Bahama Pundit

The Past, Present & Future of Bahamian Fisheries

by Larry Smith

The sea is the world's most important food source, but many don't realise that most fish stocks today are over-exploited and in danger of collapsing - as the northern cod fishery did in 1992.

Scientists say overfishing is the biggest single threat to the oceans. In fact, fish don't stand a chance - especially the big ones, which these days almost never get away. Ninety per cent of these top predators have disappeared since the 1950s.

And although industrial fishing (such as longlining, drift netting, purse seine netting, and hydraulic dredging) isn't permitted in Bahamian waters, we too are faced with declining catches and potential ecological disaster.

For example, targeting spawning aggregations caused grouper stocks to plummet and led to a winter closed season. Conch is more and more difficult to find (although half a million pounds were exported last year). And crawfish and scale fish are being heavily depleted by poachers.

Newspaper Pioneer's Legacy on Lee Stocking Island in the Exumas

by Larry Smith

In 1963, the Twilight Zone ran an episode called the Printer's Devil. It told the story of a publisher who, when his linoptype operator quit, had to strike a deal with the devil to save his newspaper.

The point is that linotype operators were critical to a newspaper's survival. So what is a linotype, you ask? Well, it was a big noisy machine that cast lines of type from molten metal for printing.

Sounds medieval, right? But back then it was considered "the acme of perfection", and was a huge leap for the printing industry. For hundreds of years before the linotype was invented in the 1880s, typesetting had been a painstakingly slow process performed by hand, letter by letter.

Today, the entire newspaper production process is digital. But it took a long time for the industry to make the transition from complicated mechanical systems like the linotype to computers. And the changes were bitterly resisted by linotype operators and others, who took years to learn their trade.

Setting a Clear Path to a Low-Carbon Economy

by Larry Smith

Thirty years ago a mechanical failure at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania released radioactive gases into the atmosphere, forcing the evacuation of 140,000 people from the surrounding area. It was a significant turning point in the development of nuclear power.

As Canadian commentator Jeff Rubin recently pointed out, “The real legacy of Three Mile Island wasn’t what happened back in 1979, but rather what happened - or more precisely didn’t happen - over the course of the next 30 years in the US."

He was referring to the fact that the near-meltdown of the Three Mile Island reactor changed public acceptance of nuclear power plants, and none has been built in the US since. Could the catastrophic explosion at the BP drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico have the same effect on the oil industry today?

Time Travel and Victoria Pond on Exuma

by Larry Smith

GEORGE TOWN, EXUMA - Basil Minns was time-travelling again when I met him last week.

He always does when he visits the Peace and Plenty Hotel here. It's where he was born 81 years ago, and where he spent his childhood helping to run the family's general store on the ridge overlooking Elizabeth Harbour.

This historic waterfront inn was a sponge market before the Minns family took it over in the late 1800s. The cut limestone walls of the main building enclose the hotel's lobby and office today, and what was once the outdoor kitchen is now an atmospheric bar.

A number of prominent American loyalists received land grants on Exuma after the War of Independence, and developed large cotton plantations that eventually failed. The island was a backwater from the end of slavery until the Second World War, when the US Navy built a base and airstrip near George Town.

Ideology & the Environment in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

“If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'why the hell not?'" --John Wayne

Why can't Tough Call have it both ways?

The response of Laura Huggins to my review of her recent presentation for the Nassau Institute reminds me of a criticism levelled against me a few years ago: "First he says yes, then he says no, then he says yes again," my exasperated critic said at the time. "Why can't he make up his flipping mind?"

Well, for two main reasons. First, I explore and try to contextualise the issues for a local audience. And although I may offer my own reasonable analysis based on research and experience, that is rather different (if I may say so) from talking off the top of my head and doling out a hefty portion of personal opinion and spite every week.

Second, I happen to be of the view that we do not live in a black and white world. And unlike John Wayne I don't believe we can, or should, try to force it to be that way. When I was younger I had a different view, but these days I am more drawn to the lyrics from that 1993 Billy Joel song: "Black and white is how it should be, but shades of grey are the colours I see.”

Unfortunately, it's easier for most of us to adhere to one ideology, or belief system, or propaganda line over another. As the French writer Louis Aragon put it "Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error...We only exist in this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash."

Earth Day & Free Market Environmentalism in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

"I get upset every Earth Day," says Laura Huggins, a political scientist at the Hoover Institution in California who describes herself as a free market environmentalist. "I get upset because of all those catastrophic claims that have been made about the environment for the past 40 years."

What "outrageous" claims is she referring to? The link between industrial pollutants and cancer made by Rachel Carson; the suggestions by Paul Ehrlich that population growth poses major problems for humanity; and the idea that we are plundering the planet at a pace which will outstrip its capacity to support life, to name a few.

Huggins was speaking at a public meeting last week organised by the Nassau Institute, which advocates libertarian free market policies for the Bahamas. She is a director of the Property and Environment Research Centre in Montana, and the author of books and articles that promote market principles to help solve environmental dilemmas.

"Are resources really finite?" she asked. "That depends on how you look at it, because our ultimate resource is the mind. Every generation has underestimated the potential for finding new recipes and ideas. The sky is not falling, and the end of the world is no closer today than it was in 1970."

But that too depends on how you look at it.

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.