Guana Cay after Disney
This map shows the northeastern portion of Guana Cay during the short time that Disney used this land as a stopover point for its cruise ship.
For two years, a giant dredging project cut a line through the Sea of Abaco. The dredging project was incredibly expensive and is considered the largest in the Bahamas.
The sand and rock from the dredging project was thrown here, which mounted so high it created an island.
The silt from the dredge spoils island and the dredging itself killed the corals on the Sea of Abaco side and contributed to devastation on the Atlantic side, where white band disease was already rendering damage to the corals.
The development built by Disney was tiny in comparison to the proposed DLC megadevelopment.
Suddenly, it seemed that Discovery Land Company was convincing the press and public that they were fixing the problems caused by Disney. Even on Bahamian forums, the chatter discussed the positives and negatives of the development; some citing that the Discovery Land Company was cleaning up the neglected environmental matters from Disney.
On their website (saveguanacay.com) - designed to make them look like environmental heroes coming in to save Guana Cay, the developer includes a link to their EIA. Much of the EIA spends time discussing the 'numerous' environmental problems caused by Disney.
The EIA, for example, shows a photograph of the abandoned amphitheatre covered by invasive species.
I started wondering, however, why is the developer over-exaggerating the environmental impact made by Disney in the areas of low environmental concern, but ignoring to discuss or point out the real damage made by Disney. In the illustration above, I show the size of the Disney development and explain that the real environmental problem caused by Disney was in the water, killing most corals on the Sea of Abaco side and causing coral death even on the Atlantic side.
Why would Discovery Land Company downplay this part of Disney's devastation while overplaying the litter, the abandoned ruins and the invasive species?
