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Guana Cay

The original debacle of Baker’s Bay went almost entirely unnoticed by the outside world. Nobody wrote about it and nobody knew about it. And, with two-thirds of the West Indies’ reefs in severe danger and over a quarter of the world’s reefs now destroyed, what was the big deal if the guys who make Nemo dolls contributed to degrading one of the most important ecological sites on planet Earth?

Disney's blunder was over, and the only record the world had of this episode seemed to be my own.

Because of that, a couple years ago, a few fellas wrote me. They were from a golf course development company called the Discovery Land Company. They reminded me that yes, wasn't it awful that Disney did bad things. And they reminded me that they were developers who were going to clean up the mess. And wouldn't I be so kind to tell them who owned the land, so they could buy it from him?

I had a pretty good hunch about who the land-owner was. I knew this, because I used to play board games on their yacht in Treasure Cay Harbor, across the Abaco Sound.

I played board games and sipped Sodas in their yacht. I admired them and was entranced by their accents; the accents of luxury and transcontinental lifestyles. Was it an American accent? Or British, French?

No, it was everything - the accent of bars with breezes, of English gentlemen with wheezing coughs and backslapping Texans with big fish stories. It was the accent of wealthy harbors.

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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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