The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I am a business owner on Bimini and have been visiting the island for 16 years. What draws my clients and myself to the island is its pristine beauty, its dive sites, the wild dolphin population, the coral reefs, the ability for people to step outside their normal lives and come and spend time away from it all in a peaceful, natural environment.

This past year, all this is changing. We have had constant pounding echoing through the island from the posts being driven into the coral beds for the new ferry dock.

The beach known as Spook Hill that I walk on every day has had large numbers of corals washed up dead on the beach that were never there before.

The beach level has eroded in one year to six feet lower than before, exposing beach rock.

The yellow polystyrene filled “island” flotation system that Resort World installed in a “show” to create protection for the dredging were not meant for open sea water conditions, they are made for inland waterways and within two weeks of being installed, have broken apart, leaving large quantities of yellow plastic and polystyrene strewn all over the beaches and ocean.

The silt from the dredging is covering all the dive sites for miles, along with the feeding areas that our precious wild dolphin population normally frequent daily. On the island, we are swamped with inadequate sanitation systems and refuse collection, water supply and road safety. This little island was not designed for thousands of tourists to influx as they now are and the infrastructure is not in place to cope with it.

Have you seen the damning reports that Resort World Bimini is getting on Trip Advisor? People over and over again saying it is the worst trip they have ever been on!

Is the Government really going to stand by and let such a terrible company ruin the island? Then possibly go bust and leave all the devastation here? In other countries too, Resorts World has a terrible reputation. Their operation in New York is in the news this week for Managers sexually harassing employees and discrimination. Last week, Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore, was in the news for their captive dolphins dying. Is this the type of tourism and reputation you want in the Bahamas? I think not.

Bimini is now heading the same way as other “resort islands”, it will lose its sense of what people come here for, the delicate marine systems are being destroyed, the island is filthy, the beaches littered with “resorts world” trash. Why is this being allowed to happen? Where are the permits? Who is giving the go-ahead to all this when the environmental impact is obviously being ignored? Bimini needs your help!

I have travelled all over the world and know how precious the last few places on this planet are that represent a little bit of Eden. Don’t let Bimini fall prey to corruption and greed.

JENNIFER COOK

Bimini,

May 19, 2014