Bahama Pundit

The Impact of Rising Sea Levels on the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

Arguably, our most valuable national asset is the shoreline - the transition zone between land and sea that surrounds our islands. So we should all be acutely aware of what is happening to the coast that could affect our investments and quality of life.

Over the millennia, shorelines have advanced and retreated as sea levels rose or fell over a range of some 500 feet. The difference today is that there are now millions of people living on densely developed shorelines around the world, so even a relatively small change in sea level can have a big impact.

Sea levels have been rising since the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. Measurements from around the world show a rise of almost 20 centimeters since 1880 - about eight inches - and if this gradual pace continues, we can expect a rise of another foot above current sea level by the end of this century.

That's right in the middle of the range projected by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. But unfortunately, the rise won't be constant. In fact, scientists say the rate of increase is accelerating as the world gets warmer, and they are not sure how long the ice sheets on land will survive.

Andros Island -- Big, Long & Strong

by Simon

•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com.

Andros Island, the fifth largest island in the Caribbean, and larger than many Caricom countries, is big and long.  It boasts one of the largest national parks in the region, one of the world’s largest barrier reefs and a magnificent Tongue of the Ocean with a 6,000 foot drop-off.

From the Bahamas National Trust: “As one of the least populated regions in The Caribbean Basin, Andros Island and its myriad of tidal creeks, interconnected lakes, mud flats, and mangroves support some of the largest populations of underwater life in the region.”

Both the Central Andros National Park and the west side of Andros are areas of phenomenal natural beauty and diversity.  Dr. Philip Kramer, the Nature Conservancy’s Caribbean Marine Program Director, enthuses:

Solar Power Consumers Upset by Fossil Fuel Plant on Abaco

by Larry Smith

LITTLE HARBOUR, ABACO - Within sight of the smokestacks rising from BEC's heavy fuel oil power plant under construction at Wilson City just across the Bight of Old Robinson lies a solar-powered community of some 40 homes encircling a picturesque cove.

This unique settlement was founded by a Canadian art professor named Randolph Johnston, who sailed his family to the Bahamas in 1952 and initially housed them in a cave - like a modern-day William Sayle (who sought refuge in Preacher's Cave on North Eleuthera more than three centuries ago).

Johnston set himself up as a charter skipper and sculptor, becoming a local celebrity within a few years. His bronze statue of a Bahamian woman was installed on Prince George Wharf in 1975, while his autobiography, Artist on his Island, was published the following year.

When it was virtually worthless, Johnston acquired land at Little Harbour and over time sold bits and pieces to other vagabonds from varied backgrounds, creating the eclectic community that exists today anchored around Pete's Pub, a famous watering hole run by the sculptor's son. Little Harbour is now an attraction in its own right - drawing thousands of visitors a year.

Among the homeowners are artists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, airline pilots, and boat bums. One of the more recent settlers is Gordon Pearce, whose Cape Cod firm builds high-tech tennis courts and running tracks in Massachusetts. His comfortable 2,200 square foot home sits on a hill overlooking Little Harbour and - like all the houses here - it's powered entirely by solar panels.

The Blue Holes of the Bahamas—An Incredible Underworld

by Larry Smith

Looking down, the opening into the cavern beneath could be distinctly seen and it was evident, as the tide was flowing, that this ocean-hole communicated with other caverns at a distance, possibly on the island of Andros, and that the water was being sucked down through the opening to find its way into unknown parts.

There are deep, well-like depressions filled with salt water and connected with the ocean by subterranean passages. They ebb and flow with the tide, support marine life, and in all essential features resemble the submarine ocean-holes, except that they occur on land, usually removed some distance from the sea.

-- the Bahama Islands, by Drs George Shattuck and Benjamin Miller, 1905

The Bahamas are like no other group of islands in the world, scientists say. They were formed about 150 million years ago - as the Atlantic Ocean began to fill the space where Africa and North America were once joined. The islands that exist today are little more than the tips of fossilised sand dunes.

Deep drilling has established that virtually all of the rocks that make up the Bahamas platform - to a depth of at least 19,000 feet - were formed in shallow water as layers of sediment. As these layers gradually subsided under the weight of new deposits, they were converted into limestone. Winds blew the top layers into vast sand dunes, and by the end of the last glacial period - about 12,000 years ago - the geography of the Bahamas was more or less complete.

The First Case Study in Sustainable Tourism

by Larry Smith

MARSH HARBOUR, Abaco - The acrimonious and long-running effort by some residents of Guana Cay to derail the multi-million-dollar Baker's Bay development came to an end last November when the Privy Council ruled against the Save Guana Cay Reef Association, represented by Freeport lawyer Fred Smith.

The environmental contract between the Baker's Bay Club and the University of Miami also came to an end last year, and Dr Kathleen Sullivan-Sealey, the marine biologist who ran the environmental management programme, was at the Abaco Science Alliance conference in Marsh Harbour this past weekend. She gave a report on five year's of work that has been billed as the first "case study on sustainable tourism" in the Bahamas.

Tough Call was also at the conference, which is organised every two years by Abaco Friends of the Environment.  And Sullivan-Sealey was one of a slew of scientists who shared their recent Bahamian research. Presentations were given on the behaviour of deep-diving beaked whales in the Tongue of the Ocean; the results of the first Bahamian conch fishery survey in 15 years; recent fossil discoveries in the Sawmill Sink blue hole south of Marsh Harbour; bonefish conservation; coral reef assessments; and community-based tourism.

Bahamian Leaders Support Action on Climate Change at Copenhagen—For Good Reasons

by Larry Smith

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and Environment Minister Earl Deveaux fly to Denmark next week for a landmark world conference aimed at tackling what some have called "the most complex collective challenge humanity has ever confronted."

It's not about the war on terror or the global recession. The challenge is to prevent catastrophic climate change by "de-carbonising" economic growth. In other words, cutting our almost total reliance on the burning of fossil fuels (oil gas and coal), which is pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at an alarming rate.

There are significant - yet manageable - costs involved in this effort. But the good thing about action to address climate change is that it presents unprecedented opportunities for the world in terms of energy security, pollution control, technology innovation and sustainable development.

Ingraham and Deveaux will join more than 100 government leaders (including US President Barack Obama) and more than 15,000 other attendees from around the world at the United Nations summit in Copenhagen, which got underway this past weekend and closes on December18. Their goal is to strike a major political deal that will control the world's carbon emissions for the next decade.

Fixing the Montagu Mess—Finally!

by Larry Smith

Eighteen years ago, the injection well at Malcolm's Park that disposes of the city's sewerage deep underground malfunctioned, leading to the discharge of hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw waste into the harbour just west of the Potter's Cay fish market.

As a result, more than a thousand people were hospitalized from eating conch infected with a cholera-related bacteria picked up from the polluted waters around Potters Cay. The market was closed for months while garbage and discarded conch shells were cleared away, and the vendors were temporarily moved to the Symonette Shipyard property on Bay Street.

But some of them took advantage of this relocation to drift to the Montagu ramp, where a few casual fishermen had been hawking their catch since the 1970s. Although the plan was for them to return to Potters Cay when the market reopened, they never did.

Today, the Montagu ramp has become a huge issue for the 30-50,000 people living in the eastern district of New Providence. Unregulated commerce disrupts traffic flow and interferes with recreation in the area's only green space, while the lack of sanitation poses health risks that could be far more serious than the 1991 poisoning scare.

National Geographic Publicity on Bahamian Blue Holes to Exceed Miss Universe Exposure

by Larry Smith

When National Geographic breaks its magazine cover story, television documentary and online coverage of the Bahamian blue holes expedition next summer, the impact is likely to surpass this year's Miss Universe spectacle in terms of promotional value for the Bahamas - and at virtually no cost to the public treasury.

In contrast, the Miss Universe pageant has cost the Bahamas big-time. Although the exact breakdown has not been forthcoming, those costs include a hosting fee (said to be under $6 million) paid to the Miss Universe Organisation, a $2.9 million contribution by the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board in cash, goods and services, plus government spending on road paving and other fix-ups.

There are, of course, undeniable benefits from the 13 pageant events that were held here last month. The Miss Universe telecast included some nine minutes of footage of the Bahamas that amounted to a prime time commercial aired in at least 85 countries. Almost six million Americans tuned in, and the Ministry of Tourism's website received a big traffic boost before, during and after the pageant.

The Great Wilson City Power Plant Mystery

by Larry Smith

Concerns have been raised by environmentalists about Abaco's new power plant at Wilson City, which is now under construction. Very little information on this $105 million project has been divulged by either the government or BEC, so fears are being fed by rumours. Tough Call has reviewed the EIA for the plant that was completed in October 2008 by KES Environmental Services Inc of Florida. This report tries to cut through some of the obscurity.

The Environmental Impact Assessment for the 48 megawatt power plant now being built on Abaco is more interesting for what it reveals about BEC's environmental management than for what it tells us about this huge project deep in the pine forest.

Tough Call visited the power plant site a few days ago. It lies some 14 miles south of Marsh Harbour, five miles east of the Abaco Highway, and about two miles from the coastal ruins of Wilson City, the fabulous lumber town that operated for about 10 years in the early 1900s.

The Casuarina Controversy

 by Neil Sealey

Neil Sealey was a geography professor at the College of the Bahamas from 1979 to 1995. He edited The Bahamas Journal of Science - published by Media Enterprises from 1993 to 2004 - and is the author of six books, including Tourism in the Caribbean (Hodder & Stoughton, 1982), Bahamian Landscapes (Macmillan Caribbean 2006) and Caribbean World (Cambridge University Press, 1992). He was also editorial consultant for Macmillan Caribbean's 2000 edition of Caribbean Certificate Atlas.

It is unfortunate that a number of persons seem to have missed the point about the removal of casuarinas along our shorelines.

Correspondents, columnists and editors have all written recently in support of ‘saving’ the casuarinas along Saunders Beach. However, these are not being removed for any perverse satisfaction of denying people shade, a view of the sea, or the visual appearance of these large trees. It is simply a matter of preserving another natural resource, in this case the beach and adjacent property and infrastructure, and ensuring that our coastline is able to withstand storm waves in an era of climate change and sea level rise.

The reason the sea is visible through the trees is because the natural dune and its accompanying vegetation, as it exists at Orange Hill, Delaporte and Paradise Island at present (and many Family Islands), has been lost. Extensive scientific study in this country and elsewhere has established that casuarinas will prevent the growth of native vegetation resulting in the decline of the attendant sand dune and exposure of the coast to erosion.