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#497138 10/22/14 10:52 AM
Joined: Oct 1999
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Marty Offline OP
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Destruction of Harvest Caye by NCL

Aerial photos from 21st October 2014. An update on what's happening at Harvest Caye, just 3 miles offshore from Placencia. The dredging photos were taken 11th October 2014. A huge suction tube is removing the sediment and dumping it on the mainland.


Click photos for more pictures


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Marty Offline OP
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Mega-Million Cruise Port Construction Underway

Harvest Caye and Stake Bank projects moving along in Belize

The Norwegian Cruise Lines project at Harvest Caye and the Michael Feinstein project at Stake Bank have been subject to controversy, but they continue on.


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Marty Offline OP
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Flying to PG today we got an exclusive look at the real devastation at Harvest Caye. This can not be seen from the ground... suddenly the true horror is revealed.

Source



Artist impression of what Harvest Caye will look like


Harvest Caye construction continues, and by far the largest removal of mangrove in the history of South Stann Creek proceeds nearby at Big Creek. I hope the economic development from these projects can in some way offset the natural capital that is being lost. Those will be substantial losses.



Belizean Mangrove Conservation Network


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What Lighthouse Reef atoll will look like when Puerto Azul is built


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It's just sickening.


A fish and a bird can fall in love, but where will they build their nest?

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We can still stop the Puerto Azul project. And we must.


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As the PM said to me, get over it..


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I do not see the Puerto Azul project as being feasible for a few reasons. When the storms come Northern Two can easily go underwater. We routinely evacuate these areas at the slightest threat of a significant storm. The BTB requires a contingency plan for evacuation for all these resorts, best of my knowledge. The tourists flee even San Pedro any time a storm comes near and the evacuation stretches our transportation infrastructure to the limit. The practical aspects of evacuating a large number of people from Northern Two, workers or tourists, is very daunting and the weather changes fast. It could only be accomplished by air. I think it's a very poorly thought out project and besides the obvious environmental impact it seems impractical to say the least to build or operate.
I built Lighthouse Reef Resorts and have actual experience. When we built the resort we had to police the grounds daily and did not leave a cigarette butt. That should be standard for construction in that area. Weather was a constant consideration.

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Marty Offline OP
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Harvest Caye: A Threat to Our LIVE Corals??

In 2013 Harvest Caye was purchased by the Norwegian Cruise Lines with the intention of constructing a top of the line resort, located about two miles south of the southern tip of the Placencia Peninsula in the Stann Creek District. Dredging works have begun around the caye as the investors have received the green light following an environmental impact assessment that was reportedly conducted � but now, there are concerns of what the works are doing to the corals and marine life as expressed by Marine Biologist, Lisa Carne.

LISA CARNE

"The most pressing concern was the fact that giant pieces of boulder or concrete both artificial and natural pieces were dumped on top of live coral breaking the surface and breaking up the live coral underneath the surface and this is a concern because it is illegal in Belize to damage any live coral, there are fines associated with that and it is completely illegal and it is unclear why this amount of artificial rock was dumped in this area at all; that is a major concern. Another major concern is the silt curtain, so whenever there is dredging most of the EIA requires in their ECP (Environmental Compliance Plan) that they use silt curtains to prevent the soil or the silt from dredging activities to harm the nearby environment and we evaluated two of these silt curtains and one of them was not complete, in others words it did not enclose the area. It is an open end so there was no way to keep all that silt or spoil from coming out on the nearby sea grass areas and the second one that I evaluated and took photos of was damaged so the vertical silk curtain that is attached to the float on the surface was detached meaning it is not doing its job it cannot hold back in the spoils or silt from the dredging."

According to Carne, she visited the area on several previous occasions and found an absence of Elkhorn and staghorn corals in the waters at Harvest Caye but during her visit today, she found the recovery of those corals among others. This, she says, is an indication that the corals have a chance to come back.

LISA CARNE

"For years since 2006,as a matter of fact when I first began work with the Elkhorn which are a critically endangered species I was told by tour guides that they had visited here at Harvest Caye and had been here several times and had been looking for them and I had not found them and today I found, what, based on their size and health are recently recruited so meaning they are recovering in this; which indicates to me that there is a chance for them to come back but with this beach and the plan to move forward they will not have a chance here and that was the exciting thing to see that there was these natural recruits of the stag horn and part of my project is mapping where these corals are in Belize to document where their abundance and distribution. So we can look at where best we can have a restoration site, so, we currently have a restoration site at Laughing Bird Caye National Park and a protected area and I have been mapping all of these inner sea areas so today I found relatively new but very healthy multiple colonies of the stag horn."

Carne's concerns were expressed via letters to the Government and other agencies prior to the approval of the project and now that works have started, she is concerned that certain parts of the compliance plan are not being adhered to.

LISA CARNE

"I have expressed these concerns before permission was granted so when the proposal was first out there I had written letters to all the appropriate government agencies including the Prime Minister expressing my concern about this entire development and we are not even talking about when the cruise ships actually come. We are only discussing and my understanding is the EIA only addresses the development at Harvest Caye it doesn't even address when the cruise ships and the impact of the visitation of the people on the cruise ship meaning when they do their land or marine tours there has been no proper assessment of that environmental or socioeconomic impact assessment on the effect of having these thousands of people come to southern Belize so the EIA is focused on just the development around Harvest Caye and as you know in Belize many Cayes are developed and that is not a crisis but what we are seeing right now, what I saw today is that they are not complying with the existing regulations for respecting live coral, the rules and regulations on how you do dredging even when it is approved and so this concerns me because I think the biggest impact is still to come and at this early stage to see this disrespectful activities indicates to me that there is more yet negative impact to come."

Love News understands that the resort at Harvest Caye will include a private airstrip, almost twelve acres of private residential development as well as hotel rooms, restaurants, a marina, four piers and two beach areas.

LOVEFM


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Marty Offline OP
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DOE Confirms Norwegian Cruise Line Damages Reef


This photo shows Norwegian Cruise Line illegally dumping boulders on healthy, living coral at Harvest Caye in southern Belize. Norwegian Cruise Line is destroying Belize's reef in preparing Harvest Caye as its cruise port.



Harvest Caye: Coral Damage
Click photos for more pictures!

Oceana Belize continues to closely monitor the disturbing reports and photos coming out of the Placencia area regarding the destruction of live coral as part of the initial phases of Norweigan Cruise Line project. We note that the Department of Environment has issued a verbal stop order for the project and we look forward to the full report on the damage caused by the introduction of the artificial material to the area. Again, these incidents highlight the vulnerability of our marine resources. Every effort must be made to ensure their protection.


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