Bimini: Battle Zone

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April 2008

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FUTURE OCEANS

BIMINI: BATTLE ZONE

BY JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU

Preserving Bimini’s mangroves is critical if this island paradise is to be protected for future generations. Photo: Carrie Vonderhaar, Ocean Futures Society

The tiny island of Bimini is one of thousands that make up the Bahamas.

This island nation is one of the most popular tourism and vacation destinations in the Caribbean region. Once home to thriving marine life, especially sport fish and sharks made famous in Hemingway’s novels, Bimini is now in a battle to survive. The mangrove forests that give life to the land and sea are under assault from heavy earth-moving equipment and construction. This once pristine ‘haven for life’ is heavily scarred; large areas of the fragile intertidal and terrestrial ecosystem have been scraped clear of vegetation for phase two of the Bimini Bay Resort development, a joint project of the Hilton Hotel Company and the Capo Group of South Florida. As it progresses, the vital essence that draws people to Bimini in the first place - beautiful scenery and sea life - is quickly being destroyed.

An Ocean Futures Society team lead by Fabien Cousteau visited Bimini in early December 2007 and January 2008. They met with various stakeholders concerned for the island’s future and who are interested in exploring all that can be done to mitigate long-term construction damage to the mangroves and coral reefs. The team saw firsthand Bimini’s environmental status and outlines here why we should care to save this place called paradise.

The definition of ‘paradise’ is a notion that transcends culture, language and thought and is summarized by a few words: heaven as the ultimate abode of the just. People routinely use the word to define a place with which he or she falls in love. It is implied that a paradise is also a haven, a sanctuary of peace and rest in which to recuperate from the troubles of the outside word. It applies not only to human beings but also to nature.

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In these dark times of environmental degradation from decades of pressure and abuse, such places on our small planet are becoming scarce.

We must covet those that remain for our children. Bimini is a small island only 50 miles from the coast of Florida that’s changed little over the last five decades or so. It’s been a paradise for tourists seeking refuge from the pace of mainland life and a unique haven for marine life, above and below the surface.

Bimini’s location, topography and biodiversity make it an ideally protected nursery for numerous species such as conch, lobster, bonefish, rays, sharks, and many types of pelagic fish. As well, it’s home to the Bimini boa and birds such as flamingos and egrets, all vital to tourism, the local diet and the economy.

This unique estuary owes its richness in great part to the expanse of mangrove forest, scarce in this area and many other places in the world.

The mangroves serve not only as protection and a buffer from hurricanes and tropical storm surges but also as a haven for life. It is paradise for all species that rely on the island and its environs.

The development at Bimini Bay Resort has left a devastating scar on the project’s phase one land. Dredging the channel and building artificial islands has created a major siltation problem that is disrupting currents and water clarity. This also kills off sea grasses and organisms in the bay, seriously impacting the species mentioned earlier. It makes no sense to destroy the mangrove forests that give life to Bimini and the surrounding Bahamian flats, in favour of dredging to create new land for even more high impact development.

FUTURE OCEANS

With no protection provided by the natural mangrove forest, Bimini Bay Resort (photographed December 2007) is vulnerable to erosion. Run-off, fertilizers and sewage pollute the very marine ecosystem that makes this island popular. Photo: Carrie Vonderhaar, Ocean Futures Society.

Bimini’s mangroves provide calm clear waters and habitat for juvenile fish and invertebrates, vital to Bahamian fisheries and tourism. Photo: Carrie Vonderhaar, Ocean Futures Society To create Bimini Bay Resort, the mangrove forest was removed; only a few saplings remain near the property. Photo: Carrie Vonderhaar, Ocean Futures Society The endangered Bimini Boa is an arboreal snake that inhabits the mangrove forest.

Photo: Carrie Vonderhaar, Ocean Futures Society

As Bimini loses land to developers, key nursery habitat for marine life, which also affords quality of life on the island and acts as a buffer against storms, will be lost.

Photo: Courtesy Save The Bahamas Coalition

Bimini is one site of Caribbean reef shark research.

Sharks attract divers who contribute to the island’s economy.

Photo: Carrie Vonderhaar, Ocean Futures Society

Nothing about the Bimini Bay project suggests environmental sustainability, as the developers claim, or that they’re even respectful of the surroundings: garbage is incinerated on the grounds and human and non-biological waste leaches into the bay and the ocean. It is simply a catastrophe.

A Marine Protected Area (MPA) proposed for this fragile area would encompass what’s considered the most vital mangrove forest in the Bahamas. Unless something is done soon to develop a more sustainable plan that safeguards this habitat, it will soon be bulldozed for ever. The Capo Group plan is to expand Bimini Bay in favor of more condos and a golf course in Phase II. If Bimini is to be saved, Phase II must be stopped.

This is by no means a unique case in the world, but in this era of widespread public interest in environmental protection, it would be criminal to let unsustainable development proceed. Bimini is at a crucial crossroads today. The decision to protect this unique paradise must be made now.

Creating a marine protected area would be a victory for all. Allowing Bimini Bay to continue with Phase II would certainly strip this island paradise of its precious natural riches. Over time, visitors and residents alike will suffer the decline of economic, social and environmental prosperity.

Nature has the remarkable ability to heal wounds that we inflict on land and sea. In the case of Bimini’s mangrove forests, it’s not too late to halt development, establish the MPA and let nature take its course. In time, and with human intervention, the shoreline can be restored, re-establishing the hardy trees that do so much to sustain the native species, including marine life that makes this island special. In doing so, people will be rewarded with a healthy ecosystem that, in turn, protects life for future generations.

Protect The Ocean And You Protect Yourself.

Learn more about Bimini and how you can help Read and sign the Save the Mangrove at Bimini Petition: www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/885814782 Save Bimini Island Campaign - Mangrove Action Project www.mangroveactionproject.org/

news/action-alerts/save-bimini-island-campaign/ video about saving Bimini and the endangered sawfish www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOptwatDWQ0%20 Visit www.savebimini.org divermag.com

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