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Guana Cay

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.

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Rise Up Sweet Island

Guana Cay Controversy - get the latest news on RSS Feed
Read up on the issue by the locals themselves
Jean Michel Cousteau
Speaks up on Bakers Bay Development
Bimini Bay Sawfish
Video on Bimini Bay

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.

National Geographic
National Geographic Magazine supports anti-Megadevelopment movements in Abaco and Bimini in new article on shark conservation.

ReEarth
SharkLab
Restrict Bimini Bay
Mangrove Action Project
Global Coral Reef Alliance
Caribbean Conservation Corps
Notes from the Sea

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Petition

75% of Bahamians on Great Guana Cay signed a petition this winter against Baker's Bay Club. Three years later, resistance is strong.

 

Rise Up Sweet Island - the Epic Struggle between the residents of Great Guana Cay and the Baker's Bay Club Golf Resort
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