While Starfish Gather Coral
Guana Cay Village

Dr. Goreau says, "Even if the water is safe enough for us to drink, it is not safe for the coral reef."

The developers have actually created a 'best-practices' golf course - in fact, the golf course is so green that it should be the bare minimum for any golf course created within the vicinity of water.  The grass will be a special commercial brand that requires fewer pesticides.  The landscape will be terraformed so that the runoff from the golf course fertilization will end up in a special man-made irrigation system that will absorb the ammonium, nitrates and phosphorous.

On paper, the golf course sounds terrific. 

Bakers Bay Development Construction EquipmentIn reality, the developer's EIA has failed to conjure up some of the most likely incidents, such as a small hurricane. A small hurricane in the Abacos, a yearly event recently, will send the golf course wastes quickly into the sea.

When I asked Kathleen Sullivan-Sealey about the environmental plan for when the golf course fails, she simply didn't respond. Like Disney and so many others, when the project goes bust, the EIA has no plan for the safety of the reef. Like Disney, pollutants will simply rot into the sea.

Incredibly, the developers paperwork make the native inhabitants of Guana Cay sound like polluters.  In Discovery Land Company's EIA, the locals are described as dangerous developers themselves, and that in fact the Discovery Land Company's golf course will come in to save the day.  In some of the texts, the Discovery Land Company threatens that 'this will be a hard model to beat'.

In their EIA section on construction with the environment, a photo is shown of a house on Guana Cay.  They write, "This house on Great Guana Cay illustrates the problems with poor lot design and house placement.  The house is precariously close to the edge of a denuded dune.  Clearly Baker's Bay Club must show leadership in education  new residents of the dangers of building too close to the sea and enforce set-backs based on the geomophology of the coastline."

The house they mentioned actually fell apart in a hurricane and no longer exists. It was, in fact, somewhat of a rarity on the island. Its owner actually sold his other property to Discovery Land Company. Notes from the Road viewed aerial photos of Guana Cay's reef side, and it was apparent that the footprint that the local community has engaged on the reef-side of the shore, although not perfect, is relatively non-invasive, and much of the shore is left natural and the homes are built away from the dune.

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Rise Up Sweet Island

Great Guana Cay is a thin, six mile island in the Northern Bahamas.

The island's inhabitants, who settled here 200 years ago, are employed in fishing and cottage industry tourism.

The island's coral reef is of international importance as one of the most intact surviving elkhorn/staghorn coral communities in the world.

The inhabitants began fighting tooth and nail to save their island's coral reef and mangroves from destruction after hearing of plans for a golf megadevelopment on their tiny barrier reef island.

Hundreds of the world's most revered coral reef scientists and marine ecologists, as well as almost every single Bahamian environmental organization, have banded together to try to stop the Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club (Discovery Land Company) from realizing completion.

The proposed 585 unit, 180 slip marina, tennis courts, hotel, destination spa and championship golf course were pushed through the Bahamian central government with no local consent and without proper permits in a land grab (including of local public land designated for use by Bahamians) of unbelievable proportion. In one of the most amazing and unique environmental stories in history, the islanders have brought the developer, and the Bahamian government, to task. The small island is now waging a bitter legal battle with the government and the developers.

Rise Up Sweet Island compiles the viewpoints of the Bahamian and international marine conservation community and presents documents, evidence and history for all interested parties.

Notes from the Road is a travelogue which covers environmental and cultural issues around North America, the Caribbean and Europe.
Thousands of coral scientists, conservationists and environmentalists have publicly voiced support for the locals of Great Guana Cay, including scientists at the Sierra Club, University of Miami, Greenpeace, Center for Biological Diversity, Global Coral Reef Alliance and more.
No independent scientists or conservation groups support the position of Baker's Bay Club.
 
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