Resort Development

We just returned from 4 days of wahoo fishing in the Bahamas. Base camp was Old Bahama Bay on the west end of Grand Bahama Island. West End as it is referred to is about 60 miles from the Florida coast. The resort is has 73 rooms, a 72 slip marina and a couple restaurants along with a tiki bar overlooking the bonefish flats to the North. The fishing was good as we caught a dozen nice wahoo up to 40 lbs.

The disturbing part of the trip is the new resort being developed on the 6 mile stretch of the island. The scale of its environmental footprint on the local ecosystem is huge as you can see in the photo below. Construction is underway. 6 miles of the 10 miles of canal are already dug out of the center of the island to make a man-made tropical paradise. Ships to 200 feet in length will soon come and go. a 10,000 foot runway can acomodate all but the largest commercial jets. I am sure the development is good for the community and island - jobs, taxes, improvements in local infrastructure and schools will benefit from the influx of people and money. It is a choice the Bahamian government made... Atlantis redux.

The real question is what will be the impact on the marine ecosystem? What is the impact of two championship golf courses? slips for 500 fishing boats, dive boats, yachts? What is the developer doing to protect and preserve the ecosystem that they have just invaded? What will happen to the conch and bonefish flats to the North? the reefs to the South and West? What does it mean when a corporation decides to take a sparsely inhabited tropical ecosystem and pave it, dig it up and make a man-made tropical paradise? Pure wealth extraction from Nature. Our scientific and conservation work is just beginning in the Bahamas... documenting the fragile nature of the reefs, tidal flats and steep walls, publishing our results and driving awareness of all there to force the choice between man-made paradises and Nature's paradises. Life is short. Get involved.

Killer Whales in the Bahamas

Here at MVF we are constantly pushing the edge to learn more about the Bahamian ecosystem. A week ago we decided to explore the bonefish flats via small plane to better understand the habitat, fish movements and sandbars. We were keenly interested in the flats behind Joulters. With Kevin as pilot and Billy as top spotter, we flew in at around 1000 ft. Billy say something and we did a slow spiral to investigate. And guess what? A pod of Killer Whales swimming to the North just off Andros. I shot a couple photographs but upon hearing the plane they went down. Unfortunatley I had my wide angle lens on the camera to shoot the flats instead of my telephoto lens.

Upon returning to the Makara, I logged into the OBIS-Seamap site (www.seamap.env.duke.edu) and did a search on Killer Whale sightings in the Bahamas. I found out that there have been 5 sightings in the past 20 years reported by the Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organization. I emailed them the sighting information plus pictures so they would not think I was crazy. I received a great email back from them saying thanks for the report and helping them expand their sightings database.

I am always amazed by what we find on each trip to the Bahamas. The rich diversity, the incredible people and the opportunity to explore and learn there is immense. And on every trip we contribute to the conservation of the islands in some way - a killer whale sighting, a chance meeting with an experienced guide, more data, more posts like this. Check it out.