The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

SAVE the Bays environmental group believe the development of a land-based commercial coral farm in Freeport by the conservation group Coral Vita is a blessing for Grand Bahama.

The group broke ground a week ago for construction of the facility that will grow coral in tanks for the restoration of dying coral reefs. It will be the first of a global network of coral farm.

Joseph Darville, chairman of Save the Bays, was among those who attended the ceremony held at the site in the Discovery Bay Subdivision. He told The Tribune the project brings hope to the rejuvenation of the country’s coral reefs.

“When we hear that already 90 percent of our coral reefs have been destroyed probably because of rising sea temperature, and we can see that these reefs can be regenerated and restored over a period of time, it gives us great hope for the continuation our marine ecosystem,” Mr Darville said.

Coral Vita will grow coral 50 times faster than in the natural environment. By utilising the process of micro-fragmentation, the coral will take six to 12 months to grow at the farm as opposed to a lifetime in the ocean.

Mr Darville stated that what Coral Vita will be doing will support the abundance of fisheries and marine life all around the world, not only in the Bahamas.

“I am hoping that coming out of this we will be able to sensitise all levels of the Bahamian society that we have to have extreme respect for what God has given us with respect to the environment and Mother Earth; that all of these ecosystems are here for a particular purpose, and we should never ever destroy them willy-nilly,” he added.

The environmentalist said that like the mangroves, the coral reefs also forms as a buffer to storms to protect coastal areas.

Mr Darville warned that the environment is extremely delicate and the country cannot continue to destroy it with coastal development, oil refineries, and oil storage, etc.

“One incident of spillage and we will destroy the whole thing, and we will have thousands of years before they can be restored,” he said. “With the natural phenomenon of the sea level rise and the warming of the oceans and climate change we are in a detrimental stage right now, ninety percent have died, and we got to make sure we do everything, rather than continue to destroy the reefs and mangroves, we have to see how we are going to restore them.

“This is a blessing to GB,” Mr Darville said of Coral Vita.

The Save the Bays chairman said that the group plans to have environmental students visit the facility when it is open to see how coral grows from the ground up.