Guana Cay Blog

The sun shines right through the “impermeable barrier” lining right above the beach. It holds sand (dark area above the rocks) but it is clear that water and nutrients can pass right through it.

Reef-killing fertilizers are seeping from Bakers Bay Golf & Ocean Club's golf course, causing reef-smothering algae blooms and coral disease on one of the Bahamas’ most pristine coral reefs, marine biologists reported at the Abaco Science Alliance conference this month.

Scientists just completed a survey on Great Guana Cay, and confirmed residents’ worst nightmare:  coral diseases and algae had risen dramatically on the reefs nearest the sprawling Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club since its 2010 construction.

 Golf courses require heavy doses of fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides to remain green and attractive. Scientists say this toxic dose of chemicals is seeping through the island’s porous limestone foundation, speeding growth of algae on the fragile reef, and weakening corals, making them much more susceptible to disease.

“These observations provide unambiguous evidence of high nutrient inputs from the golf course to the near-shore waters, with strong negative impacts on water quality and environmental health, along with strong indications that the effects are spreading to the coral reefs offshore,” explained Dr. Tom Goreau, who co-presented the findings at a science conference this month in Abaco.

Residents on Great Guana Cay are locked in an ongoing seven-year court battle against the Bahamas government and Discovery Land Company of Scottsdale, Arizona, developers of the Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club. The government leased the land to developers of the 400-home gated golf community, who promised but failed to deliver on protections for the reef. The Save Guana Cay Reef Association is demanding that developers immediately stop fertilizer leaching into the ocean, and honor their initial promises to mitigate damage and to monitor conditions.

The developers initially promised that they would: 

Baker's Bay Response

Today, the Baker's Bay response is visible at the Nassau Guardian piece on the recent findings.

A clip from the story reveals a defensive, reactionary Senior Vice President Livingston Marshall. In his rebuttal to the findings, Marshall claims that Baker's Bay has a team of environmentalists who have found no adverse impacts on the reefs from the golf course. His carefully worded response seems to indicate that a scientific team continues to monitor at the nearshore environment at Bakers Bay.

Notes from the Road verified with the University of Miami team that Bakers Bay has had no relationship with their environmental monitoring team since 2008. Earthwatch, the volunteer youth group which assisted the University of Miami program left the project even earlier than that. So if the golf course wasn't built until 2010, and Marshall is claiming that he has a team which has reported to him that the golf course has not hindered the reef since 2010, which team is he referring to?

It is my belief that Livingston Marshall has just been caught red-handed. If otherwise, he would come forward with findings that counter those made by established coral scientists who are respected globally.

In fact, Marshall's comments to the Nassau Guardian fall into the same pattern as those he made when Dr. Cervino and Dr. Goreau presented their findings at the Abaco Science Alliance Conference on Abaco earlier this month. There, Marshall countered that the footage proving the existence of sewer-pipe algae was not from Baker's Bay, and 'could have been filmed anywhere.' As the video above conclusively proves, Marshall was loose with facts, and quite simply dead wrong.

Save Guana Cay Reef is back in court as judges agree that the case in opposition to the construction of the Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club has a compelling chance of success. Save Guana Cay Reef will face the Bahamian Government and Discovery Land Company in court early next year.

Locals on the small island of Great Guana Cay were concerned that the developer would fail to follow their own environmental monitoring agenda. Five years after a lawsuit began, evidence of follow-through on any component of the monitoring program is scarce. Here, the golf course creeps up to within feet of the island's coral reef.

Over the past 6 years, the court case has taken a number of twists and turns. Every time, the government and the developer were able to block the appellents on technicalities. But in the latest round of trial battles, the judges agreed that the case should be heard on its own merits, and not dismissed simply based on a neverending string of legal technicalities.

The Save Guana Cay Reef case has become a driving force in the Bahamian legal system, forcing a conversation and even legal precedent for the importance of consultation, the rights of locals and even environmental considerations.

A California-style mega-resort is being constructed on the northern end of Great Guana Cay. Locals believe the large imprint of this development will wreck havoc on their coral reef.

This latest Leave to Appeal is an important step in the ongoing case against the Baker's Bay Club development. The Tribune quotes Save Guana Cay Reef attorney Fred Smith: "This case remains of pivotal importance to the Bahamas" in establishing jurisprudence that will guide future governments and developers on the development process, in the context of environmental and local community rights, Mr Smith said.

Read the complete article by Neil Hartnell at The Tribune.

Images of the beach adjacent to the most critical section of the coral reef at Bakers Bay after Hurricane Irene:

An interesting article on declining golf courses from the Florida Times-Union.

"Orender said he remembers a time in the late 1970s and early '80s that it seemed like every new course was successful. There was enough of an untapped market that each new course increased the number of rounds being played in a community.

By the late 1990s, that ended. The number of rounds played across the country flattened, then dropped.

Yet new courses kept coming, particularly as centerpieces of housing developments. And the number of rounds kept dropping."

Read more about golf courses failing.

However, Cabo Pulmo is now under serious threat. In March, Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources approved a proposal to develop a mega-resort called “Cabo Cortés.” This development would include 15 large hotels with over 30,000 hotel rooms, three to five golf courses, a 490-slip marina, desalination and water treatment plants, a private jet strip, and other infrastructure, adjacent to and directly north of Cabo Pulmo. Scientists and conservationists believe that the influx of mass tourism and population growth will put unsustainable pressure on the protected reefs – through changes in water quality, turbidity, pollution, fertilizers and chemicals used on the golf courses, and illegal fishing. According to experts in the region, the environmental impact assessment provided by the developers does not fulfill rigorous scientific requirements.

Read the full post.

A developer in the Maldives has released a press release saying they will be building a floating golf course, inside the ring of a coral reef. They claim that the coral reef golf course will have zero environmental impact.

The fact that several news agencies and blogs reported this as fact is absurd. Although, I think we should focus on the story by Bridgette Meinhold, who writes in the green design website, Inhabitat, "Threatened with rising sea levels from climate change, the island nation may be doomed to a watery grave unless it transitions to floating developments. Developed by Dutch Docklands and designed through a collaboration between golf course developer Troon Golf and Waterstudio.NL, the zero-footprint solar-powered golf course will be one of the first floating developments..."

Meinhold, who appears to have taken the press release at face value, has fallen for a classic trick that golf developers employ to confuse the public. A floating golf course, by all means will have a devastating effect on the nearby coral reef. This story plays out again and again around the world. The developer has, and probably does not require, an ounce of an environmental impact statement, but, through bloggers and journalists, is able to spin an audacious golf plan in the middle of a coral reef as a positive way to save an island nation! For all we know, the fertilizer and human waste will be dumped directly in the coral reef. But Meinhold fell for the idea that the developer spun, that this golf course development is actually a good thing for the Maldives, because it will save the island nation from certain doom once sea levels rise.

This is the lowest level of greenwashing I have ever heard, and I suspect that Bridgette Meinhold will want to amend her article with notes on the impact that golf courses have on coral reefs. If Inhabitat, hopes to live up to their credo that "design will save the world," they should live up to that credo by publishing real articles on sustainable development, not repurposing greenwashed press releases from new spins on megadevelopment environmental fails.

Note also that Meinhold calls the golf course "zero-footprint," an absurd statement, considering this golf course will likely cause permanent damage to yet another coral reef.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr cowrites article on Mexican golf development.

But now Hansa Baja Investments, a Mexican subsidiary of the Spain-based real estate development firm Hansa Urbana, plans to build a massive resort complex directly north of the National Marine Park. The developer has proposed what amounts to a sprawling new city on the scale of Cancún: 10,000 acres including 30,000 hotel rooms and residential housing units, at least two golf courses, 2 million square feet of office and retail space, a 490-boat marina and a private jet port.

Read the article here.

I was disappointed to see how close the Bakers Bay Club golf course was to the ocean. This photo shows the golf course literally feet from the ocean. This part of the course is only yards from the most important and largest sections of the Atlantic-side coral reef. The sheer amount of fertilizers, watering and nutrient-creation from this course are stunning. And there is no public monitoring by any group. This scenario is a worst-case scenario for Guana's reef.

This article on the Cabo Pulmo megadevelopment on the Baja Peninsula is exceptional as an introduction to the issues.

Cabo Pulmo Development

I saw this post on Bakers Bay Club today, and I thought I'd post a portion of it here. Remember that there are very few blog posts or articles written about Bakers Bay at all. The only material you see written is in golf advertorials. So it is interesting to note that almost anything in print that isn't paid for by Bakers Bay is negative press.

"Our ride this morning took us to Bakers Bay where a very upscale marina and development is struggling to stay alive. An acre lot there is a million dollars. That might explain the slow development. There is a restaurant at the marina. They were serving breakfast and according to the menu, the prices were actually lower than other eateries on the Cay. What the heck, let's eat. We ordered and decided to have a mimosa for starters. Mimosa is Champaign and orange juice and replaces Blood Marys which Bear and I do not like. Usually the Champaign is some cheap swill but it goes well with the OJ. When the check arrived, we thought there was a mistake. The food was $28 and the four Mimosas (served in scrawny 2 ounce flukes) were $25 each. Wow! That must have been some really great Champaign. Now I know how the place plans to help the bottom line. That might explain why we were the only folks eating breakfast. Breakfast shot our budget for the day."

Was it Boone's Hill Bubbly in that Mimosa?

Read the rest here.

I found this PDF on the impacts of golf courses. It is a good read.

Quote: It is now known that golf course construction often consists of some or all of the following practices that can be extremely deleterious to the surrounding environment: clearing of natural vegetation, deforestation, destruction of natural landscapes and habitats and changes in local topography and hydrology. The clearing of trees and vegetation leads to gullying and erosion, which in turn increases sediment loads in runoff to nearby bodies of water. It has been said that erosion during course construction can damage the flora and fauna of lakes and streams as much as other building projects. Deforestation also renders land more prone to the effects of erosion. Additionally, it results in an increased flux of dissolved ions and nutrients,which can lead to downstream nutrient enrichment and unwanted algal blooms. Alterations to local topography and hydrology will change the quantity and chemistry of runoff to streams, rivers and lakes.

Backup Copy on Notes from the Road

A recent survey by Dr. Peter Houk of Pacific Marine Resources Institute and the DEQ Marine Monitoring Team at Greg Norman's Laolao Bay Golf Course have revealed that 20 years after construction, dramatic negative effects on the coral reef's health have occured.

From an article from the Saipan Tribune:

* Significant increase of seasonal brown macroalgae, as well as persistent red algae on the reef flats. This proliferation of macroalgae is considered undesirable, and has cascading impacts to other components of the coral reef ecosystem;

* Coral assemblages have shifted from larger, more structurally-complex colonies to numerous small encrusting colonies, providing less habitat for reef-dwelling organisms;

* Species richness of coral has declined throughout most of LaoLao, and is most pronounced in the eastern portion of the bay;

* Fish densities have shown significant declines, mainly a shift from large-bodied fish to smaller ones;

* The functional diversity of fish has also declined significantly, meaning reduced grazing efficiency on the reef associated habitats, and more space for macroalgae and undesirable substrate to grow.

The full article on the Laolau Golf Course and Coral Reefs can be read here.

These negative effects are typical of the types of environmental consequences of golf courses built in ecosensitive areas, and precisely the type of effect that coral scientists warned prior to the approval of the Bakers Bay Golf & Ocean Club in the Northern Bahamas.

Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa in Maui, Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami, Claremont Resort & Spa in California, La Quinta Resort & Club also in California and the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix have all filed for chapter 11.

Link

From the Facebook Page, Golf is Not a Sport

A month ago, Jane was reading a copy of Outside Magazine, and burst into laughter. When I asked her what was so funny, she told me she had just read this great letter to the editor, which, she explained, was a rebuke of an article some guy had written defending golf as a sport. I scratched my head and thought to myself - wait, why would anyone be defending golf as a sport?

When I read the letter, I laughed too. It was very funny. And, the editors of Outside included a note that the letter was the longest anti-golf-is-a-sport letter they had ever read, and so they had to edit it down to its best parts.

Now, naturally, I was curious to read the full unabridged letter, and so I contacted David Tierney to plead for the full letter. He gave me permission to publish it in full. I included it at the end of these notes.

Secondly, I wanted to know who this Larry guy was who wrote this article in Outside Magazine. As all of you know, I am a fan of golf - particularly mini-golf and the historical pre-cursor to golf, which was played without a course over fields and mountains and which required great stamina. So, while The Guana Cay blog is a blog about golf courses and megadevelopments that threaten sensitive ecosystems, I believe that good people play golf and that it is a nice hobby. So, all in good fun and humor, I thought I'd share this strange debate with you, mostly because this reiteates the position of the Guana Cay Blog that golf journalists are lazy.

Thirdly, I want to add a few of my own notes on Larry Olmstead's article.

Larry Wants to Fight

Larry Olmstead, who wrote "An Ode to Golf" for Outside Magazine, responded to David Tierney's letter to the editor in his blog: "Of course there was one a**hole who missed my point entirely and made me out to be a hater of all things, including the environment, poor people and common sense, but you will have to read it yourself and decide."

Larry Olstead's blog features this in the header of each page of his blog.

I was taken aback by this unsportsmanlike response to a letter to the editor that had some very valid points. Letters to the editor are a vital part of magazine journalism; they allow the reader a final say; a traditional check and balance on a magazine. Some readers judge magazines for their willingness to publish unflattering letters to the editor, many consider them a vital part of the discussion created by the magazine's content.

For an author to use such a foul language towards a writer of a published letter to the editor responding to his own article in a professional magazine is absurdly unprofessional. For Olmstead to proudly announce that his blog is part of a network of '....Actual Journalists' but then lash out at a single critical review of his article actually validates a point that Tierney made in his letter - "(Olmstead's article) accurately represented the sport he defended and the clueless arrogance of many of its participants..."

While writing the Guana Cay blog, I have found repeatedly, over and over that golf journalists live by a lower standard than the rest of journalists - tied so tightly to an industry, they are taught to play caddy to developers and golfers and gadget-makers, but rarely willing to check facts or proofread, and Larry Olmstead, as you can see by the frequent misspellings and grammar errors in his blog, represents this low-quality facet of golf-writing to the tee.

Now, even if golf were a sport, it would not be the kind of sport that Outside Magazine would ever cover seriously. Outside Magazine chose Larry's article precisely because of the irony. It is like the science teacher who holds up a candle and says, is this object alive? And then provides sufficient evidence to prove it is. Outside Magazine doesn't cover chess, or basketball, or poker or football or croquet or tae kwon do, although that doesn't make any of those sports and pastimes any less. Its just a different magazine. They cover a particular brand of outdoor sports, lifestyles and news, and their audience, which is fairly sophisticated, actually get the irony. There is no debate - Outside Magazine readers would never accept golf articles in their magazine.

So what is a sport? To find out the answer, first imagine that you are in the African Savanna, and you are watching lion cubs playfully, but skillfully fighting each other - using stamina, technique, endurance and guts in games that will later help them hunt, hide and survive.

You can watch monkeys or dogs or bears do the same. And I can watch my little boy play these same games at school. It is something all of us mammals do. We are pre-wired to like play that will prepare us for the reality of the natural world.

Sport is the human approximation of this wild act. It is us taking one of our most beloved traits and civilizing it, with rules and goals, teams and champions. Chess-players sometimes like to assert that their game is sport. Chess is one of the most beautiful games ever invented, but it is not a sport, and it shouldn't have to be.

For this blog, as a traveler, a travel photographer, an amateur naturalist and birdwatcher, I have, from time to time, fallen into situations that looked much more like sport than any day on the golf course - I had to think quickly, hike a grueling hike, sweat, throw up, draw blood, even feel like I was about to die. The reality, however, is that most of the time what I am doing is safe and mundane, and rarely is it ever technical or competitive. I would never, ever embellish landscape photography or birdwatching into a sport, because they are not sports, they are, like golf, pastimes, and pleasurable at that. There is nothing wrong with that.

But an important component of sport, too, is sportsmanship, and this is one of the most vital aspects of any sport. It is the civility of sport; the part of sport that makes it more than just play - it is what separates man's sport from the savanna and the playground. It is the morality of a game, the respect for competitor and teammate and rules. One of the reasons people reject golf as a sport is that so much of its publicized half - the bigoted golf clubs who through exclusion cast judgment on race and sex, the gated community mentalities, the mean-spiritedness, the unethical golf developers - are still the public face of the game. A sport requires the public face of sportsmanship, and at this, in a year where one of the biggest international stories is the sad story of Tiger Woods' adultery, golf has a long way to go.

From the Facebook Page, Golf is Not a Sport

Olmsted's article is a series of fallacious arguments. For example, he says that golf may be the ' the most technically demanding game in the world', but golf in no way compares to the technical requirements of gymnastics, mixed martial arts or technical rock climbing. Golf is a single swing, but imagine the complexity of a football play or an ice climber's quiver.

Larry writes, "Golf is surprisingly athletic, too. A round of 18 on most courses requires a five-mile hike." A hike and a walk in the park are two very different things. But even hiking is not a sport, it is an outdoor activity, that, if in rugged terrain, is great exercise.

Larry then talks about golf's impact on the environment. He says, " But, to be fair, many ski resorts have an even bigger impact on an ecosystem—it's just that ski marketers understand the importance of messaging and the palliative effects of a wind turbine or two." This is a disingenuous statement. While ski resorts have their share of environment impacts and issues, golf courses are literally a player in some of the most irresponsible losses of biological diversity in some of the most vital biological ecoregions in the world. Golf courses have contributed to the decline of the ecosystems of entire countries, particularly small island nations. In terms of worldwide scope, scale and damage, Olmsted's comparison is simply irresponsible. Olmsted should act responsibly as a journalist and educate himself about golf's real worldwide impact. That would set him apart from other golf journalists.

Olmsted says, "People play for the fun, for the challenge, and—most of all—because it gets them outside. What's so wrong with that?" Absolutely nothing, Larry. But that doesn't make it a sport, and the arrogance in the way you write, both at Outside Magazine and on your blog, callously calling those you disagree with 'stupid' and even 'assholes,' further shows that golf needs the public face of sportsmanship more than it needs to be called a sport.

Enjoy David Tierney's full article.

David Tierney's Letter to the Editor

To the editors of Outside Magazine,
 
Larry Olmsted's article "Chip Shots" was offensive and, simultaneously, accurately represented the sport he defended and the clueless arrogance of many of its participants.  I truly hope that either a) there are so many letters/emails saying the same thing that you don't have time to read mine, or b) I misread and completely missed Mr. Olmsted's facetiousness.
 
"Golf is not a Real Sport"
 
That professional basketball or hockey players don't succeed in golf does not make golf a de facto technically or otherwise demanding -- or even a legitimate -- sport.  Wayne Gretzky might not be successful if he were to attempt professional soccer, and we know what happened when Jordan tried baseball.  Failing at something that is not within your primary area of expertise is hardly a failure, nor does it elevate the difficulty of that activity in which you failed.  And as far as technicality goes, I don't think that's truly at issue.  Knitting is technical, but even the most ardent practitioners aren't pushing the IOC for a future spot.  And speaking of the Olympics...so, they added golf.  Big whoop.  The olympics also has table tennis, rythmic gymnastics, and it used to have tug-of-war.  And they recently dumped baseball.  The olympics is hardly the most consistent measure of a sport's qualifications as a sport.  But who cares:  I hate golf and even I think it's a real sport.  This is not the point.
 
"Right, the environment"
 
I don't know what the environmental effect of a ski resort is on an ecosystem, but I don't see how comparing ski resorts to golf courses defends the environmental practices of golf.  You could say that golf is more environmentally friendly than, say, fishing with dynamite, but I don't think anyone would be deluded into believing that ergo golf is good for coral reefs.  Similarly, "But, it's not a mall!!" is not a sufficient defense.  I, too, am not a mall, but am completely capable of shitting on the planet.    It's what you do, not what the other guy does; it's not a competition to see who is marginally less destructive.  This, however, is also not the point.
 
Before I move on, however, I must mention the Town Car/$10,000 bicycle comment the author made.  A $10,000 bicycle is most certainly an ostentation (and one that I would neither compliment nor defend, unless the rider's Sponsor paid for it), however it does have a primary purpose other than ostentation, unlike a luxury car.  And ostentation is most certainly why a Town Car should be mocked.  The "comfort and luxury" provided by that car (or, alternately, the "performance" provided by a beemer) is -- at best -- thinly (very thinly) veiled bragging.  A $10,000 bike is bragging, too, but it is not a gas-guzzling behemoth which, in overall cost, cubic space occupied, and waste produced, proclaims to the world that the owner has money and doesn't give a fuck about anybody else.
 
Which brings us to the real point. 
 
"Golf's biggest public-relations challenge: golfers."
 
One single round of 18 holes at San Diego's "public" golf course in Balboa Park costs $32.  The least expensive used golf clubs on San Diego's Craig's List today sell for over fifty bucks.  Golf is -- even assuming that you avoid purchasing either spiky shoes or goofy pants-- an expensive sport.  To set up and maintain those vast expanses of alien-species, water-wasting, fertilizer-needing prime real estate, it takes money.  Fortunately golf is not played by the down-trodden.  Despite the author's ludicrous claim that golf requires "only a ball, a club, and a few small holes in the ground," you do not usually find inner-city kids enjoying a round after school at the community park.  Nor would a Saturday morning on the links be very common in Soweto, Gaza, or any number of economically depressed areas in the world.  Golf is a game of money, the old saw about business getting done on the golf course aside.  The average American golfer's income is more than 60% higher than the average American's income.  Over 40% of golfers are managers, professionals, or executives.  Arrogant, paunchy, cigar-smoking snobs?  Perhaps.  But that is hardly necessary for the sport to be obviously income-dependent.
 
Sport is great.  Fun is great.  Being outside is great.  Walking is great.  But don't defend golf on those terms.  There are tons of ways you can accomplish these things away from a bulwark of chainlink fence proclaiming to the world that the worth of those within is greater than those without.
 
That is what's wrong with that.

A new article on the proposed Orchid Bay expansion on Great Guana Cay from the Nassau Tribune:

"Guana Cay residents have urged the Prime Minister to give careful consideration to Orchid Bay's $400 million development plans as they fear it is too large for the island to sustain.

In a strong letter of opposition addressed to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette, "the concerned residents of Guana Cay" have outlined their arguments against Orchid Bay's development plans."

Read the rest of the Orchid Bay article.

On October 28, The Tribune wrote:

"Residents in Abaco yesterday urged the community to come out and protest against two proposed major developments."

Another quote:

With a 200-boat-slip marina at the Bakers Bay development just yards away sitting under-used, resident Stephen Jenkins said he does not see the sense in building another large-scale marina as it would create over 500 boat slips on the 9.25 mile island.

"Business is dead everywhere since the recession. The marinas are empty," Mr Jenkins said.

"And it is all the big developments that are failing."

Link to Article

A similar pattern in nearby Green Turtle Cay: link

A lot is going on in the world of unsustainable golf developments. The biggest news, of course, is that big golf development are failing. For example, here is some news from Bimini. Bimini Bay Resort, the golf and marina resort that would have swallowed up much of North Island's mangroves, was, at least for now, successfully restricted from doing so.

Now that the resort is up and running, it appears not to be doing very well. An article in today's Tribune supports this view with this article. The article begins, "The luxury resort Bimini Bay has laid off 31 people from its 119-member staff because of low occupancy, Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes confirmed yesterday."

The article also says, "tourists are favouring smaller properties like Big Game that give them a Family Island experience." The Tribune has it spot on here: mega-mansion resorts are a thing of the past. While its always sad when real people lose their jobs, the bigger story is that developments like these destroy island economies, and that in the long run, the good folks who lost their jobs at Bimini Bay Resort will be better off in a healthier economy free of big megaresorts like this.

Here are two excellent videos explaining the Bimini Bay Resort's impact on the environment:

Corals at Great Guana Cay underwent a bleaching event while Bakers Bay carelessly underwent construction.

It's happening again.

Corals throughout the world, from the Indian Ocean to the the West Indies, are undergoing bleaching events as water temperatures rise. Here are some articles on the subject:

Wikipedia Entry on Bleaching

Climate Change and Caribbean Bleaching

Kuwait Corals Bleaching

Coral Bleaching Worst since 1998

The Great Guana Cay blog seeks to collect examples of the conflicts between natives versus real estate developers in the Caribbean Basin. Almost all of these stories relate to each other, with hauntingly similar endings. A marine scientist working in the Caribbean sent me some information on the case of Jolly Harbour. I will paraphrase from some background material:

In 1988 on the island of Antigua, of the Caribbean Nation Antigua & Barbuda, a foreign developer asked the Antigua government for permission to build a massive megaresort on the west coast of the island. The project was massive, promising 1,500-2,000 rooms.

The government approved the sale of 53 acres of land for a much-lower-than-market-value. The land was mostly salt ponds and mangrove swamps.

In 1989, construction began, and shoreline vegetation and mangroves were removed, and a channel was cut through the area called Mosquito Cove. The salt pond, nearby beaches and mangroves area were rich biologically, but as the area was leveled, that diversity was lost and the land virtually destroyed.

Over 400 citizens in the area signed a petition to protest the sale of the land by the government. The government balked at the petition, stating that the land was useless.

Citizens began questioning why they were not consulted on the project, and why they had no say in the outcome of their community.

Today, the project has failed but the environment has been ravaged. Here is a quote about the outcome of the project from a Wetlands Preservation pamphlet:

How did this affect the environment?

• Water visibility decreased due to large amounts of sand and mud particles in the water. This reduced the attractiveness of the area for divers.

• The dredging operation led to heavy siltation in Mosquito Cove and other bays down current.

• Sea grass beds in Mosquito Cove died because of the heavy siltation.

• Fish populations in Mosquito Cove declined.

• Sediments from the dredging operations killed most of the corals in Mosquito Cove.

• Hurricane Hugo stirred up the dredge material and made the sediment problems worse.

• The landscape was totally altered to look like a typical Florida marina complex.

• Mangroves, sea grapes and coconuts were bulldozed and burned, reducing coastal protection.

• Wildlife populations declined dramatically. Some species such as West Indian Whistling-Ducks, Blue-winged Teal, American Coot, Osprey and Bahama Pintail stopped using the site. Others such as shorebirds and herons declined in number.

• The villagers felt that the mangrove swamp used to buffer the village from the sea. They think that they would have suffered less damage from Hurricane Hugo if the swamp had not been destroyed.

What happened to the villagers?

• They lost the traditional place where young boys used to play in the mangroves and stalk birds with catapults.

• They lost the closest place to their village in which to fish for mullet, tarpon and other fish, or collect crabs and oysters.

• They lost access to the coconut trees which were a small but important source of food.

• They lost access to game birds, which are no longer present.

• They lost access to important grazing lands for goats and cattle, which have been restricted and posted

• They lost access to a high quality beach at Lignum Vitae Bay where water quality has declined.

• They lost access to the former village beach, at Jolly Beach. Although it is still theoretically a public beach, access is restricted by the fence around the hotel and the absence of an access road. In addition, many people object to the visitors' topless bathing habits.

• They lost a place to keep their fishing boats, which were displaced by dive boats, glass bottom boats and sailboats.

From the Associated Press:

"Now, with the housing market depressed, a dozen or more golf properties in Arizona are in foreclosure or bankruptcy proceedings, he said. The family owned Sea Island Co. — with a stretch of private beaches and ancient oaks in coastal southern Georgia — has also filed for federal bankruptcy protection, proposing to sell its resorts and golf courses, where presidents Coolidge, Eisenhower and George W. Bush have been guests.

A dwindling in the ranks of golfers followed an oversupply of golf courses and then the great recession hit."

Full Article

As Discovery Land Company megadevelopment Spanish Oaks, based in Texas, spiralled towards foreclosure, a blog by residents of the community offer clues about Discovery Land Company and prospects for Bakers Bay. Read the Spanish Oaks blog here. It is a fascinating look at how residents see a Discovery Land property once the property is in trouble.

Here is a sample blog post from March 30, 2010.

You might wish to expand on these topics and prepare now to attend the annual meeting (as of this writing, unscheduled) which is perhaps the most important one we've had in our short life as Spanish Oaks. The more people who speak up, stand up and make their feelings known, the more force it will have. This is no time to be passive-aggressive.

It is said that the annual (2009!) meeting is being held off until they get their financial house in better order.

1- Are funds co-mingled from the golf club to the general project?

2- Why is there only about $5000 in the reserve fund for the project? (Note east side road deterioration.)

3- What is being done about the sorry state of our common areas: weeds, erosion to the 'paths,' the broken curbing, the mail area trash? What is the state of our common area landscaping contract?

4- How does the east end mail area get so trashy AND NO ONE IN MANAGEMENT notices until upset owners complain? How can we insure more pro activity?

5- Is it time to seriously talk about eliminating staffing both gates - at least overnight - to reduce expenses? (Speed passes and push button codes would allow entry.)

6- What plan does Discovery have to revitalize the project?

For new owners note: When Daniel Porter passed control to Discovery, we noted a different view of the 'plan' for the community and what appeared to be a relaxed set of design rules. IF THAT HAPPENS AGAIN, we can expect another set of changes. Will this affect us and how?

Bahamas Punch columnist Nicki Kelly reports coral disease killings corals off Bakers Bay golf course.

Read the PDF

Locals have been reporting Bakers Bay employees in orange hazmat suits spraying the golf course early in the mornings, adjacent to the golf course. In the developer's EIA, the danger of fertilizers is mentioned:

Golf courses are intensive production systems, and the frequent mowing and application of fertilizers or pesticides requires careful management to avoid damage to the surrounding environment. Nitrogen, phosphorus and many pesticides are potential pollutants of groundwater, and monitoring of their movement from turf grass areas to receiving waters is needed. Passerine at Abaco RCD strives to demonstrate golf course best management practices to reduce the threat of NPS pollution to marine and wetland resources.

Golf course fertilizers are notorious for creating a set of conditions unfavorable to corals. These fertilizers have high levels of chemicals such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which spurs the growth of algae in the water, stressing the corals, and making them more susceptible to disease.

Notes from the Road obtained images from divers directly off the Bakers Bay golf course. The images are possible early signs that the golf course is killing the reef as predicted by locals and coral scientists.

Recent aerial imagery of Bakers Bay proves several points we have been making in the past - the lots at Bakers Bay are so tiny, it appears they want to pack them in like sardines in a tin can. And there is nothing wrong with small lots, except in a case like this. Small lots means lots of buildings - 550 are proposed - and that is much too high density for this ecosensitive marine region.

But the aerial images also suggest something else that is quite interesting. Only one home is under construction at Bakers Bay, and one lot has been cleared for construction.

The permit for the first lot is under the name Michael Meldman, the CEO of Discovery Land Company. This means that even in May 2010, it appears that no homes are being built for paying clients. Does anybody know why?

The golf course is in final stages of development. Men in hazmat suits are spraying the course regularly in hopes of turning the sand green with grass. Shouldn't dozens of homes now be under construction? If you have any thoughts on this, reply at Abaco Forum's Rant or on the Great Guana Cay Facebook Forum.

We are also interested in the golf course being built so close to the water. Here, this segment of golf course is placed right on the beach.

The ninth hole at the Bakers Bay golf club. As suspected, the golf course is being built directly adjacent to the beach without sloping to avoid pesticides, pollutants and nutrients from entering the nearshore environment. In the background is Gumelemi Cay and the north end of Great Guana Cay. This area is the beginning of the most critical section of the Great Guana Cay reef.

The EIA stated, "The development design aims to minimize chronic environmental degradation to
the island environment with special consideration to creating a coastal buffer zone, and
minimizing ground water contamination and management of solid wastes and pollutants."

Later, the EIA lambasts developments in other islands where developments are built too close to the shore.

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But in this image, we see that Bakers Bay, like the developments it lambasts, homes are being built as close to the water line as possible. As we suspected.