Aragonite mine project on Grand Bahama spells environmental disaster and hundreds of lost jobs
The following proposed plan for mining the sea floor on Grand Bahama doesn’t add up or make any sense. It will, in no uncertain terms, destroy lucrative fishing grounds, kill off food sources and eliminate hundreds of jobs, and many more if you take into account support businesses.
Monday, 23 June 2014
SPEAKING OUT – Deputy chairman of the Sweeting’s Cay township Shervin Tate is asking the PLP government which he supports to reject a proposal to mine for aragonite in East Grand Bahama. SWEETING’S CAY, Grand Bahama — Plans to mine for aragonite in the heart of East Grand Bahama’s prized fishing grounds will destroy hundreds of jobs in the surrounding communities, a local government official has warned.
Shervin Tate, deputy chairman of the Sweeting’s Cay township.
Shervin Tate, deputy chairman of the Sweeting’s Cay township, said the proposed project is slated to create a mere 60 jobs but will destroy more than 300 – some of them very lucrative – and devastate one of the country’s most beautiful and bountiful marine habitats.
“Once you start to dredge, the conch will disappear, the lobster will disappear, and then you will see a disaster in our community,” Tate said, explaining that silt from the mine will suffocate all marine life for miles around.
“That is why I call it a job killer,” he said.
Appearing as a guest on Love 97FM’s radio show ‘Voice of the Bays’, Tate explained that most residents of the area earn a solid living as either bonefishing guides or commercial fishermen.
“You have fishing lodges that have spent $40-50 million in the east, and they are paying Bahamians $1,500 to $2,000 a week and they depend heavily on Bersus Cay as somewhere to take those guests,” he said.
“The average fisherman can go out to Bersus Cay, and if you are going out for lobster, you can get a hundred pounds of lobster that can get you $1,100. You can come back with 200 pounds of conch and that will get you $600. Imagine that this is taken away from you – and most of the time when they do these things they come back and want to give you minimum wage jobs.”
Tate said the fishermen of his community will face the prospect of having to leave their families for extended periods to toil away at a dusty mine site, just to earn in a week what they used to earn in a single day.
In addition to professional fishermen, he added, many Bahamians rely on the area to help feed their families, especially in hard economic times.
BOUNTIFUL – These bonefish flats are part of the pristine and abundant East Grand Bahama fishing grounds which sustain an idyllic existence for hundreds in the surrounding communities. Local leaders are calling on the government to reject a proposed aragonite mining operation at Bersus Cay before it destroys this way of life. East Enders fear they will lose the freedom and prosperity of the open water and be forced to toil away for low wages at a mine site.At a recent community meeting, a young woman explained that although she is a trained accountant, she has never been able to find work in the stagnant Freeport economy, and the abundant fishing grounds now under threat have been a saving grace.
Stop this proposed mining operation. Preserve the entire area which will be destroyed by mining and dredging!