave to our descendants? Let’s join together and see that our kids have a bright future with sustainable resources that they can hand down to their children and their children’s children.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1 Use CFL bulbs.
2 Drive less or drive fuel efficient cars.
3 Turn off lights and appliances when not in use.
4 Support alternate energy sources.
5 Plant trees.
6 Recycle more.
7 Check tires.
8 Use less hot water.
9 Avoid products with a lot of packaging.
10 Adjust your thermostat.
Photo 1: Cat Island fishermen catching tiger shark.
Photo 2: Young Ms. Martin and her Dad participate in a beach cleanup at Taino Beach organized by Year 6 students Olivia Cafferata and Tenniya Martin to clean the beach in preparation for turtle nesting season which begins in April.
Photo 3: Rescuers have to go by boat on the roads of Queens Cove in Grand Bahama because they are submerged by saltwater storm surge during Hurricane Sandy in October, 2012.
Photo 4: Turtle freed from plastic tie in Belize.
Photo 5: The contents of the invasive species, lionfish's stomach found in the Bahamas.
Photo 6: Heavy equipment tearing into the shark nursery grounds of the North Sound, Bimini for a mega-development.
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