Banks responds, "Yes, there will be human
| "Guana Cay is home to one of the West Indies' richest and most beautiful reefs. It hosts networks of labyrinthine caverns draped in silversides, walls of coral, elegant sting rays and foraging hawksbill turtles." |
waste, run-off, fertilizer, more people taking fish or demanding fish in the restaurants, which increases fishing pressure. What’s to insure that the golf course maintenance people continue to use (green) practices in perpetuity? Once the place is built they can do as they choose. If the grass is a little brown, what keeps them from using more water or fertilizer. What is the need for a golf course on the cays? People go there to recreate around the water. It’s a bad precedence to start putting golf courses on little islands where there is no water nor nutrients in the soil. The porous limestone is a perfect conduit for nutrients and poor water quality to reach the reef. The fact that the developers hired Dr. Sullivan shows a commitment to preserving the environment. She is a very good, conscientious scientist who will guide them in the best direction that she can. Economics, however, usually wins out at the end of the day. I think the golf course on the cays is a terrible idea and sets a terrible precedence for future development."
After I thought that Ken and Judy's names appeared to be misused by Sullivan Sealey, I wanted to talk to the marine ecologist who was hired by the people of Guana Cay to examine Sullivan Sealeys's work on the EIA, and the impact that the golf course would have on the reef.
Dr. Michael Risk has worked all over the world as a marine ecologist. His first SCUBA dive was in Florida, 45 years ago. He is literally one of the first. His career extends beyond even the massive reef degradation that has harmed the world's reefs.
I asked him about this. "I find it very difficult to go back to places that I visited a long time ago because the rate of degredation worldwide is staggering." Dr. Risk has been asked by the governments of countries around the world to help assess their coral reefs. He has worked on coral reef projects in Florida, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Tobago, The Virgin Islands, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Kenya, Tanzania, Eritrea, The Maldives, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. Whenever I chat with him, he seems to be in a different country.
He continues, "There is a lot of talk about the corals reefs, but very little action. There is a lot out there about global warming and stuff, but to blame global warming for the present state of reef destruction cannot be justified in real scientific terms. It's as simple as this...don’t cut the trees down and don’t shit in the ocean…The reality is that it has little effect, because money talks and the rest of us walk. There is too much pressure from development, and if we in the West find it too hard to resist development, then in a country where the average per capita income is 300 dollars a year, what hope do you have?"
