Saving the Sandbar

Hon McKeeva Bush	Paul Hurlston

by Alan Markoff

Thursday, May 20, 2004

The protective ‘safety ring’ buoy system around the Stingray City Sandbar in the North Sound should be back in place in the near future, according to the Leader of Government Business and Minister of Environment, Hon McKeeva Bush.

“I was hoping it would be in place by the first of June,” said Mr Bush in an exclusive interview with Cayman Net News on Monday.

Early last summer, a similar buoy system that kept boats outside of the ring was installed around the Sandbar, one of Cayman’s most popular tourist attractions, in order to facilitate safety and environmental protection of the site.

According to many of the North Sound boat operators, the system worked well. However, and after a few short months, the buoys, which were only anchored by cement blocks, started drifting away.

A difference of opinion in Government over who was responsible for maintaining the buoys ensued between the Department of Environment and the Port Authority.

When asked last year if the Port Authority was responsible for maintaining the buoys at Stingray City and the Sandbar, Director Paul Hurlston responded by saying “Stingray City is just a body of water. It is not owned by anyone. There are no regulations. It's not a port as such, so it's outside of port regulations, and until regulations are passed, we are not going to do anything. I don't have the authority to do anything. If I did, then I would act, but as yet, I haven't been instructed to."

In the end, Minister Bush said he made the decision on who would be responsible. “The Port Authority will take command now,” he said.

To make sure that the system is adequately maintained this time, Mr Bush said that the Port Authority would be hiring two people to serve as “caretakers” of the Sandbar.

The revelations came less than one week after a Cayman Net News article suggested that an overall policy on the North Sound was close to being announced, based on a report created by a working group that included representatives from the Cayman Islands Tourism Association (CITA), the Marine Conservation Board and the Land and Sea Co-op.

However, Mr Bush said that no announcement could be made until he actually sees that report. “I don’t know what they (the working group) have done,” he said, “The Ministry has never received their report, and I desperately want to see their recommendations.”

Mr Bush said that he did not want the public to think that his Ministry was the cause of the delay. “No one can say we haven’t taken an interest with the environmental factors of the North Sound,” he said. “We’ve done more than anyone else in passing Marine Laws to protect the environment. We’ve created proper seasons for the taking lobster and conch, and put catch limits on them as well as grouper.”

Other measures to protect the marine environment on the near horizon, according to Mr Bush, are a revised Conservation Law and a new Endangered Species and Propagation Law, both of which he said would be passed during the next Meeting of the House.

As to the issue of overcrowding at Stingray City and the Sandbar, Mr Bush recognises that it is not an easy matter to deal with. “We have a free enterprise community,” he said, “and what most Caymanians hope for is their own little business. The cruise industry has given opportunities to people that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. How do you deny them these opportunities?”

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