Why did a young marine ecologist write me and call her experience with the 170 residents of Guana Cay, "culturally disappointing"? And why might her union with a golf development company ruin the economic viability of the tiny islet of Great Guana Cay, and destroy an ecologically crucial coral reef?

Thirteen years ago, when mom and I had boat engine failure up on the north-east end of Guana Cay, we had to abandon the outboard, and cross the access path to seek help on the leeward side of the cay.

Were it a year later, we would have been forced to march the five miles or so to the village on the south end of the cay. But although Disney had abandoned this northern end of the cay as a cruise-ship stopover, their security guard still watched over their last assets on the island – a few sick, dying dolphins. The dolphins would eventually be sold to a buyer in Freeport. But how many were dead by then is a question lost to the outside world.

Luckily, we were treated with generosity by the lone dolphin security guard of the abandoned Disney cruise-ship site, who was intent on helping us find the spare parts for our engine, and hiding us from the site of those dolphins.

Back then, Guana Cay was a place where things could happen behind the world's back. This was Disney’s playground; their faraway ecological nightmare: Before Jack Sparrow, all Disney had to do to find its Pirates of the Caribbean was to find a mirror.

Blaming Disney isn't the point, for what’s done is done. The point is that big companies can come in to a small out-of-the-way place, create an enormous mess, and when things go bad, just leave. The reef destruction that Disney caused was just the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, ecologists are predicting that the new development will cause Guana Cay's reef to be barren within a course of 10 years.