News Headline | Reef management essential

From Cayman Net News:

Reef management essential

Friday, February 24, 2006

With all the recent talk of increasing tourism to the Sister Islands, it should not be forgotten that the reefs that continue to be the lifeblood of revenue for Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are extremely fragile.

Bloody Bay and Jackson Bight, an area on the north west shore of Little Cayman, is one of the most popular dive sites in the world and, therefore, especially vulnerable to over-diving.

In an effort to protect these reefs, the Marine Conservation Law mandates a special license, granted by the Marine Conservation Board, for commercial vessels to enter this Marine Park.

Under the law, a maximum number of nineteen commercial vessels can enter this area in any one day, each with a maximum of twenty divers. This allows for a total of 380 divers per day.

While the new live-aboard, the Nekton Rorqual, has applied to carry thirty-four divers into Bloody Bay, higher than the twenty currently allowed, it should be noted that individual land-based operators are able to send up to fourteen vessels per week or four per day into the park.

This allows each operator 280 divers per week or eighty per day into an area of breathtaking beauty, the demise of which would be a heavy blow to tourism in the Sister Islands, as well as an environmental disaster.

While these figures are not being reached as yet, perhaps it is time to look at whether these reefs can stand the pressure of so many divers if tourism does pick up, as well as the possibility of a moratorium on licenses to dive Bloody Bay and Jackson Bight.

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