Your [The Tribune’s] recent letter from Mr Bonds (Saturday 18 December) and front-page report (Monday 20 December) refers to a residential development on the northern end of Guana Cay. Although I have no direct connection with this development I have been privileged to see the plans, and visit the Cay twice this year, and I would like to reassure your readers, and also anyone else exposed to some similar remarks about Passerine in other newspapers, that this development has followed all the correct procedures for safeguarding the environment, has held public meetings, and has presented an EIA to the BEST Commission. I should add that government restricts the developers from promoting their own projects and therefore they cannot reply directly to these published criticisms.
This northern section of Guana Cay is unoccupied at present, but was previously used by Disney as a cruise ship destination which they subsequently abandoned for Gorda Cay. The remnants of this operation, which include a decaying jetty, a large number of service buildings and amenities onshore, and a dredged channel and island formed from the spoil heap, are all eyesores and existing blights on the environment. The 3.5 mile dredged channel was considered one of the biggest environmental disasters to reefs by reef biologist Dr. Judy Lang, who opposed its construction in 1988. Major disturbance to the Baker’s Bay shoreline included the bulldozing of sand dunes which has resulted in massive casuarina invasion which is causing beach erosion, and unless checked will continue to destroy native plants and cause shoreline retreat. The Passerine development intends to restore all these contaminated and disturbed areas and replant native vegetation. The channel and spoil island are not part of the development and this problem should be the focus of any “save the reef”” effort. The spoil island continues to erode and destroy valuable fish habitats in the Sea of Abaco as well as increase sediment on the adjacent reefs.
