LOCAL NEWS...

Dump deal ‘soon come’, claims minister

Cayman News Service
23 September 2020

Protect Our Future protests the dump (Photo by POF member Isabela Watler)

Government is said to be close to signing a deal with the preferred bidder on the long-awaited waste-management project. It has been almost three years since the Ministry of Health selected DECCO and a consortium of waste experts to take on the project, but to date almost nothing has happened on the tender remit and the George Town dump continues to grow, with reuse and recycling accounting for only a fraction of rubbish management.

On Friday, Health Minister Dwayne Seymour, who is responsible for the Department of Environmental Health, which operates the landfills on all three islands as well as garbage collection, claimed that a deal was going to be signed soon. He said that talks with the Dart-led consortium regarding the project had made real progress.

“From the progress that I have seen… next month we hope to sign the total agreement. So we are very close in our negotiations, so I must say there is a lot of progress being made,” he said in response to questions from CNS about the possibility of taking the project into public hands in order to move it along.

Seymour said that work on remediating the dump was underway but it would be next year before any work would begin on the waste-to-energy component of the project, which the government is relying on to all but eliminate the need for a landfill.

However, government has been describing the project as ‘soon come’ for more than a decade. A combination of factors, from backroom dealing to a lack of profitability in waste-management, has thwarted efforts to address what many see as Cayman’s most fundamental environmental and public health problem, even in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Read the whole story here.

Turtles still at risk despite record year

Cayman News Service
23 September 2020

Baby green turtle emerges from a nest and heads to the sea

This year’s turtle nesting season may be a record-breaking year for the number of nests but experts at the Department of Environment are reminding residents that there are still a number of preventable threats for turtles, particularly artificial lighting, which lures the babies as they hatch away from the relative safety of the sea to the dangers of pools, roads and death.

However, as the season stretches on this year, it is proving to be “very promising” and turtles have been laying many eggs, the DoE said on social media. In one deep nest discovered recently researchers watched the babies still emerging five days after the first hatchlings came out.

Following a directive from the National Conservation Council last month, the DoE has implemented an interim protective order to protect critical nesting habitat for turtles in specific parts of Seven Mile Beach. This will force the Central Planning Authority (CPA) to act on the advice of the DoE regarding turtle mitigating strategies for beachfront development, especially lighting, but it has few powers yet to enforce existing properties to change their lights.

Nevertheless, several condo owners and strata have done so anyway, and the department commended “those wonderful properties that are turtle champions and who have changed their lighting to turtle friendly lights”. Read the whole story here.

Heartening island-wide collaboration to get #CaymanCLEAN

Loop Cayman
22 September 2020

From Cayman's Premier, Hon. Alden McLaughlin, to Minister of Finance & Economic Development, Hon. Roy McTaggart, to staff from Engel & Volkers and CTC HR Manager Yentel McGaw-- so many took part in the clean up this weekend

"It was good to be a part of the Chamber of Commerce Earth Day clean up that was postponed from earlier this year due to COVID. I know there were many people involved across our islands, this annual clean up benefits all our communities," said Premier Alden McLaughlin in a Tweet, yesterday of his weekend efforts to take part in the large island-wide clean up that was taking place.

On September 19, the Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual district and beach cleanup. The event coincided with the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Clean up and local groups, families, individuals and corporates from across the island joined in the collaborative effort to keep #CaymanCLEAN. Read the whole story here.

Hundreds take part in delayed Earth Day clean-up

Cayman News Service
21 September 2020

Earth Day clean-up 2020

Hundreds of people across all three Cayman Islands came out on Saturday morning to fill thousands of bags as they cleared the streets, beaches, parks, bustops, roadsides and even mangrove wetlands of rubbish during the delayed Earth Day clean-up. The Chamber of Commerce re-arranged this year’s annual clean-up after the April event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Turnout ranged from the youngest to the oldest members of the community and, unfortunately, there was plenty of trash for everyone to pick up. Participants reported collecting enormous amounts of plastic and noted that this year no one can blame the tourists for the mess on the beaches.

On a positive note, one garbage picker observed that they didn’t find any straws, which indicates that the campaign to encourage bars and restaurants not to give out plastic straws is working. However, there was one major addition this year to the piles of garbage: discarded facemasks.

For the first time this year Ambassadors of the Environment and Cayman Eco used kayaks to get into the mangroves in North Sound and clean up there. The two teams also collected data for the Ocean Conservancy app to track the number and types of items they found among the mangroves. Read the whole story here.

Island wide clean up project & "Mangrove TLC" takes place this weekend

Loop Cayman
17 September 2020

Image source: Cayman National Trust

Ambassadors of the Environment and Cayman Eco are teaming up on World Clean-Up Day, Saturday, September 19, to give the mangroves in North Sound some much-needed TLC.

Participating with over 160 clean-up teams registered with The Chamber of Commerce for the 2020 Clean-up on the shores and streets of Cayman, they will be doing something a little different: paddling out in kayaks to clean up the mangroves in North Sound.

“It’s going to be rewarding to get in there as a team and dig out all of that marine waste that is not just unsightly but harmful to the ecosystem the mangroves support,” said Tammy Kelderman, environmental sociologist and founder of the local environmental non-profit organization, Cayman Eco.

Jordan Charles, Recreation Manager at Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman agrees. Read the whole story here.


Recycling finally available in East End

Cayman News Service
14 September 2020

Recycling containers in East End

Four years after the Department of Environmental Health took over collecting the recycling at supermarkets around Grand Cayman, a request by residents to place recycling containers in East End, the only district in Grand Cayman that did not have any, has been granted. Before these units were placed by the Captain George Dixon Park in the heart of the district, the closest containers were in Savannah at the Countryside Shopping Village.

Michael Haworth, the assistant director of solid waste at DEH, explained, “There are so many benefits to recycling, including reducing the amount of waste sent from the home to the landfill, conserving natural resources, saving energy and helping to create jobs that benefit the environment for the local community.”

However, only a tiny percentage of waste in Cayman is recycled and there are very limited locations for recycling and no kerbside collection.

It is now almost four years since government selected a consortium of companies, led by Dart’s construction company DECCO, to take on the Integrated Solid Waste Management System (ISWMS) that was supposed to herald in a new era of managing our rubbish through reducing, reusing, recycling, composting and a waste-to-energy facility, leaving only a small percentage of garbage going on the dump. Read the whole story here.

UN report: Increased warming closing in on agreed upon limit

Loop Cayman
9 September 2020

FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020 file photo, an air tanker drops fire retardant on a hillside wildfire in Yucaipa, Calif. A hotter world is getting closer to passing a temperature limit set by global leaders five years ago and may exceed it in the next decade or so, according to a new United Nations report released on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

The world is getting closer to passing a temperature limit set by global leaders five years ago and may exceed it in the next decade or so, according to a new United Nations report.

In the next five years, the world has nearly a 1-in-4 chance of experiencing a year that's hot enough to put the global temperature at 2.7 degrees (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial times, according to a new science update released Wednesday by the UN, World Meteorological Organization and other global science groups.

That 1.5 degrees Celsius is the more stringent of two limits set in 2015 by world leaders in the Paris climate change agreement.

A 2018 UN science report said a world hotter than that still survives, but chances of dangerous problems increase tremendously.

The report comes on the heels of a weekend of weather gone wild around the US: Scorching heat, record California wildfires and two more Atlantic storms that set records for earliest 16th and 17th named storms.

Earlier this year, Death Valley hit 130 degrees (54.4 degrees Celsius) and Siberia hit 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius). Read the whole story here.

Cayman joins international cruise activist network

Cayman Compass
2 September 2020

Grassroots groups from several countries, including the Cayman Islands, have joined forces to launch the Global Cruise Activist Network, to demand that the cruise ship industry does not return to ‘business as normal’ post-COVID-19.

The fledgling group, which formed over Zoom meetings in recent months, brings together activists and anti-cruise campaigners from coastal communities around the world. GCAN held its first virtual press conference to launch the network on Wednesday, 2 Sept.

Activists from the Cayman Islands; Southampton, UK; Venice, Italy; Charleston, South Carolina; Monterey, California; New York; and Alaska, were among those who delivered brief reports on the impacts of cruise ships in their respective locations.

Some have been fighting air and water pollution issues; others, like those in Cayman, are opposing plans to build or expand cruise ports in their towns or islands; several were campaigning to reduce the frequency of cruise visits and the numbers of cruise ship passengers descending on their neighbourhoods; and still others were battling against the dumping of cruise garbage...

...The Global Cruise Activist Network has also launched a website, which it says will enable disparate activist groups and individuals around the globe to share information and resources. Read the whole story here.


Voter registration ramping up

Cayman Compass
2 September 2020

Elections Supervisor Wesley Howell said he has seen an increase in people signing up to get on the electors’ roll for the 2021 elections and he’s attributing it to community activity.

“Voter registration is ramping up, voters are also submitting change of address/name/occupation forms in increasing numbers. It is also evident that political hopefuls and grassroots groups have started canvassing, encouraging persons to register to vote,” Howell told the Cayman Compass via email in response to queries about the registration.

Cayman’s general elections are set for 26 May 2021.

Howell said the current voters’ register contains 21,824 individuals who are eligible to vote with 71 new names added. A total of 47 people have been removed from the list due to death or loss of eligibility.
The next voter registration deadline is 1 Oct. and, following that, 4 Jan. 2021, which Howell said “is the last opportunity to register before the May 2021 General Election”. Read the whole story here.


DoE battles threat posed by developments

Cayman News Service
2 September 2020

Emerald Beach where owners want to build a pool
(Photo courtesy of the DoE)

The Department of Environment has made several submissions for the Central Planning Authority to consider when it hears applications today, in a bid to save critical habitat and encourage developers to mitigate the environmental threats their projects pose. DoE concerns about some of these applications include swimming pools that will erode beaches and unnecessary mangrove clearance.

In comments on a proposed subdivision in Franks Sound, the DoE urged the CPA to refuse permission to clear pristine and important habitat on a speculative basis.

“Many of the native hardwood trees growing in this area are hundreds of years old, and they form the structure for a highly complex, interwoven community of native birds, reptiles, invertebrates and other plants. Many of these species are unique to the Cayman Islands,” the DoE said, adding that this type of primary dry forest is in severe decline and that it is already scarce and highly threatened because of previous clearance for development.

In its submissions in relation to the application for a 29-lot residential subdivision deep in the interior, the DoE said it does “not support speculative or whole scale clearing of large subdivision sites”. 
“Land clearing should be restricted to required roadways and installation of services until the development of individual lots is imminent to allow individual lot owners to have the opportunity to retain as much native vegetation as possible,” the DoE said, adding that the ‘Land for Public Purposes’ that would be set aside should be preserved in its natural state to retain at least some of this extremely biodiverse habitat. Read the whole story here.


Baby turtle hatches in daytime on 7MB

Cayman News Service
1 September 2020

Photo courtesy of Cayman Turtle Centre

Beachgoers were treated to a rare sight this weekend when one baby green turtle emerged from Seven Mile Beach in broad daylight at a Cayman Turtle Centre site at Villas of the Galleon. The CTC recently transplanted several dozen eggs laid at the facility to the beach and the young hatchlings began emerging this weekend. But one little straggler didn’t get out until Sunday afternoon and had to battle its way to the ocean in the heat of the mid-afternoon sun.

Officials from the CTC said that the on-site nest watcher had alerted them when the first hatchling’s head popped up through the sand at this transferred ‘nest’. A total of 26 hatchlings emerged at this particular site between Friday evening and Sunday evening, when two more stragglers made it to the beach around sunset.

“This nest was our last translocation of the season and the eggs came from the fifth clutch of this particular breeding female,” said Natalie Porter, the CTC marketing manager. “The early clutches of the season tend to have a higher hatch rate so this nest, at 52% hatch rate, was a little less than we might usually expect.” Read the whole story here.

CPA to hear Balboa beach after-the-fact application

Cayman News Service
1 September 2020

Unauthorised work taking place at Balboa Beach in July
(Photo courtesy of the DoE)

Ten years after the Central Planning Authority issued after-the-fact permission to the owners of Balboa Beach for an original take-away restaurant and following five enforcement notices and six infractions of the planning law, the owners of the waterfront site have made another application seeking permission for work done without authority. The application, which is expected to be heard Wednesday, was made as even more unapproved work was carried out there this summer.

The site has caused significant concern for the Department of Environment, which believes that the owners have consistently flouted planning laws and have done long-term damage to the marine environment in the area. The DoE also argues that the project should have gone through the coastal works application process before going to the Central Planning Authority in the first place.

In this latest application the owners, Waterfront Centre Limited, are seeking after-the-fact permission for the placement of rocks along a dock on the seabed, filled land and expansion of a dock, and the laying of a concrete slab on the ironshore...

...The DoE said the cumulative effective of the work at this site, especially given its proximity to the fish market, has increased marine algae in the nearshore and that the negative impact on water quality is evident. The sediments and beach in the area are often black or grey in colour with a strong odour, exhibiting the anoxic characteristics of a highly disturbed environment. Read the whole story here.


10 ideas to reshape Cayman after COVID-19

Cayman Compass
31 August 2020

Solar panels are visible on the rooftops of home at the Cypress Pointe development.

Over the past two months, our Cayman 2.0 series has cast a wide net in an effort to determine what changes the coronavirus crisis will bring to Cayman.

In a series of special features, we examined both the consequences of the virus and the ideas for how we can come out the other side.

Here, we summarise 10 of the most intriguing ideas for the islands’ future. These are not the Compass’s suggestions, but are gleaned from dozens of interviews, reports, public discussions and round tables, compiled as part of this series.

1. Affordable high-quality internet for all
2. Develop a tech economy
3. Commit to sustainable tourism
4. Invest in renewable energy
5. Wholesale reform of public transport
6. A world-class university
7. Capitalise on the work-from-home trend
8. Link training to workforce needs
9. The end of the road for the cruise pier?
10. Financial aid for economic victims

Read the whole story here.

Mangrove rangers begin training

Cayman Compass
25 August 2020

Mangrove rangers did the first of three training sessions last Saturday.
- Photo: Mangrove Education Project

For young Caymanian Milo Dack, protecting Cayman’s mangroves is not just a duty, it’s a calling he’s felt since he first started working as a tour guide in his teens.

He is one of 10 Caymanians training to be mangrove rangers in an initiative spearheaded by Mangrove Education Project director Martin Keeley.

“I think that it’s important that we start to educate young Caymanians, that… it’s important that we start to understand the importance of the ecosystem and the importance of the mangroves particularly,” Dack told the Cayman Compass in a Zoom interview Monday.

The project, a local non-profit organisation, launched the mangrove rangers initiative to mark World Mangrove Day last month. Read the whole story here.

Westin plans new 10-storey tower

Cayman News Service
25 August 2020

The Westin Hotel, Grand Cayman

The group that owns the Westin hotel is the latest to submit plans to redevelop a Seven Mile Beach site that will include a ten-storey tower, the maximum height allowed there now. The National Conservation Council has agreed that the project will not require an environmental impact assessment but said there are a number of issues that will need to be addressed before the project should get the green light.

In its screening opinion on behalf of the NCC, the Department of Environment said there were sustainability problems that this latest tower and redevelopment would cause that need further study, including the risk to turtle nests and the overshadowing one of the beach’s oldest condominium sites as well as Government House.

The Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach Resort & Spa underwent a $50 million revamp in 2017, but Invincible Investment Corporation has now applied to undertake a much more ambitious project. This redevelopment will change the entire face of the hotel and include bulldozing the buildings at the southern end of the site where the new tower and other facilities will be constructed.

The project includes a number of changes in addition to the ten-storey tower, which will overshadow the Villa of the Galleon condos, one of the oldest tourism sites in the area. The upshot will be an expanded convention centre, another swimming pool, more hospitality facilities and an additional 239 rooms, significantly increasing the current room stock at the Westin to 559.

The DoE said that an EIA was not necessary but noted that there would still be moderate adverse impacts on ecology because of an increase in artificial lighting and the loss of turtle nesting habitat due to more hard structure encroachment on a nesting beach. Although the DoE suggested mitigation measures, they said that when the Central Planning Authority reviews this application, the members should give careful consideration the minor impact from noise and vibration during construction, combined with the cumulative over-development of Seven Mile Beach. Read the whole story here.

NCC votes for increased turtle protection

Cayman News Service
24 August 2020

A turtle was disoriented and fell into a swimming pool

A green turtle narrowly escaped poachers in West Bay recently after a member of the public called 911 to report an attempt to steal her away as she came onto the beach to nest. Conservation officers responded quickly and got her back in the sea, and then watched the beach through the night. However, the National Conservation Council (NCC) made two important decisions last week that will add to turtle protection.

Although the Department of Environment has made great strides in the conservation of wild turtles and supporting their ability to nest on all three islands, factors such as thoughtless lighting, over-development and poaching are making it difficult for these endangered species to nest.

But the NCC has now voted to implement an interim directive to protect critical habitat for turtles which will force the Central Planning Authority (CPA) to act on the advice of the DoE on turtle mitigating strategies for beachfront development on designated beaches.

Up till now the DoE could only give its recommendations to the CPA, which could and did ignore them. But with the new interim directive the DoE can direct the CPA to insist that any new project or upgrades are contingent upon the installation of turtle-friendly lighting and vegetation buffers between the developments and the beach.

Four nests in a critical area were damaged by heavy equipment late last year at a Seven Mile Beach development. As well as frequent reports of the disorientation of thousands of baby turtles every season because of inappropriate beachfront lighting, earlier this month the DoE had to rescue an adult turtle that had fallen into a swimming pool at a Seven Mile Beach condominium complex. Read the whole story here.


Plan afoot to save extremely rare plant

Cayman News Service
21 August 2020

Aegiphila caymanensis (Photo by Nick Johnson)

The critically endangered Aegiphila caymanensis is a woody, clambering shrub with soft, downy leaves that is unique to Grand Cayman and so rare that it has no common name and until recently was believed to be growing only in two places on the island. The National Conservation Council has drafted a species conservation plan in order to ensure the survival of this mysterious plant and is seeking public support.

The NCC has voted to circulate the plan and open a public consultation for its preservation and to also find a common name for the endemic plant, which is understood to be a type of spirit vine, though it is not actually a vine but a shrub.

The last of this species was thought to be growing only at the Health City site in East End and on farmland in North Side, but last May another one was discovered in West Bay by a plant expert on a ‘lockdown walk’.

Fred Burton, manager of the Department of Environment Terrestrial Resources Unit and renowned botany expert, said that very little is known about this incredibly rare shrub. It does not appear to be a habitat specialist as all three sites where the plant is surviving are different environments. Read the whole story here.

National Trust calls for locals to buy back Cayman

Cayman News Service
20 August 2020

Mangroves (Photo by Omari Rankine)

The National Trust for the Cayman Islands has launched a new campaign urging local people to buy back Cayman and save the islands’ dwindling natural resources from the bulldozer. Buying land to conserve it for the Cayman people so that no one can ever develop it is one of the main goals of the Trust. But it is becoming increasingly difficult, officials have said, given the high price of land here, so the non-profit organisation is asking the people to help.

Every little helps, Trust director Nadia Hardie said this week, as she raised concerns about the pressing need to buy critical habitat to save in perpetuity for future generations before it is too late.

“I am very concerned that Cayman will be looking to develop its way out of this economic slump and fill the hole left by tourism with construction,” she told CNS, as she explained that the new campaign was used by the National Trust in Bermuda to great effect.

When the Trust buys land, its own legislation prevents it from being sold for development, so as long as it remains in the Trust’s hands, critical habitat will not be under threat from being covered in concrete, Hardie explained.

Worried about the massive loss of mangrove habitat in particular, she said that whether we accept it or not, the seas are rising and Cayman is low lying and flat and on the front line of climate change.

“But no one is really talking about climate change and what will happen here much sooner than people may realise,” she said, emphasising the importance of preserving the natural habitats that can protect us. “In the same way the reef can protect the coastline from storms, the mangroves protect the land from flooding.” Read the whole story here.

‘Earth Overshoot Day’ Is This Week

The New York Times
20 August 2020

Saturday is Earth Overshoot Day, the date when humanity will have used “all the biological resources that Earth can renew during the entire year,” as calculated by Global Footprint Network, an environmental research organization.

The group has been doing this annual assessment since 2006. Since then, Earth Overshoot Day has been creeping earlier most years. This year, with the coronavirus pandemic putting a dent in the global economy, was one of the few when it arrived later than the previous years.

To determine the date, Laurel Hanscom, the Global Footprint Network chief executive, said the group collects more than 15,000 data points per country, largely from United Nations sources.

Researchers then compare Earth’s biocapacity (the amount of resources the planet’s land and seas can generate in a year) to humanity’s ecological footprint (that year’s demand for things like food and urban space, and forests to absorb our emissions of carbon dioxide), determine the gap and project the results onto the calendar.

If the whole world consumed like the United States, by the way, we would’ve hit Overshoot Day on March 14 this year. Read the whole story here.

Investing with a purpose – the ESG way

Cayman Compass
by Siddhant Jain Jaiswal
14 August 2020

Facing existential crisis, it is only natural that human perspective will change for better or for worse.

Although the pandemic is first and foremost an existential public health threat, it also likely represents the dawn of a new economic world order and a reshaping of the global economy.

Today’s new environment offers an opportunity for companies, governments and civil society groups to think critically about what their role might be in creating a more resilient future. The investment industry is not immune to this either.

One critical way of thinking on how to create resilience is ESG investing. ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance-related parameters used to assess how companies are interacting with all their stakeholders and society in general as part of their business processes. The term ESG was first used in a December 2004 report titled, “Who Cares Wins.” The focal message in the report was that, ultimately, successful investment depends on a vibrant economy, which depends on a healthy civil society, which is ultimately dependent on a sustainable planet. Read the whole story here.

Climate change really does seem to affect hurricances

The Royal Gazette (Bermuda)
14 August 2020

Life in the Atlantic-Caribbean region is often equated to living in paradise or the closest thing to heaven on earth.

Who could disagree?

No matter where one lives in the region, we have the following going for us; almost 365 days of warm sunshine, fresh clean air, fifty shades of crystal clear waters, colourful fauna and flora and most of all warm and friendly people speaking a variety of dialects.

However, living in the region has also shown us we could be caught up in the crosshairs of some of the most violent hurricanes in history.

Here is a snapshot of some of what we have had to contend with over the past two decades:

• Hurricane Ivan 2004: Cayman Islands
• Hurricane Irma 2017: Anguilla, BVI, Turks & Caicos Islands
• Hurricane Maria 2017: Puerto Rico
• Hurricane Dorian 2019: Bahamas
• Hurricane Humberto 2019: Bermuda

There were more, many more; however, this gives a brief reminder that almost every island grouping in the region has been severely affected by these acts of nature.

There is sufficient data that shows a correlation between climate change; in particular, warming sea temperatures and the increase in the frequency and strength of hurricanes:

“The analysis, of satellite images dating to 1979, shows that warming has increased the likelihood of a hurricane developing into a major one of Category 3 or higher, with sustained winds greater than 110 miles an hour, by about 8 per cent a decade.” — The New York Times (May 18, 2020)

So, for us in the region, climate change has a negative effect on our very lives. Read the whole story here.

PR drive begins for three-year-old energy policy

Cayman News Service
11 August 2020

Solar panels on the Tomlinson Building (Photo courtesy Affordable Solar Cayman)

With the clock ticking on the ambitious goals set out in the National Energy Policy, which was adopted more than three years ago, the Ministry of Infrastructure is beginning a new public relations and education campaign to promote energy efficiency. However, government has not yet taken any meaningful action to achieve the goal of reducing Cayman’s near total dependence on fossil fuels to under 30% by 2037.

The energy policy was drafted seven years ago and adopted by Cabinet in February 2017 but very little has been done to get Cayman to achieve the target of a 70% cut in the use of diesel.

CUC is now generating somewhere in the region of 5% of the electricity it supplies through renewables via the solar farm in Bodden Town, owned by BMR Energy, as well as the Customer Owned Renewable Energy (CORE) programme, which is fully subscribed, and the Distributed Energy Resource (DER) programme. While the company hopes to be providing just a quarter of the power supply through non-renewable by 2025, Cayman still remains a long way off the policy target.

Officials are planning to use the campaign to “create awareness” and an understanding of “how energy is supplied and consumed in Cayman, and the goals that have been put in place to improve on these processes”.

The education drive was described in a press release issued Monday, announcing the campaign as the first step in implementing the policy. But there is still nothing tangible on the table from government about meeting Cayman’s future energy needs. Read the whole story here.

Too big to fail?

Cayman Compass
11 August 2020

For the cruise industry, the coronavirus has been a health emergency, an economic disaster and a public-relations nightmare.

With the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintaining a ban on cruise travel and with many islands, including Grand Cayman, unsure if and when they will allow ships to return, there appears to be no immediate solution on the horizon.

The Royal Caribbean Group recently posted second quarter losses of $1.6 billion. Carnival Corporation reported an adjusted net loss of $2.4 billion for the same period.

Despite that outlook, industry leaders remain optimistic about the long-term future citing the size and resilience of the industry to past shocks, including 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis.

Michele Paige, president of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association, said it was important for the cruise lines, and the island economies they support, that the industry comes back stronger in the long term..."

“...Asked about Grand Cayman’s cruise pier debate, she said the island should do what it thought was best for its people. But she suggested the trend of moving towards larger cruise ships that will not tender would continue over the coming years.

Marie McKenzie, of Carnival Corporation, made similar comments in a roundtable discussion hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization last month. She said Carnival had sold off 13 ships in the aftermath of COVID-19, but had held on to its larger ships.

'We have to make sure the ships we have out there are really attractive to our guests,' she said..." Read the whole story here.


‘Saltwater in Their Veins’ exhibition

Cayman Compass
6 August 2020

'The Goldfield' (2020) by John Broad

The relationship between the Cayman Islands and the sea is well documented, including a proud history of Caymanian seamen.

The National Gallery of the Cayman Islands recently launched a new exhibition of works from the National Collection that explores Cayman’s maritime culture. Inspired by a quotation from Captain Edward Watson, discovered in the Cayman Islands National Archive, ‘Saltwater in Their Veins’ follows a loose chronological journey that highlights the enduring association that local artists and the community have with the marine environment.

“As an island nation located in the heart of the Caribbean Sea, our identity is intrinsically tied to the surrounding ocean,” the curatorial statement from the gallery declares. “Historically, the ocean provided us with sustenance and prosperity via seafaring, shipbuilding and turtling. Later, remittances sent home by seamen during the ‘Southwell Years’ helped lay the foundations of our modern economy. More recently, this has been eclipsed by marine tourism and a reliance on the maritime-based import and export of our goods and food.

“It is an ever-evolving relationship, and as we look forward, the question of environmental sustainability comes to the fore. How will the threat of global warming and concerns about rising sea levels shape our future?” 

This legacy is examined in the exhibition by 45 artists and more than 80 works of art from the gallery’s collection, including loaned pieces from the Cayman Islands National Museum and Cayman National Cultural Foundation. Read the whole story here.


Cross-entity director needed for climate policy

Cayman News Service
5 August 2020

If the Cayman Islands Government is to navigate its way through the impending negative impact of climate change, it will need a director dedicated to the issue who can coordinate policy across all of the relevant ministries. Department of Environment (DoE) Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie told Finance Committee last week that the issue of climate change is not confined to environment and covers many different areas.

Answering questions about the 2011 climate policy, which government has still not adopted, Ebanks-Petrie said her department had tried to implement as much of it as possible but obviously that was limited.

“One of the big issues for us is that climate change is not just an environmental issue; it spans many different sectors, public and private,” she told lawmakers.

“We have been advocating for some time that the matter of climate change be elevated to a position where someone has the authority to direct the many different entities across government to act and participate in preparing the country for climate change and putting in mitigation measures,” she added. Read the whole story here.

Environmental groups recognise World Mangrove Day

Cayman Compass
4 August 2020

Kayaking is a great way to get up close and personal with this important ecosystem.

To commemorate World Mangrove Day (26 July), multiple environmental organisations came together to launch an awareness campaign, culminating in an educational kayak event last Saturday around the Safehaven area.

More than 50 interested residents attended the event organised by the Mangrove Rangers, Ambassadors of the Environment, Mangrove Education Project, and Cayman Mangrove Conservation.

In the week following World Mangrove Day, a series of educational features highlighted the true value of this ecosystem. These included the brand new Mangrove Rangers website (mangroverangers.ky), social media posts, thought-provoking videos, and content related to the Mangrove Species Conservation Law.

Participants learned firsthand how mangrove ecosystems function, together with their associated species, such as cassiopea, fiddler crabs, and many juvenile fish, which rely on mangrove roots to protect them while they grow.

They also learned how to classify the key types of mangroves (red, black, white), in addition to recognising their special traits. For many residents, this was their first time in a kayak and their first major lesson about this ecosystem. Many were surprised to learn that nearly 70% of Grand Cayman’s mangroves have been destroyed since the 1970s.

The new Mangrove Rangers in training will be announced at the end of the month and will begin operations in September.

BP to cut dividends as it prepares for fossil fuel decline

Loop Cayman
4 August 2020

BP plc said Tuesday it plans to slash dividends as the global oil company prepares for declining sales of fossil fuels by boosting investment in alternative energy projects.

London-based BP said it will increase spending on low-carbon technology, including renewable energy projects, 10-fold to $5 billion a year over the next decade. The company expects oil and gas production to drop by about 40 percent over the same period.

To help finance the strategic shift, BP said it will cut dividends to 5.25 cents a share from 10.5 cents in the first quarter.

That will help the company meet its previously announced goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner.

BP announced the shift as it reported a second-quarter operating loss of $6.68 billion as the COVID-19 pandemic cuts oil prices and demand for energy.

The figure, which excludes one-time items and changes in the value of inventories, compares to an operating profit of $2.81 billion in the same period last year. 

"These headline results have been driven by another very challenging quarter, but also by the deliberate steps we have taken as we continue to re-imagine energy and reinvent BP,'' chief executive Bernard Looney said. Read the whole story here.

Caymanian artist gives new meaning to beach waste

Cayman Compass
30 July 2020

Kerwin Ebanks stands beside his mosaic of seabirds and marine creatures.
Photo: Alvaro Serey

In artist Kerwin Ebanks’ workspace, he has amassed supplies from all over the region. He can trace the material, now overflowing from his supply shed, to St. Croix, Haiti, Venezuela and elsewhere.

The origin of each item relies largely on the wave patterns around Cayman’s shores, he explains, speaking at Cayman Handmade Collective, the location of his next exhibition, ‘Manavelins’.

His collection of sea-inspired sculptures and mosaics is crafted from ‘found’ items, discovered while combing Cayman’s beaches.

Depending on the currents, these items – plastic bottles, fishing nets, shoes, coat hangers – wash in from different locations.

Much of the material he uses is recovered during clean-ups by Plastic Free Cayman, the Department of Environment, Trash Talks Cayman or Ebanks himself. Read the whole story here.

Community Notice: Botanic Park hosts Orchid Sale

Caymanian Times
30 July 2020

Image courtesy of Pinterest.ie

The Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park in partnership with the Cayman Islands Orchid Society is hosting an Orchid Sale on Saturday, 1st August 2020. This latest sale is set for 9:00am to 3:00pm at the Botanic Park on Frank Sound Road, North Side and will feature outdoor orchids only.

The fundraising sale will be held inside the Rotary Schoolhouse, and will host a range of plants from the stunning Vanda Orchid to the fragrant Chocolate Orchid. All plants will be will be individually priced and of flowering size but not necessarily flowering at the time of sale.

Orchid lovers can also expect to hear a talk from the Botanic Park’s Horticultural Manager, Nick Johnson on orchid tying and potting. Mr. Johnson has been propagating and growing orchids for 25 years representing a wealth of knowledge and expertise, ideal for the beginner and intermediate orchid grower.

Admission is $5.00 for adults while children 12 and under are free. Spend the day enjoying the natural surroundings of the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park and take home an orchid or two in support of the Park and the Orchid Society.

Requests for the propagation of plants found at the Park can also be arranged, and a variety of other types of plants will also be on sale in the Botanic Park’s Visitor’s Centre.

To learn more, email manager@botanic-park.ky or call 947-9462.

CUC pushing for utility-scale solar energy

Cayman Compass
27 July 2020

An array of more than 20,000 solar panels is now operating in Bodden Town.

Renewables in the form of large-scale solar plants should be at the centre of Cayman’s energy mix of the future, according to electricity provider Caribbean Utilities Company.

Richard Hew, president and CEO of CUC, told the Public Accounts Committee last Thursday that, for the first time, utility-scale solar plants are competitive in terms of cost and ready to replace much of the currently cheaper diesel-generated energy in Cayman.

Questions by the committee focussed largely on energy cost, including CUC’s fuel charge for diesel and the cost of renewables.

Committee member Chris Saunders probed why the electricity provider was pushing for more renewable energy if, according to CUC’s own annual report, the cost was significantly higher than that of diesel-generated electricity. “If it is something that is more expensive, then the question anyone would ask is why are we doing it?” Saunders said.

Hew said both the public and CUC would like to see renewables but in the past neither utility-scale nor rooftop solar could compete with the price of diesel. Read the whole story here.


Green turtle rescued from cemetery

Cayman News Service
27 July 2020

An endangered green turtle was rescued from a cemetery on Sunday by a volunteer with the Department of Environment after the animal became disorientated and got trapped between graves. Amanda Brown found the turtle on her beach walk at the cemetery in West Bay. This is another example of how beachfront development and the lights are putting turtles at risk by confusing hatchlings as well as nesting adult females.

“This morning on my sea turtle nest monitoring walk with the Department of Environment I came across a sea turtle nest with tracks leading into a nearby cemetery,” Brown said in a DoE social media post.

“This green sea turtle became disoriented after nesting and walked all throughout the cemetery before getting stuck between several graves. Thankfully with the help of a DoE conservation officer, the incredible Lorri Lamb, and another volunteer we managed to lift the green sea turtle out from between the graves and guided her back down to the beach where she could return to the ocean.”

Brown said while it was “marvelous to see this green sea turtle up close”, it was “scary to see just how close she was to ending up on a busy nearby road”. Read the whole story here.

CUC boss says future of power is solar

Cayman News Service
24 July 2020

Solar Farm in Bodden Town

Whether solar panels in the Cayman Islands should be mainly located on rooftops or on land farms to meet the proposed energy goals may be up for debate, but Richard Hew, the CEO of Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC), is certain that the sun will provide the country’s future power needs. Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, he explained that as battery technology improves and costs fall, solar will soon produce the bulk of local electricity.

Hew also said that, because it is cleaner than diesel, CUC would likely use liquid natural gas (LNG) as back-up fuel to ensure continuity of service for its generators.

Renewable fuel sources currently still cost more, with the complexities of the CORE programme and the company’s system to allow people to stay on the grid, but in time utility scale solar farms will decrease the cost of generating electricity from the sun.

Hew said that fuel costs may have fallen again, making diesel less expensive, but with new technology, in the long run solar power will be equal to the price of diesel and the cost will be more stable, which will move Cayman away from the “price roller-coaster” of the oil market. Read the whole story here.

Renewable energy offers huge jobs potential for post-COVID Cayman

Cayman Compass
21 Juy 2020

Rising power: Solar energy is a jobs engine in North America.

A genuine commitment to renewable energy could help drive a green jobs revolution as Cayman seeks to kickstart the economy in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis, industry leaders believe.

The country’s National Energy Plan already sets a target that 70% of our power supply should come from renewables by 2037.

But clean-power advocates hope the economic crisis will inject new urgency into making that target a reality.

Until now, much of the debate about renewable energy has focussed on balancing the desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the need to keep utility bills down and ensure the lights stay on when the sun doesn’t shine.

But with thousands of people out of work and whole sectors of the tourism economy in long-term peril, the focus is shifting to another less heralded aspect of the switch to renewables – employment. Read the whole story here.


DOE issues bonfire warning

Cayman Compass
21 July 2020

The Department of Environment is warning the public against illegal bonfires after three instances of bonfires too close turtle nests were found. Photo: DoE

The Department of Environment is advising the public not to light unapproved bonfires on beaches after some fires were found to have been set close to turtle nests.

The DoE, on Tuesday, reminded members of the public that they must apply for permission to light bonfires from the Department of Environmental Health, as it raised concerns about the threat posed to the safety of turtle nests and hatchlings.

“Bonfires present a serious risk as nest numbers increase, and already this year in at three least incidents DoE staff and volunteers have seen evidence of fires being built extremely close to turtle nests,” DoE marine research officer Janice Blumenthal told the Cayman Compass Tuesday. Read the whole story here.

Five ideas for a green recovery

Cayman Compass
20 July 2020

Protecting the environment and creating jobs are not mutually exclusive aims say DOE researchers.

As Cayman plans its vision for a post-COVID future, ideas are emerging for a green recovery. Here we summarise some of the recommendations from various reports and advisors that they say can help grow jobs and protect the environment.

1. Commit to renewable energy

Installing solar panel systems is expected to be the fastest-growing employment category in the United States over the next decade, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Investment in renewable energy, particularly rooftop solar, in Cayman, could help the island achieve similar jobs growth, says James Whittaker, head of the Cayman Renewable Energy Association.

The Rocky Mountain Institute in the US, which provides technical support and, in some instances, secures grant funding for Caribbean islands aiming to reduce their reliance on oil, also highlights diversified energy as the key to creating jobs across the Caribbean as part of the post-COVID economic recovery. Read the whole story here.


Green recovery proposed for post-COVID Cayman

Cayman Compass
20 July 2020

Nature-based tourism, including wildlife interactions, could help reposition Cayman as a sustainable tourism destination. Photographer Courtney Platt, who took this image of reef sharks at stingray sandbar in 2018, believes expanded protection for Cayman’s marine life could incentivize high paying tourists to come to Cayman to witness scenes like this.

Environmental protection and economic growth have typically been viewed as opposite sides of the argument in the debate over Cayman’s long-term future.

But a green stimulus, including investment in renewable energy, eco-tourism and walking and cycle paths, could help protect our resources and create jobs, according to the authors of a report proposing a sustainable approach to the post-COVID recovery.

Construction has been highlighted by government leaders as an industry that can help carry the islands’ economy amid a sustained downturn in tourism.

But researchers at the Cayman Islands Department of Environment believe the crisis has created an opportunity to rethink the island’s approach to development.

It is not a binary choice between saving jobs and protecting the island’s natural beauty and biodiversity. Read the whole story here.


'Caribbean Food security can come from within'

Loop Cayman
16 July 2020

One lesson the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has taught the Caribbean is that it cannot continue to look to the United States of America as its pillar for food security.

This was the consensus of panellists at Wednesday's Mission Food Possible webinar titled: 'Mobilising Change at a Grass Roots Level to Improve Food Security in the Caribbean'.

“Why are we importing fresh fish from North America?” Professor Alafia Samuels asked as she noted the food industry has spent billions to encourage Caribbean people, particularly the youth, to consume unhealthy products.

“We cannot compete with them for advertising so it means that we are going to have some policy level interventions at the population level,” she said.

Samuels highlighted that childhood obesity has risen significantly over the last 17 years in her home country Jamaica due to processed food.

Samuels said Caribbean people need to remove processed food from their diets and return to the land by eating fresh fruits, vegetables and protein that are harvested within their community. Read the whole story here.


Native Plant of the Week

Cayman Compass
16 July 2020

Phyllanthus caymanensis

Height: 10 feet high x 6 feet wide

Growth habit: Full and round

Flowers: A single small white/pink-throated flower is born in the leaf axil. It will hang in the middle of the small leaf, and as a pendulum later on.

Soil requirement: Well-drained, good soil. In the wild, it is found in leaf litter between rock pockets.

Light requirements: Full sun to part-shade

Environment tolerance: Drought, but not wind-tolerant.

DISTRIBUTION

This plant is endemic to the Cayman Islands only; it is found on Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.

DESCRIPTION

Phyllanthus caymanensis has small, heart-shaped deep-green leaves defined by a red pencil edging. It will come into bloom several times a year. A single, two-toned diminutive flower that hangs in the leaf crescent when young, will fall in a pendulum when it is mature and fruits. A round fruit will form at the end of the pendulum. The entire plant is blushed in a pink hue when in bloom and is very dainty as a whole.

HORTICULTURE POTENTIAL

This is a lovely, tall bush, and as such, it makes a perfect landscape specimen. It is a flora jewel that is found only in the Cayman Islands. Read the whole story here.



Five reasons why we all need to get back out with the stingrays

Loop Cayman
14 July 2020

According to a few recent changes in the COVID regulations, it looks like this Yardie is going to get to swim with the stingrays much sooner than planned!

I've already called out to mi bredren Paul at Northside Charters for a one-on-one visit with my silver pals. After all, with only the Cayman Islands Department of the Environment feeding them all these months, they must be yearning for some variety in humans.

Yardie in Cayman to the rescue!

Just for the sake of accuracy, let me stress that Stingray City is not fully reopened. Private vessels don't have access as yet, but commercial vessels with wildlife interaction zone (WIZ) licences for Stingray City and the Sandbar have access. Public gathering restrictions of up to ten people still hold in "the city" which is totally fine with me, because I don't like crowds anyway. 

Let's see what happens when the rules change again on August 2... 
But I digress... let me give you a few reasons why I can't wait to get back to these little (and not-so-little) guys that have somehow become synonymous with the Cayman Islands...

1. Globally, their numbers are decreasing

We are so lucky to have an actual site dedicated to this rapidly declining species worldwide. Due to overfishing, habitat loss, climate change and given that many are also hunted for their gill rakers for use in Chinese medicine, there are currently 539 species of ray under the IUCN Red List, with 107 classified as threatened. Read the whole story here.


Port petition ‘dead’ along with project

Cayman News Service
13 July 2020

Premier Alden McLaughlin

The petition requesting a people’s referendum on the construction of the cruise berthing facilities in George Town harbour is “dead” along with the project itself, Premier Alden McLaughlin has told CNS. Despite calls from the Cruise Port Referendum campaign that they want the vote to go ahead on Election Day, McLaughlin does not believe it can because the project the petition is related to is no longer on the table.

Although there has been no official declaration that the deal government struck with Verdant Isle Port Partners, which includes two cruise lines, is officially dead, the premier has stated on several occasions that his government will not pursue this project during the remainder of this administration.

McLaughlin believes that the petition securing a people’s referendum under section 70 of the Constitution is no longer valid. Pointing to promotional material on the CPR website, the premier has said that the petition itself refers to the specific project that the government had been working on.

“The project is dead, so is the petition,” McLaughlin told CNS. “Isn’t it ironic that CPR, having fought to prevent the referendum from being held and even now claiming to have won by effectively scuttling the project, are now campaigning for a referendum to be held on a dead project?” Read the whole story here.

DoE preps for Sandbar reopening

Cayman Compass
10 July 2020

Stingray City (Photo courtesy of visitcaymanislands.com)

Restrictions at Stingray City and the Sandbar are set to be lifted on 19 July and the Department of Environment is preparing for the return of visitors to the North Sound sites.

DoE Deputy Director Tim Austin said his team has been working with the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation to research the impact of the absence of human interaction on the rays during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“It was a unique opportunity to look at the Sandbar without the influence of tourists or visitors. So [the Guy Harvey team] have been helping us. They were given the exemptions to go out there,” he said.

The researchers and DoE staffers have been the only people allowed at the Sandbar in the last four months. DoE staff have been feeding the animals. On average, about 30 rays have been counted at each feeding.

As the government moves to lift the ban on the Wildlife Interaction Zones, local tour operators are being reintroduced to the sites. Read the whole story here.


UN: World could hit 1.5-degree warming threshold in 5 years

Loop Cayman
9 July 2020

Photo courtesy of Stormcarib.com

The world could see average global temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average for the first time in the coming five years, the UN weather agency said Thursday.

The 1.5-C mark is the level to which countries have agreed to try to limit global warming. Scientists say average temperatures around the world are already at least 1 C higher now than during the period from 1850-1900 because of man-made greenhouse emissions.

The World Meteorological Organization said there is a 20 percent chance that the 1.5 C level will be reached in at least one year between 2020 and 2024. Read the whole story here.

Is Remote Work Good or Bad for the Environment?

CMS Wire
8 July 2020

Photo courtesy of securityintelligence.com

Remote work sounds great, but is it sustainable and/or good for the environment? Let's begin by looking at the typical arguments from both sides.

First let's look at the common reasons remote work is considered bad for the environment:

• Office buildings are designed to utilize energy better than homes. Therefore, getting everybody into a heated or cooled building used less energy than each worker heating or cooling their individual home.
• Materials and transportation to ship supplies or equipment to remote workers burn environmental resources.
• People working from home might need to travel more to have in-person meetings or to see clients.The energy and bandwidth you use on things like video calls translate to CO2 emissions, meaning that computer and internet usage aren’t without consequences.

Read the whole story here.

Public rights of way motion withdrawn

Cayman Compass
4 July 2020

Savannah MLA Anthony Eden wants the public to be educated on mechanisms available to them to protect public rights of way.

Savannah MLA Anthony Eden has called for more education on the mechanisms available to the public when it comes to protecting rights of way for accessing local beaches.

He made the call Thursday night in the Legislative Assembly as he withdrew his private member’s motion on public rights of way after government affirmed that under the Public Lands Law, it is a criminal offence to obstruct them.

In recent weeks, a number of photos have been posted to social media showing marked rights of way either covered with overgrown bushes or blocked by fencing.

Eden’s motion was seeking to have government amend either the Penal Code or the prescription law to make obstruction of a public beach access a criminal offence. 

However, Attorney General Samuel Bulgin, speaking during the debate on the motion, pointed out such an offence already exists. Read the whole story here.


Court of Appeal rules Port Referendum law is constitutional

Cayman Compass
2 July 2020

An impression of how the proposed piers will look - if the project goes ahead.

Cayman’s Court of Appeal has declared the 2019 Port Referendum Law to be compatible with the Constitution and has refused to grant Shirley Roulstone permission to appeal the decision before the Privy Council in the UK.

The judges, who are currently in the UK, delivered the ruling Thursday morning to a sparsely populated courtroom via a video link that was livestreamed and viewed by 67 separate devices.

In a two-page press summary document, the judges said, “The substance of the fundamental right of every Caymanian voter guaranteed by section 70 [of the Constitution Order] is to participate in a fair and effective people-initiated referendum. That right can be fully protected by an issue-specific referendum law.”

The judges further noted that a referendum law need not govern issues such as “campaign financing, political broadcasting and providing objective information”, instead they said these are matters that should be decided by the government of the day by way of policy.

“The fact that many democratic states do not have such rules for referendums shows that these are not matters of constitutional imperative but substantive questions of policy for determination by national legislatures,” reads the summary judgment. Read the whole story here.


Divers enlisted in bid to save reefs

Nation News
26 June 2020

Stony coral disease. (Photo credit: Greg McFall / NOAA)

George Town, Cayman Islands – The Department of Environment has asked divers and snorkellers, to look out for any evidence of a new lethal coral disease. 

As the divers return to the waters for the first time since March, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, researchers have called on them to report any signs of the latest threat to reefs, which is currently devastating coral around the Caribbean.

The Department says that Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) first appeared on Florida’s Reefs in 2014 and has spread to several countries in the Caribbean, some of which are very close to the Cayman Islands.

Researchers have been unable to determine the cause and method of transmission but evidence suggests it is a bacterial pathogen that is transmitted by touch and water circulation. Read the whole story here.

Sharks at the sandbar? Be encouraged, not afraid, say researchers

Cayman Compass
25 June 2020

A blacktip reef shark and a stingray chase the same prey at the sandbar. - Photo: Jessica Harvey

A rare sighting of blacktip reef sharks in the crystal clear water of Stingray Sandbar should be cause for celebration, not alarm, according to the photographer who captured the moment.

Jessica Harvey, of the Guy Harvey Research Institute, was at the sandbar as part of the group’s ongoing surveys of its stingray inhabitants.

Sharks are common in the North Sound but relatively skittish and shy of human interaction, so it is rare to see them at busy sites like the sandbar.

But the pause in tourism traffic appears to have temporarily changed that dynamic.

Harvey said interacting with the two sharks was incredible. Read the whole story here.

DoE urges moderation when fishing

Cayman Compass
25 June 2020

Stoplight Parrotfish terminal male. Photo: Les Wilk

With fishermen back out at sea and leisure activities on the water now virtually uninhibited, the Department of Environment is reminding those casting their lines to fish in moderation.

Of particular note for the DoE is the increasing numbers of parrotfish that are being seen for sale at local stalls.

“We definitely need to balance that, and if parrotfish are being targeted more than other species of fish, or if it’s a large portion of those being removed… ultimately, that’s going to cause a decline in the numbers on our reefs, and that’s going to cause problems for our reef in the future,” DoE Research Officer Bradley Johnson told the Cayman Compass in a recent Zoom interview.

Johnson said parrotfish are key to maintaining a healthy marine system.

“They’re part of the large fish species and other types of grazers that are a critical component to the reef system. All fish play a vital role, and parrotfish are no different from that. It’s one of many creatures that we want to make sure that they, and the complete ecosystem, has good protections because you want to make sure that all aspects of it are healthy,” he said. Read the whole story here.


UPDATED: Saharan dust layer clouds Cayman skies

Cayman Compass
23 June 2020

The Saharan Air Layer is seen on 23 June from imagery taken by the GOES-16 satellite. - Image: NOAA, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Hazy conditions are forecast for Cayman through Thursday, as a plume of Saharan dust settles over the Caribbean region.

The Public Health Department is encouraging individuals with respiratory illnesses, such as asthma, to stay indoors as much as possible and to contact a healthcare professional if they experience any difficulties.

The dust layer is forecast to remain over Cayman for the next few days, according to the National Weather Service

“While this phenomenon is typical at this time of the year, this plume of dust is observed to be denser than in previous occurrences,” the weather service said.

Researchers have described the current Saharan Air Layer as the most significant in decades. Read the whole story here.

COVID-19 prompts increased use of plastics

Cayman Compass
23 June 2020

While the COVID-19 lockdown has led to a reduction in fuel emissions with fewer cars on the road, the health protocols have increased the use of single-use plastics.

From supermarkets to restaurants, plastic bags and plastic cutlery has made a resurgence in Cayman and it has sparked concern for Plastic Free Cayman’s Claire Hughes.

She is worried that the increased use of single-use plastics could set back plans to ban such plastics locally.

“We have noticed an increase in take-out containers. Obviously, you can’t take your reusable bags to the supermarket, but I think as restrictions lessen, then we should be able to take our reusable bags,” she said in a recent interview with the Cayman Compass via Zoom.

Hughes said since the lockdown began, the steering committee created to formulate a plan to ban single-use plastics has not met. Read the whole story here.


Daily stingray feedings draw on DoE resources, personnel

Cayman Compass
21 June 2020

From 19 July, restrictions on the Sandbar and Stingray City will come to an end, and for deputy director of the Department of Environment, Tim Austin, that day cannot come fast enough.

“I would love to see people start coming back so we can relax our responsibilities,” Austin said on Thursday as he conducted the daily feeding of the stingrays at the Sandbar.

Since government implemented restrictions on both Wildlife Interaction Zones in the North Sound, the DoE has been feeding the stingrays and recording data on the population. He said initially the boat operators volunteered to feed the stingrays, but the DoE felt that it would be more natural for its team to take on that responsibility.

“We have a boat, we had enforcement officers on the Sound every day. We had a supply of food and we basically would help with kind of managing the project,” he said. “One unit was designated responsibility. So we took that on very early, I think, at the beginning of April, and we haven’t missed a day since. We’ve been out there every day feeding them and we’ve taken the opportunity to document what we’ve done.” Read the whole story here.


Governor attends Turtle Centre Release for World Sea Turtle Day

Loop Cayman
19 June 2020

Governor Martyn Roper, releasing sea turtle 'Martyn' into the ocean

The Cayman Turtle Conservation and Education Centre celebrated World Sea Turtle Day this week with two releases of ten young Green sea turtles. These are known as ‘Head Started’ turtles, because they have been hatched and raised within the safety of the Centre for at least the first, most vulnerable year of their life.

One release of five turtles took place on Tuesday 16 June, and the other release, also of five turtles, was on Thursday 18 June. The second release was attended by His Excellency the Governor, Mr Martyn Roper, who expressed his delight at seeing the turtles begin their new lives in the wild...

...Cayman Turtle Centre CEO Tim Adam said, “This is part of our ongoing programme with over 32,000 turtles released into the wild. As you have probably heard me say before, we now have scientific evidence based on a study under the auspices of the UK’s Darwin Plus initiative, led by the Department of Environment with the University of Barcelona and University of Exeter, that shows that at least 90 per cent of the returning nesting turtles in Cayman are related to those that have been released from the Centre, resulting in a steady increase in the number of sea turtles in the wild around the Cayman Islands.” Read the whole story here.


Report calls for ‘green stimulus’ to drive post-COVID-19 recovery

Cayman Compass
16 June 2020

A genuine national park at Barkers could be part of a new tourism plan.

Environmental watchdogs are calling on government to “seize the moment” and create a greener post-COVID Cayman.

In a comprehensive position paper, jointly authored by the Department of Environment and the National Conservation Council, the two bodies recommend a ‘green stimulus’ to put the environment at the heart of the post-pandemic recovery.

“When strategising on the future economic recovery of the country, it is important to take stock and reflect on the position which immediately preceded the onset of COVID-19 and those aspects of life that could be improved or enhanced as part of the recovery plan,” the document states.

“Traffic gridlock, biodiversity loss, and habitat fragmentation were all among the consequences of unbridled growth before COVID-19.”

It suggests that the virus, while devastating from a health perspective, provides a moment of pause for the Cayman Islands to reflect on its growth. Read the whole story here.

NCC and DoE urge move to green economy

Cayman News Service
16 June 2020

Monday morning traffic jam (file photo)

As Cayman emerges from the social and economic shutdown in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, local environmental experts are urging government to make it a “truly sustainable economic recovery” and use this opportunity to reset. Cayman needs to turn away from traffic-gridlock, over development and mass tourism towards climate-sensitive and resilient systems, according to a new paper by the National Conservation Council and the Department of Environment.

From rethinking cruise tourism to installing solar panels island-wide, it is time to seize the moment the DoE and the NCC say in the joint report. The document sets out several strategies and ideas government should now pursue as it begins to manage the reopening of the local economy.

“Traffic gridlock, biodiversity loss, and habitat fragmentation were all among the consequences of unbridled growth before COVID-19,” the environmental officials write in the document, Seizing the Moment to Transition to a Greener Economy.

Outlining the massive loss of wetlands and mangroves and the clearance of biodiverse primary forests and shrublands that placed several species of endemic plants and animals under threat, the document highlights the need to expand the marine parks and create a comprehensive development plan for the three Cayman Islands, as the unique biodiversity, cultural heritage and identity of Cayman remains threatened.

“Sustained rapid growth is therefore already having an appreciable impact on the quality of life that we all desire,” the paper states. Read the whole story here.

Cayman Turtle Centre has 2 release dates to mark World Sea Turtle day

Loop Cayman
12 June 2020

Cayman Turtle Conservation and Education Centre will be celebrating World Sea Turtle Day by releasing a total of 10 yearling turtles into the sea.

Five of the turtles will be released on June 16 (World Sea Turtle Day) and another five two days later on June 18.

“It is a great way to celebrate this special day," said Dr Walter Mustin, Cayman Turtle Centre’s Chief Research and Conservation Officer. "The young turtles being released are known as ‘head-started,’ sea turtles, because they have been given a ‘head-start,’ in life, by being hatched and raised in the safe, protected environment of the Centre, and released at a size that gives them a better chance of survival.” 

Head-starting at around one-year-old is a scientifically proven way of boosting this endangered species’ wild populations. During this critically important first year of life, the Green sea turtle has already grown a considerable amount and can already outswim most predators. In the wild, it is estimated that about one in a thousand of hatchlings, or baby sea turtles, that make their way from the nest-site to the beach survive into adulthood. Recent data on the incidence of plastics ingestion by wild turtles of all sizes suggests that survival is likely fewer than one in one thousand. Read the whole story here.


Tukka & Macabuca go clean and green with QR code scannable menus

Loop Cayman
10 June 2020

Macabuca (Photo credit: CrackedConch.com.ky)

With restaurants opening to patio and outdoor service as of Sunday, the Cayman Islands government has mandated the use of disposable paper menus as an added sanitary measure to avoid the transfer of COVID-19.

This has been voiced as a major concern for some environmentally-minded dining establishments who would rather avoid the excessive waste of single-use paper menus.

One of the solutions that has been implemented by at least two restaurants on-island, has been the use of scannable QR codes.

"As soon as we heard the recommendations from the Government 'paper menus only,' I knew we had to find another solution," said Lana Hargrave, owner of Tukka Restaurant in Gun Bay. 

"I could not print off thousands of paper one-time-use menus to just fill the landfill with!" Instead, the restaurant has a board with QR codes for guests to scan with their phones.

"One of our servers recommended the QR code and researched it for us and found it to be very easy and free!" said Hargrave. 

Another restaurant that has begun to use QR code menus is Macabuca in West Bay. Servers at Macabuca wear the QR codes around their necks for guests to scan, and there are also QR code menus at the entrance of the restaurant.

"We have printed a small number of paper menus but we are trying to limit their use," said Paul Wammer, Manager at Macabuca. "We try to be as environmentally responsible as possible, especially given our ocean-front location. To this end, most 'plastics' that we use, such as cups and sauce containers are actually made of corn and we use avocado pit straws." Read the whole story here.

Fishing line claims life of turtle

Cayman News Service
9 June 2020

Hawksbill turtle killed by discarded fishing line (photo by Ronnie Dougall)

The Department of Environment has sent the body of a mature, adult female hawksbill turtle, which was killed when its neck and front flipper became entangled in lost or discarded fishing line, to St Matthew’s University Veterinary School. The critically endangered turtle was found on Tuesday by staff from Harbour House Marina, who assisted in its recovery.

Officials from the DoE told CNS that the turtle will now be preserved in a freezer until a necropsy can be undertaken by the veterinary school after social distancing requirements are lifted. However, it is clear that the turtle was a victim of the entangle line found wrapped around it.

Once again, officials from the DoE urged fisherfolk not to throw fishing line or nets into the ocean or discarded on the shore. The DoE has installed fishing line recycling bins all around the islands and urges people to use them.

Little Cayman becomes global ‘Hope Spot’

Cayman News Service
8 June 2020

CCMI researchers study coral reefs off Little Cayman

Global marine conservation organisation Mission Blue, which campaigns to have critical areas of the world’s oceans recognised and protected, has added the whole of Little Cayman to its list of ecologically critical ‘Hope Spots’. While this does not give the island any additional legal protection over what is already given to it by Cayman Islands laws, it helps shine a spotlight on the importance of its marine conservation.

Mission Blue, which was the subject of an award winning Netflix documentary, is a global coalition of ocean conservation groups and organisations, including large multinational companies and individual scientific teams, led by famous oceanographer Dr Sylvia Earle. It aims to raise public awareness about the need to protect marine habitats.

Little Cayman was suggested as a Hope Spot by the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) as part of their World Oceans Day celebrations.
According to Mission Blue, Hope Spots are special places that are critical to the health of the ocean. The designation aims to recognise, empower and support individuals and communities around the world in their efforts to protect the ocean.

A release from CCMI said that Little Cayman is being recognised as a Hope Spot because of the high abundance of threatened and endemic species found there. Read the whole story here.


Turtle-mating season under way

Cayman Compass
8 June 2020

A pair of turtles mate just off the beach at Boggy Sand Road in West Bay. Photo: Martin Coetsee

Sharp-eyed observers recently have been spotting sea turtles mating just offshore at several spots throughout Cayman.

While there has been a proliferation of turtle sightings from land in recent weeks, Department of Environment Deputy Director Tim Austin is urging people not to disturb the animals.

“Anybody that sees a turtle in the wild needs to really keep their distance from it,” he said.

“They are a protected species, very culturally important, and they’re easily disturbed, particularly if they are mating. Do not approach.”

The turtle mating and nesting seasons are under way. Read the whole story here.

Homeowners snap up green energy option

Cayman News Service
5 June 2020

The Ministry of Commerce, Planning and Infrastructure (CPI) has re-allocated 700 kilowatts from the government’s Consumer Owned Renewable Energy (CORE) power capacity, paving the way for affordable and smaller homes to include solar panels and allowing more people in the community to use renewable energy while remaining on the CUC grid. The policy change was implemented last month and within a week the full allocation for the private sector had been snapped up by homeowners, officials said.

Grand Cayman’s electricity provider recently closed the popular CORE programme, stating it was fully subscribed and, given that it is subsidized by regular customers, there were no plans to expand the programme.

This meant it was very difficult for individual homeowners to make the much-needed switch to alternative energy as they could no longer remain connected to the grid as a back-up unless they owned a sophisticated battery system or were generating enough energy to join the Distributed Energy Resource (DER) programme, where CUC would store the power.

However, government had been allocated 1MW of CORE capacity for use in the public sector which has remained largely untapped. Therefore, the ministry responsible for infrastructure recently issued a policy directive to give almost three quarters of that capacity back into the community to provide 500kW for residential consumers, 100kW for private sector affordable homes 2,000 square feet or less, and 100kW for homes built under the National Housing Development Trust (NHDT) programme.

Solar companies have been asked to provide solar to people living in low cost homes built by government and the private sector at an affordable rate to help these homeowners cut down their energy costs.

The ministry made this move in early May but within a week the applications received exceeded the 500kW allocation for residential consumers and all applications are now being reviewed. There is, however, some capacity remaining from 100kW allocated to affordable homes and owners are invited to apply (see here). 

CPI Minister Joey Hew said the reallocation was part of government’s stimulus package and would also help towards its plan to reduce the Cayman Islands’ dependence on fossil fuels. Read the whole story here.



Two vital buffers against climate change are just offshore

Phys.org
2 June 2020

Photo credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new study finds that about 31 million people worldwide live in coastal regions that are "highly vulnerable" to future tropical storms and sea-level rise driven by climate change. In some of those regions, however, powerful defenses are located just offshore.

Existing mangroves and coral reefs provide key buffers that could help cushion the blow against future tropical storms and rising waters for about 8.5 million people, according to the study published May 29 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Because the two "natural infrastructures" absorb wave energy, reduce wave heights and provide a host of other environmental benefits, the study findings underscore the need for worldwide conservation and restoration of these natural resources. A particular focus, the authors said, should be placed on the most vulnerable regions, which lack available resources for more expensive protective measures, such as construction of levees or sea walls. Read the whole story here.

DOE records first wild green turtle nest of 2020

Cayman Compass
28 May 2020

The first wild green turtle nest was found along Seven Mile Beach on Monday. The species of turtle can be determined by the pattern of the tracks they leave in the sand. - Photo: Jane Hardwick

The first wild green turtle nest of the 2020 turtle nesting season was recorded along Seven Mile Beach this week, the Department of Environment reported.

DoE marine research officer Janice Blumenthal welcomed the discovery, which happened Monday, but said she remains cautious on declaring the official nesting season for green sea turtles open.
“Higher sea temperatures may lead to earlier nesting, but it is too early to know whether there will be an earlier start to the green turtle nesting season this year or whether this was an isolated early nest,” she said in response to Cayman Compass queries via email.

“Outlying early nests are more likely in seasons where there are a large number of turtles nesting, so we hope 2020 will be very successful,” she added. Read the whole story here.


Good health is an environmental right

UN Environment
27 May 2020

There are several human rights related to the environment - these are our environmental rights. Without clean, safe, healthy and sustainable ecosystems, numerous human rights cannot be fulfilled. The right to health; in addition to being a universally recognized human right, is intertwined with ecosystem health. Good health is a human and environmental right.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that if we want our ecosystems to take care of us, we need to take care of them.  On average, one new infectious disease emerges in humans every four months - 75 percent of these infections emanate from animals. These zoonotic diseases can spill over to humans when we destroy habitats and trade illegally in wildlife, increasing our exposure to pathogens.

Zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 are one of the many ways in which the environment impacts human health.

Air pollution, for instance,  kills over 6 million people each year. Airborne pollutants from cookstoves, coal-fired power plants, vehicles, industries, wildfires, and dust storms cause a significant portion of global deaths from strokes, lung cancer, heart attacks and respiratory diseases. Air pollution has been shown to exacerbate COVID-19 deaths. Read the whole story here.


Five thought-provoking documentaries on climate change to watch this weekend

YourStory.com
24 May 2020

Filmmaker Mike Pandey's documentary, 'Shores of Silence' won him the Green Oscar.

Climate change is more real than ever today, and its effects can be easily observed in our lives. Natural disasters are increasing in frequency, as well as intensity. On the one hand, oceanic temperatures are rising, and on the other, polar ice caps are shrinking. The emission of greenhouse gases is not only multiplying the effect of global warming, but also causing respiratory ailments in humans.

Environmentalists, world over, concur that human activity is responsible for the damage caused to Earth, and opine that only by spreading awareness can any of it be undone. Understanding the fragility of the ecosystem and its natural resources can go a long way in protecting the only planet we have.

Hundreds of NGOs, academic institutions, and independent entities have been trying to do just that through thought-provoking social media campaigns, and educational sessions, but one powerful tool that has managed to strike a chord is filmmaking. Hundreds of thousands of documentaries and short films pegged on climate change have popped up in the recent past, and SocialStory has hand-picked some of them for you:

The Weeping Apple Tree
Climate’s First Orphan
Shores of Silence
A Green Agony
A Dreadful Fate

Read the whole story here. 

Cabinet planning exemptions used to fast-track park projects

Cayman Compass
22 May 2020

Properties granted planning exemption

Twelve properties in Grand Cayman, including the site of the now-abandoned Smith Barcadere redevelopment project, have been granted Cabinet exemptions from planning permission since 2017.

The exemptions have allowed government to streamline projects championed by legislators, such as community parks, without subjecting them to the standard approval process.

A Cayman Compass freedom of information request submitted to the Ministry of Commerce, Planning and Infrastructure found that a majority of the exempt properties, nine out of the 12, were earmarked as community parks. Other exemptions were made for a car park at Spotts Beach, granted in February 2017, and a West Bay cemetery and police station, granted in October 2018.

The question of proper procedure for granting such exemptions persisted, however, as neither the Premier’s Office nor the ministry could provide clarification on where – or if – each of the exemptions had been published in the Cayman Islands Government Gazette, as stipulated in the Planning and Development Law. Read the whole story here.

Native plant of the week

Cayman Compass
21 May 2020

The Smoke Wood tree can be found on all three Cayman Islands.

Smoke Wood/Erythroxylum areolatum
ERYTHROXYLACEAE

Height: 20 feet high x 8 feet wide
Growth habit: It has a ‘V’ shape growth habit
Flowers: White flowers
Soil requirement: Well-drained soil or seasonally flooded land
Light requirements: Sun to part shade
Environment tolerance: Drought or seasonally flooded land
Nature attracting: Butterflies, bees and a specific green beetle

DISTRIBUTION

Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Nicaragua, Panama and Puerto Rico.

It is locally found on all three islands: Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.

DESCRIPTION

Cayman has three species in this genus. This one is known as Swamp-Redwood in the US or Smoke Wood here.

Deciduous in the spring, it will shed its leaves to flower for a week; this is followed by emerging bright, new lime-green leaves. On the reverse of the leaf, you can see distinctive parallel lines on both sides of the main vein.

Related to Erythroxylum coca/Cocaine, our Smoke Wood was culturally used as a mosquito repellent. The green leaves and branches were set alight in a metal bucket with side slits for the smoke to repel mosquitoes. Read the whole story here.



Early start to 2020 hurricane season projected

Cayman Compass
15 May 2020

The US National Hurricane Center is expected name the first tropical or subtropical storm on Saturday.

The US National Hurricane Center is poised to name the first tropical or subtropical storm on Saturday, heralding an early start to the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.

However, National Weather Service Director General John Tibbetts said on Friday that the forecast path of the system takes it away from the Cayman Islands.

“There is no forecast impact on our weather given its distance and the forecast away from us. The Cayman Islands National Weather Service will continue to monitor the system,” he said in an emailed response to queries from the Cayman Compass.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm, if it develops as projected, will be named Arthur and is moving near the northwestern Bahamas.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on 1 June, but local meteorologists say it is not unusual for the season to start early. 
In fact, Tibbetts said, the “new norm, compliments of climate change, has produced a number of tropical systems forming in the month of May each year”. Read the whole story here.


Cayman under drought warning

Cayman Compass
15 May 2020

Despite some recent rainy days, over the past few months, Cayman has been experiencing hotter, drier weather than usual, leading to the issuing of a drought warning.

National Weather Service meteorologist Avalon Porter expects those conditions will likely continue over the coming months.

Porter, in an interview via Zoom with the Cayman Compass, said Cayman is shifting to warmer summertime conditions and with that comes the heat.

“There will be hotter conditions for people to have to look out for or take precaution for; I wouldn’t say heat stroke, but heat stress [is] occurring, now that we are going into our summertime,” Porter said.

He said there is a possibility of ‘heat wave’ days in the next two to three months, but he does not expect those to be frequent. Read the whole story here.

Mangroves finally have legal protection in Cayman

Loop Cayman
14 May 2020

The coastal protection abilities of mangroves are particularly clear on our beach coastlines such as around Barker's (photo) with the beach literally rooted to the mangroves.

The Cayman Islands Department of the Environment states that "Mangroves are an incredibly important habitat for the Cayman Islands providing many ecological services." Mangroves protect shorelines from storm and hurricane winds, waves, and floods and help to prevent erosion by stabilizing sediments with their roots. Mangroves maintain water quality and clarity and filter pollutants and trap sediments originating from land and can sequester up to ten times as much of our carbon pollution as rainforests.

Cayman's Species Conservation Plan for Mangroves, which was gazetted on April 27, will advise on protective measures going forward for all four species of mangroves in the Cayman Islands (black mangrove, white mangrove, red mangrove and buttonwood). This document provides legal protection for the mangroves such that the Department of the Environment will be able to take action against unapproved mangrove-forest clearing. Read the whole story here.

QC stresses untruths over port marine damage

Cayman News Service
12 May 2020

Coral reef within George Town Harbour (Photo by Courtney Platt)

The Cayman Islands Government engaged in what was “little short of a propaganda campaign”, misleading the public about the impact the proposed cruise port development would have on the marine environment, a lawyer representing the National Trust argued last week. Tom Lowe QC told the appeal court that the Trust “was shocked” by this because it was not just a few falsehoods but “a wholly imbalanced misleading campaign masquerading as objective”.

Lowe took part in an appeal last week brought by government to overturn the decision of Justice Tim Owen earlier this year. The judge had found that government’s referendum law, which was passed in the wake of a successful petition to vote on the port project, was unconstitutional.

Justice Owen, who heard the application for a judicial review by Shirley Roulstone, a member of the Cruise Port Referendum campaign, had decided in her favour. He ordered government to quash the legislation and begin with a general law to guide all people-initiated referendums provided for in the Constitution, which he said should be done before it could go on to pass a specific referendum law to meet the request of this particular petition.

The National Trust for the Cayman Islands had joined that action as a supporting party but had focused on the arguments made by Roulstone’s legal team in the successful Grand Court case over the requirement that a referendum campaign be fair and objective.

Speaking on behalf of his client during the appeal last week, Lowe argued that once the petition was launched and government began campaigning against the idea of a people’s vote, it had made false claims about the George Town Harbour and the reefs within it. Read the whole story here.

DoE still watching out for stingrays

Cayman News Service
10 May 2020

DoE staff hand feed rays at the Sandbar (Photo courtesy DoE)

The Department of Environment has continued to watch out for the stingrays over the last two months since tourist trips to the Sandbar stopped. Staff from the DoE check on the rays, offering them a little human interaction and supplementing their diet. Until the marine restrictions are lifted and people can go back to Stingray City, the DoE is reinforcing the rays’ association between boats, humans and food with regular feeding.

According to a DoE report, the rays appear happy to see the DoE researchers when they arrive, and as many as 26 have turned up while DoE staff were in the water feeding them. The boats visit 10am and 1pm daily and feed between 5lbs and 20lbs of food to the rays, depending on the numbers. Researchers stay for around half an hour doing intermittent counts of the rays in between feeding.

The work of the department will ensure that when private boats are allowed to return to the much-loved spot, the rays will still be there and happy to see the visitors and what they have to offer. While it may be some time before tourists return, locals still enjoy the unique attraction.

Full details of feeding efforts and the rays’ presence at the Stingray City Sand Bar is available on the DoE website here.

Appeal hearing on port referendum law concludes

Cayman Compass
7 May 2020

Legal counsel representing Cruise Port Referendum Cayman opened the second day of arguments before the Court of Appeal on Thursday, outlining its case against the Port Referendum Law and government’s approach to the people-initiated referendum. 

Attorney Chris Buttler, speaking on behalf of Shirley Roulstone and the National Trust for the Cayman Islands, objected to the Port Referendum Law’s handling of voter registration, campaign financing and provision of objective information.

The lack of a standing referendum law prevented potential voters from understanding the election procedures and inhibited voter registration, Buttler argued via Zoom video. 

“By the time it became clear how to register, it was too late to do so,” Buttler said. He argued that the passage of the Port Referendum Law in October 2019 and government’s setting of the vote for December last year did not provide sufficient time for voter registration and did not meet the standards set out in the Elections Law.

“The problem in practice is that, unlike the Elections Law, the referendum law isn’t a standing law,” he said.

Incorporation by government of the cargo port into the final referendum question also went against the petitioners’ original objective to vote on a cruise berthing facility, rather than cruise and cargo, he added...

...The two-day proceeding concluded Thursday.

The court did not indicate when a decision on the appeal hearing would be delivered. Read the whole story here.

Gov’t QC argues judge was wrong in port JR

Cayman News Service
6 May 2020

The Cruise Port Referendum petition

Judges on the the Court of Appeal panel put the government’s lawyer, Alan Maclean QC, through his paces on Wednesday, as he argued that Justice Tim Owen got it wrong when he found that lawmakers should have passed general legislation before creating a bespoke referendum law to provide for the people’s vote on the port. MacLean said the Constitution doesn’t specify a need for a framework law and the judge had stepped on “legislature’s territory”.

Government has filed five grounds of appeal in response to the judicial review it lost on the port referendum law earlier this year. The legal challenge to the law was filed by Shirley Roulstone from the campaign for a people’s referendum on the cruise port project.

Maclean spent more than three hours arguing the grounds on Wednesday morning at a hearing that took place via Zoom, which involved lawyers representing Roulstone and the National Trust, who were party to the original judicial review..

...The appeal is, in many respects, now largely irrelevant as the premier has said that the port project will not be going ahead during the remainder of this term as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But he had justified the time and public money being expended on the appeal over the need to address what he said was the major constitutional question of whether or not the courts should be allowed to override laws made by the legislature, even, it seems, when they may be unconstitutional.

The appeal continues on Thursday. Read the whole story here.

Solar power system donated to Jasmine

Cayman Compass
2 May 2020

The recently installed solar panels at Jasmine on West Bay Road will save the hospice and palliative-care facility $450 a month on utility costs. - Photo: Submitted

The Jasmine palliative and hospice-care facility now will have lower operating costs following a donation of a 10KW solar system by the Nickason family of West Bay.

Jasmine stated in a press release that the complimentary installation was performed by Affordable Solar, APEC Engineering supplied the structural reports, and Jeffery Woods produced the electrical drawings at no cost for this project.

The power generated by the solar panels is fed back to the Caribbean Utilities Company’s distribution grid. The Jasmine facility then receives credit on its monthly utility bill for the generated power through CUC’s CORE programme.

The hospice-care centre estimates that the solar panels will save it up to $450 per month on utility costs.

Mangrove protection official

Cayman News Service
29 April 2020

Protect Our Future protest to save the mangroves

Cayman’s mangroves now have official legal protection, which should, finally, prevent these dwindling yet critically important species from being removed by developers without consequence. On Monday, the National Conservation Council gazetted the adoption of a Species Conservation Plan, which formalises mangrove protection in law and outlines the very strict conditions under which they can be removed.

Conservationists have warned about the dangers of mangrove clearance for years. More recently, there has been an increase in the number of development sites where a significant swathe of mangroves was cleared before planning permission was obtained. This meant that the Department of Environment was not given the opportunity to advise either against any removal or how it should be done to mitigate negative impact, raising concerns for the scientists at the department.

Mangroves provide protection to developments from flooding and coastal erosion and are very difficult to replenish but have, nevertheless, been removed with alarming frequency in recent years. In many cases it appears developers are either unaware or simply do not care about the importance of mangroves or how they would benefit the proposed projects. Read the whole story here.


Regional UN body calls for new development model

Cayman Compass
28 April 2020

ECLAC general secretary, Alicia Bárcena, during Monday’s virtual conference organised by Germany-based EU-LAC Foundation.

Like each previous global crisis, the coronavirus pandemic is expected to produce lessons learnt and prompt change. Regionally, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has stressed that a new development model is needed due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The commission called for more redistributive institutions that have greater concern for minorities, women and older persons, and one that takes into account climate change. To have an impact in the new global economy, the region would have to move towards greater regional integration in terms of production, trade and technology.

Locally, last week, a report commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce said new economic strategies are needed in the Cayman Islands to adjust to and capitalise on the ’new normal’ of a post-COVID-19 world.

This should include an updated economic strategy to better prepare the islands for external shocks, and to diversify and create a more substantive domestic economy that embraces technology.

As companies are thinking about shortening their supply chains, a greater emphasis on local production could also lead to discussions about enhancing local agriculture, the report noted. Read the whole story here.


Cayman’s air is not as clean as we might think

Cayman Compass
25 April 2020

Blue skies off Seven Mile Beach (Image: Tammy Kelderman)

Around two months ago, with Cayman’s traffic hitting a historic peak, Cayman Compass journalist Michael Klein began testing the island’s air quality as part of a long-term project. Since that experiment began, a massive fire at the George Town landfill along with the ban on cruise ships and a sharp drop in vehicle use under the COVID-19 lockdown rules, have offered telling insight into how these factors affect the environment. In a special feature today, we look at the quality of the air we breathe and the impact it is having on the health of everyone in Cayman.

‘O land of soft, fresh breezes’ is not only the first line of Cayman’s national song, ‘Beloved Isle Cayman’, but it is also a misconception, because Cayman’s air is at times not as pure and fresh as commonly believed.

This assessment is based on air-quality tests conducted over several weeks using a retail sensor. The measurements were taken before and during the lockdown due to COVID-19, as well as in the aftermath of the dump fire early last month.

The results might be somewhat surprising, at least to those not suffering from asthma or exhibiting other sensitivities to air pollution.

Cayman’s air-quality measurements show for the most part low-to-moderate exposure to air pollution over a 24-hour period. However, during specific times of the day, air pollution tends to rise to levels noticeable by those who have respiratory issues, reaching occasional peaks that are harmful to everyone.

The data shows that on an average day, Cayman’s air quality is, of course, much better than that of the smog-infested heavy-industry hotspots of China, India and Southeast Asia. But at certain times of the day, the air is not even as clean as in inner-city London during rush hour. Read the whole story here.

Burning garbage illegal, says CIFS

Cayman News Service
23 April 2020

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Roy Charlton

The Cayman Islands Fire Service (CIFS) is urging the public to take care with backyard bonfires following an increase in reports of fires in various neighbourhoods in recent weeks. Senior fire officers also reminded people that burning general waste on private property is prohibited by law. Burning garden waste is not illegal but people are still urged to try alternative options because of the health and safety issues of fires.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Roy Charlton said the fire service believes the increase in yard fires has been driven by the shelter-in-place order to suppress the spread of COVID-19.

“We understand that residents may have previously taken their own garden waste to the landfill or had it removed by landscapers and are now looking for alternative options to get rid of it,” he said. “Bonfires can become dangerous if not properly controlled but there are simple steps the public can follow to manage garden waste effectively and stay safe,” Charlton added.

Mulching or composting leaves is more environmentally-friendly than burning and can be used elsewhere in the garden. In addition, smoke from bonfires can impact people’s health, particularly for those with existing or underlying respiratory concerns, such as asthma or COVID-19. Small children and the elderly are more likely to be impacted by the effects of smoke. Read the whole story here.

Miller offers thanks to CPR for port campaign

Cayman News Service
20 April 2020

North Side MLA Ezzard Miller, a long time opponent of government’s proposed cruise berthing project, offered his thanks to the members of the Cruise Port Referendum group and their successful campaign, which has now seen the current administration completely shelve the project in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Miller said the deferral will enable a future government to properly reconsider the project and engage the public.

“On behalf of the people of the Cayman Islands, I offer my warmest congratulations to all members of the CPR group on their achievements so far towards the goal of overturning the current cruise port project,” Miller said as he expressed his gratitude to them for all their hard work and dedication.

He said the need for this cruise port proposal had never been demonstrated, and that the total negative effects on the islands’ pristine environment were still unknown.

“It is my earnest hope that this latest development will lead to the ultimate rejection of the project as currently proposed,” Miller said, adding that any future solution had to be environmentally friendly and cost-effective.

Miller said that the CPR group’s unwavering efforts had not just bought time for a better idea regarding the future of the cruise sector here and the environment, but also demonstrated the importance of people power. The success of the campaign showed what an empowered and galvanized community can achieve. Read the whole story here. 

Cruise referendum appeal set to go ahead via video-link

Cayman Compass
15 April 2020

An architect's impression of how the new port could look.

The court battle over plans for a referendum on a planned cruise port in Cayman is set to go ahead via video-link on 6 May.

The two-day hearing is expected to involve leading counsel for both parties making their arguments, via video-link from their homes in the UK, to a panel of Court of Appeal judges, who will also appear via video-link from the UK.

The hearing was scheduled before restrictions on gatherings and other measures to suppress the spread of the coronavirus were put in place. The date of the hearing was published recently on the Judicial Administration website.

Kate McClymont, a lawyer representing Shirley Roulstone of the Cruise Port Referendum Cayman group, said she had been advised that the appeal would go ahead as planned, with measures in place to ensure social distancing.

“The current intention is for one attorney for each party and one member of judicial administration to attend in person at the court house in Cayman,” she said. Read the whole story here.


Skies filled with butterflies

Cayman Compass
15 April 2020

A Great Southern White Butterfly perches on a leaf.

While most of Cayman’s residents remain hunkered down in their homes, thousands of white-winged butterflies have taken to the air in a fleeting dance of courtship.

The life of the Great Southern White butterfly (Ascia monuste) begins in a cluster of about 20 eggs which are normally laid on the upper side of host plants. After about four days, green caterpillars, with two purple stripes running from head to tail, hatch and begin their search for food.

They gorge themselves on wild weeds, such as Spanish needle and latana, which grow abundantly along the roadsides. Once they reach about four inches long, the caterpillars seek a high, secluded place to enclose themselves in cocoons, and await a transformation that can take up to 17 days.

Once complete, the butterflies emerge. Males are white and often have a thin set of black stripes at the top of their wings. Females appear in a variety of shades, from off-white to light grey. With a wingspan that stretches between 1.75 and 2.25 inches, the butterflies gather in clusters that allow them to stand out easily against Cayman’s lush green flora. Read the whole story here.

A glimpse of the world without us

Cayman Compass
12 April 2020

Photographer Morne Du Plooy captured this image with his drone
just after the airport closure.

From a distance, Grand Cayman has never appeared more serene.

In the days after the island closed its borders, drone footage captured stunning images of clouds of blue and emerald water surging towards a thin line of fresh white sand, barely touched by human footprints.

The coronavirus crisis is causing turmoil for people across the globe, including in the Cayman Islands.

But for the planet, the temporary lapse in human activity is providing much-needed respite.NASA satellite imagery has illustrated a rapid decline in fumes from traffic and power plants as production has shut down across the developed world.

And with more than a third of humanity in lockdown, wildlife is beginning to reclaim some of the urban spaces we have temporarily vacated. Read the whole story here.


Marine enforcement continues amid COVID crisis

Cayman Compass
30 March 2020

On March 1, DoE Conservation Officers confiscated 74 fish, 3 lobster and 2 spear guns and snorkel gear from two men caught spear fishing without a license. Enforcement continues amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The Department of Environment has warned against overfishing amid the escalating financial consequences of the coronavirus crisis.

The marine laws and catch limits will still be enforced, the DoE warned last week.

Premier Alden McLaughlin subsequently put a ban on all watersports, including fishing, though he said this was to protect and channel police resources, rather than to restrict anglers.

The DoE remains concerned over the longer term that catch limits, seasonal bans on lobster diving and restrictions on catching conch continue to be respected. Read whole story here.


DoE watching out for the stingrays

Cayman News Service
28 March 2020

Southern stingray (Photo courtesy of DoE)

Following concerns in the community about Stingray City, the Department of Environment has said that its marine conservation officers are making sure the star attractions there are doing OK and getting the food they need. With no tourists going to the Sand Bar to feed them, the DoE said that the rays will revert back to foraging for food themselves. Nevertheless, the department is keeping a close eye on these important marine creatures.

In a social media post, the department thanked everyone who called in asking about the stingrays and reassured the community that officers were checking on them regularly.

“We have seen in other events, such as after Hurricane Ivan, when boats were not able to get out to Stingray City, that the stingrays switch back to their normal behaviour of foraging for food for themselves,” the marine experts at the DoE said. “Also, during previous research we have seen evidence that, despite the daily feedings, the stingrays still forage for themselves, so the loss of daily tours is something they can survive for a period of time,” they added.

Cayman under 24-hour-a-day curfew until Saturday

Cayman Compass
25 March 2020

Premier Alden McLaughlin announced the curfew Wednesday.
Photo: Reshma Ragoonath

Government leaders will continue efforts to put a more flexible order in place by this Saturday (March 28), he said.

Supermarkets and pharmacies will also be shut during the 24-hour-a-day curfew over the next three days, though staff will be allowed some flexibility to stock up and take deliveries.

Emergency services and other essential services will be allowed to operate on an emergency basis but no businesses will be able to open. Government has published a full list of services with exemptions here. Enquiries can be submitted to curfewtime@gov.ky.

The Premier said, “We know this is a really radical measure but anyone who is paying attention to what is happening in the rest of the world must understand if we get widespread community transmission of this virus, it is going to have devastating consequences.” Read the whole story here.


Take a breather and go diving

Cayman Compass
19 March 2020

Diving is self-isolating under the water by nature, which works well at times like these. (Photo courtesy of Catalyst)

The world feels a bit crazy right now, leaving people anxious and stressed.

Anything that brings a sense of normalcy can relax the mind and body, making it easier to cope with situations out of our control.

The Cayman Islands is known for its scuba diving, which opens up a world of incredible sights under the water. It combines the health benefits of swimming with a form of escapism.

While other dive shops close temporarily due to the coronavirus, at least three of them are grabbing the regulator by the hose and staying open. West Bay’s Divetech and Sun Divers at Macabuca, and Cayman Turtle Divers on West Bay Road have decided to keep operations going, giving residents a chance to get away from it all to commune with marine life. Read the whole story here.


Landfill blaze extinguished after 12 days

Cayman Compass
18 March 2020

Much of the waste that arrives to the George Town landfill includes plastics and packaging material. Import and production trends have influenced the Caribbean’s waste stream to include more plastic material overall. - Photo: Alvaro Serey

The major landfill fire that erupted Saturday, 7 March, forcing road and school closures and resident evacuations in George Town, has now been extinguished, a government press release said on Wednesday.

“The fire is now fully extinguished. Smoke is no longer emitting from the site and all hotspots have now been identified and doused,” the release read.

Controlling the fire required around-the-clock work by the Cayman Islands Fire Service and the Department of Environmental Health.

Fire officers will remain on site at the George Town Landfill through Wednesday night as a precautionary measure. The Royal Cayman Islands Police will also deploy its helicopter to monitor the situation and provide aerial images.

“I anticipate fire officers will no longer be required on site from tomorrow morning,” said Chief Fire Officer Paul Walker, “CIFS will continue to work closely with DEH colleagues as usual and have instructed them to inform us as soon as any potential signs of ignition, however small, are identified. Read the whole story here.

New Eco-Friendly Real Estate Launches in Grand Cayman

Caribbean Journal
12 March 2020

A Steel Dreams design - Caribbean Journal

A new eco-friendly real estate development has launched on the East End of Grand Cayman.

It’s called Sunrise Terraces, and it’s the brainchild of Steel Dreams Development.

The project consists of a collection of duplex homes, all of which are built by 80 percent recycled materials.

Uniquely, the project consists of homes designed around shipping containers.

Every unit has its own rooftop terrace accessed by a spiral staircase.
“Steel Dreams Development is taking action to assist with the regeneration of our earth’s precious environment by offering strong, beautiful, robustly engineered properties,” said John Bodden, development director at Steel Dreams.

The new project is part of what is one of the region’s hottest real estate markets, with a host of both new real estate projects and hotels currently in the development pipeline.

For more, visit Steel Dreams. [https://www.steeldreamsdevelopment.com/]

Smoke clears as dump fire under control

Cayman News Service
11 March 2020

George Town dump, 11 March 2020

Firefighters are now working towards finally extinguishing the current landfill fire after working persistently for the last four days to bring the blaze under control and systematically tackle the emerging hot spots and flare ups. At 4pm Wednesday officials said that the fire service crews as well as staff from the Department of Environmental Health had been successful in bringing the fire under control.

The National Roads Authority has also joined the battle by providing operational vehicle support. To tackle the fire, crews have taken a systematic approach of excavation and damping down. Once an area is doused, it is then capped to reduce the chance of re-ignition.

But officials warned that once hot spots are exposed through excavation, there may be flares of smoke, though this evening the sky above the dump was very clear as a result of the number of areas that have now been capped. When smoke does emerge, firefighters are there to reduce it as quickly as possible. Smoke density will nevertheless vary as crews work through the process.

Chief Fire Officer Paul Walker said residents of Lakeside Appartments, Watlers Road and the immediate vicinity of the landfill site are still advised to keep windows, doors and air conditioning vents closed as a precaution.

The DEH said that once the fire has been fully extinguished, it will shift its focus to begin testing air quality in the area at the public’s request. Read the whole story here.

The future of climate action

Cayman Compass
8 March 2020

Protect Our Future students meet at Cayman International School
to tackle climate change

Cayman’s youth have become a resounding voice in discussions around environment and climate change. In the past year, high school and college students have organised community beach clean-ups and campaigned for a single-use plastics ban. Their activism has challenged development of a cruise port, degradation of mangroves and growth of landfill waste. They have rallied to protect community spaces like Smith Barcadere and promoted awareness through social media.

The Cayman Compass interviewed some of the islands’ students about their thoughts on climate change, the environmental policies they’d like to see implemented and the role young people play in the climate-change debate.

Their responses hinted at growing anxiety over sea-level rise, sustainable development and carbon emissions. Cayman’s students, if anything, are tuned in to the climate debate and concerned about what the future holds for their island home.

Here are some of the responses they shared. Read the whole story here.


VIPP misleading public on port project risks

Cayman News Service
6 March 2020

Wreck of the Cali (Photo by Courtney Platt)

The Environmental Assessment Board (EAB) said claims by the consortium that was chosen to build the controversial cruise project about the reduced environmental harm of this current design are misleading and the new plans may be just as damaging, or even more so, than those from 2015. The EAB has said Verdant Isle Port Partners must conduct an updated environmental impact assessment and a number of other important studies because much has changed and new risks and challenges have emerged.

The EAB, which is a subcommittee of the National Conservation Council and chaired by the Department of Environment, has now reviewed a scoping exercise submitted by the VIPP last month. The board made a long list of directions about what the consortium must do next in order to ensure this project is properly assessed and the construction element fully transparent before anything else happens.

In the EAB report, DoE officials warned that the new design has fundamentally changed and there are other factors that will need to be considered that were not part of the original EIA.

Some of the major issues that the EAB has immediately identified include the increase in passenger numbers, the change to the dredging location, the longer dredging period and changed method, the reduction in jobs both during and after the project, restricted access to the Wreck of the Cali, changes to mitigation measures and the impact on the local infrastructure.

But the board also noted that Verdant Isle failed to address some other critical factors in its scoping exercise, such as the addition of the cargo port project, which was not included in the 2015 EIA, and changes to how dredged material will be used for land reclamation, or if not, where it will be dumped. Read the whole story here.


What the 2011 climate policy set out to achieve

Cayman Compass
2 March 2020

Sea level rise poses a threat to the Cayman Islands that the climate change policy sought to address. - Photo: Stephen Clarke

Nearly a decade ago, a never-implemented draft climate change policy set out broad-reaching ambitions for the Cayman Islands.

The policy, ‘Achieving a Low Carbon, Climate-Resilient Economy’, established a five-year action plan to address climate-related issues such as safeguarding marine and terrestrial resources, energy security, water resources, food security, critical infrastructure, and the tourism, insurance and financial sectors.

While select goals have been met – such as establishing both a National Conservation Law and a National Energy Policy – the 2011 draft policy sought much more ambitious and immediate action, explained climate change consultant Lisa Ann Hurlston, chair of the National Conservation Council’s Climate Change Committee.

“The [climate change] policy sought to achieve specific, immediate actions within a short period of time,” Hurlston said in an email to the Cayman Compass.

The policy came after a four-year consultation period facilitated by the UK that focused on adaptation strategies, action plans and public education.

During that process, she said, the idea of also addressing climate change mitigation through a plan to lessen Cayman’s own greenhouse gas emissions came into focus.

The draft climate change policy came two years before publication of the National Energy Policy. But unlike the energy plan, the climate policy never went to Cabinet. Read the whole story here.


Bike-share business popular with tourists

Cayman Compass
24 February 2020

Daniel Powery and his aunt Darla Dilbert set up Cycle Cayman to put an island twist on the urban bike-share schemes that have become popular in US cities.

Opposite the Westin hotel on West Bay Road, a couple unloads groceries and beach towels from the basket of a distinctive green-and-white bicycle. They had taken a long ride up to Barkers Beach, stopped for lunch at Macabuca and picked up a few necessities on the way home.

They lock the bike up next to a handful of similarly styled cycles on a stand at Regatta Park, plug in a few details on a smart phone app and they are done.

Cycle Cayman, a start-up bike-share business that puts an island twist on services like New York’s Citi Bike, is making it easier for tourists to get around without renting a car.

The business has 25 bikes across four locations in George Town, Camana Bay and along West Bay Road.

For now it is primarily used by tourists. But entrepreneur Daniel Powery, who set up the business with his aunt Darla Dilbert, hopes it will become popular with residents, too.

The business is starting slowly. Around 500 rides have been clocked in the first eight months – 80% of them from tourists. Read the whole story here.

The car that rents by the minute…

Cayman Compass
24 February 2020

Zun car (Photo: Camana Bay Facebook page)

In the plush interior of the Arch Automotive showroom in Camana Bay, I push a button on my smartphone and a map lights up with four ‘Zun’ icons, indicating the location of available vehicles.

I find one within a few minutes’ walk and hit reserve. A timer on the app pops up giving me 15 minutes to get to the vehicle and start my journey...

...The aim of Zun is to give people who carpool, walk or cycle to work, some of the benefits of vehicle ownership without the expense.

It stems, in part, from a previous pilot project on carpooling trialled by Dart Labs – the company’s internal innovation unit. While participants were willing and able to get to work without a personal vehicle, they were reluctant to give up the flexibility of having their car available throughout the day. Read the whole story here.

Cayman Islands plans to ban single use plastics in 2021

Loop Cayman
22 February 2020

After three meetings, the Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Stakeholder Committee is in agreement to recommend restrictive legislation on certain single-use plastics in the Cayman Islands.

The new law which is proposed from January 2021 will be based on a proposal that is expected to include legislation to restrict certain single-use plastic items such as: single-use check out shopping bags, polystyrene take away containers, plastic straws, plastic stirrers, and plastic cotton swabs. The SUP Committee, led by the Honourable Dwayne Seymour and Honourable Joseph Hew, will continue to actively consider whether other single-use plastic items will be subject to legislation. 

The SUP Committee also intends to look into the effects of possibly banning other plastics (e.g. polystyrene or expanded foam products), as well as to identify reasonable, practical alternative products that can be imported in place of the items that are proposed to be banned. Read the whole story here.


Second highest turtle nesting numbers recorded

Cayman Compass
20 February 2020

Hawksbill hatchling (Photo credit: Giacomo-Santoro)

During the 2019 turtle-nesting season, the longest one ever recorded, 675 nests were found across all three islands.

This total marked the second highest number of turtle nests found in a year since the Department of Environment began monitoring nests in 1998. In 2017, 689 nests were recorded.

DoE research officer Janice Blumenthal said the department was surprised by the length of the 2019 turtle-nesting season. The first nest of the season was recorded in Grand Cayman on 12 April; the last nest was laid in Little Cayman on 3 Dec., hatched on 9 Feb., and excavated on 15 Feb., she said.

Turtle-nesting season typically lasts from May to November. Read the whole story here.

Researchers monitor ‘Grouper Moon’ spawning

Cayman Compass
20 February 2020

Researchers from Cayman’s Department of Environment and the Reef Environmental Education Foundation reported encouraging initial findings from the annual Nassau grouper aggregation in the Sister Islands.

The DoE said the researchers, in their preliminary estimates, recorded 8,000 Nassau groupers in Little Cayman and 3,000 in Cayman Brac during last week’s surveys.

The grouper spawning took place in Little Cayman on 13-15 Feb., when DoE and REEF scientists were on hand to collect data. They were also in Cayman Brac on 12-13 Feb. to observe the population during daytime dives.

Last year, the DoE and REEF scientists annual ‘Grouper Moon’ research project, that involves monitoring and tagging the species spawning, counted more than 7,000 groupers in Little Cayman and Cayman Brac waters.

The project is a conservation effort between the DoE and REEF aimed at studying the Nassau grouper, and is the Caribbean’s oldest continuous grouper-spawning aggregation research programme.
The findings from last week’s Grouper Moon aggregation seem to confirm data published by REEF last month that showed that the Nassau grouper population in the Sister Islands, which was once dangerously low, is recovering. The REEF study highlighted how the annual aggregation of Nassau groupers in Little Cayman is now the largest remaining identified aggregation of this species in the world. Read the whole story here.


Breaking down the referendum judgment

Cayman Compass
20 February 2020

Campaigners celebrate with Shirley Roulstone, second from right, after the judge's decision Wednesday. - Photo: Taneos Ramsay

The ongoing saga over government’s plan to build new cruise berthing facilities in George Town took another twist on Wednesday following a judgment from the Grand Court. Justice Tim Owen ruled that government must put in place a general framework law setting out a fair process for how people-initiated referendums are handled before it sets the date and question for the poll. Here we break down his judgment and the repercussions for the port project.

What was the court case about?

In simple terms, the court action was taken by opponents of the cruise berthing project, in an effort to ensure that the referendum, whenever it takes place, is a free and fair vote. They argued that the way the vote was being planned and regulated in this case was stacking the odds in favour of government. Read the whole story here.

Premier plans appeal over port vote ruling

Cayman News Service
19 February 2020

Premier Alden McLaughlin at a public meeting about the cruise port, Nov 2019

Premier Alden McLaughlin issued a very short statement in the wake of Justice Tim Owen’s ruling Wednesday, in which he confirmed that government would be taking advantage of the judge’s offer to grant leave to appeal in the case. Despite the damning findings of the judge about how government handled the case, McLaughlin showed no regret about his approach. Meanwhile, Shirley Roulstone and the Cruise Port Referendum group were celebrating a real victory for the people.

As the CPR were enjoying a major high point on a journey that has been at times exceptionally challenging, the premier was in a very different mood but still unrepentant.

He said, “Understandably, the ruling… handed down this morning is not the outcome that the Government had hoped for. While the Court determined that the Referendum Law was incompatible with section 70 of the Constitution, the question of the appropriate relief to be granted is still outstanding. We understand that it will take some time before an order on this issue is made.” Read the whole story here.


Smith Barcadere project paused

Cayman Compass
16 February 2020

Organiser Berna Cummins speaks on a microphone, with George Town South MLA Barbara Conolly, to her right, before a large crowd at Smith Barcadere on Saturday. - Photo: Courtney Platt

Plans to enhance Smith Barcadere have been put on hold until further public consultation is held and agreement on a way forward is found, officials announced Saturday.

They made the undertaking at a ‘protest picnic’ organised by the group People for the Protection of Smith Barcadere at the popular Sound [sic] Church Street beach.

A meeting has been planned for the South Sound Community Centre to discuss the proposed plans. A date for the meeting is yet to be confirmed.

Infrastructure Minister Joey Hew, addressing the protest, which was attended by about 200 people, said government is committed to finding a solution.

“We now have an opportunity and we are showing the willingness to sit down and discuss it, so that is where we are. There’s no trick, there’s no wool over your eyes. There’s nothing happening. Nothing will happen until the committee has an opportunity to sit down with the councillor [Barbara Conolly] and with your committee, discuss the plans and come up with a solution that benefits the entire country as a whole,” he told the protesters.

The minister said there appeared to be a breakdown in communication over the progress of the project.

“Miss Barbara [Conolly] and myself, even as a minister, only became aware of the tender when you all did,” Hew said.

The latest developments in the project were first highlighted by the Cayman Compass last month after a tender was posted on government’s public procurement portal. Plans posted with the tender showed a 45-car parking lot, an arch at the beach entrance, walkways, additional bathroom blocks and timber cabanas. Read the whole story here.

Green groups urge caution on road building

Cayman Compass
12 February 2020

Building more roads to deal with increasing traffic from a growing population threatens Cayman's diminishing mangroves, environmental groups have warned.

Environmental groups are calling for sustainable solutions to Cayman’s traffic problems.Both the National Trust and Sustainable Cayman have cautioned against building new lanes and extending highways to deal with the problem.

They warn that this approach will inevitably impact the island’s diminishing open spaces and mangrove wetlands.

Nadia Hardie, executive director of the National Trust, said the organisation was concerned that new road plans would eat up habitat without making a great difference to the congestion issue.

“All traffic, even with six lanes, will almost certainly end in a bottleneck in George Town,” she said. Read the whole story here.

Climate change may not claim as many species as we thought

Popular Science
12 February 2020

Tropical species are the most likely to go extinctJan Gemerle/Unsplash

Humans are putting ecosystems to the test in the global science experiment that is climate change. Organisms are shifting to new habitats as their preferred climate moves up in elevation or poleward (or is outright destroyed), and are going extinct at rates amped up about 1,000 times by humans.

Ecologists have yet to settle on an estimate of how many will manage to weather this change—whether by moving or by acclimating—and how many will perish. Their predictions have varied widely, with climate change causing between zero and 54 percent of species to disappear. Many of these estimates are based on computer models that try to predict extinction based on where species’ ideal climate will move as temperatures warm. But a new study, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks to the past to understand how over 500 species have responded to the warming climate so far, then uses those patterns to project future declines. “This paper nicely builds on [previous predictions] by using actual observed data on where species are over time,” says Lauren Buckley, an ecologist at the University of Washington who was not involved in the research. “There’s a flood of recent research saying we need to look beyond mean temperatures when understanding how species respond to climate change.” Read the whole story here.


Hedge funds nudged to environmental and social investing

10 February 2020
Cayman Compass

Panellists at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit

As climate change and inequality are dominating the media and public agenda, a growing number of institutional investors are basing their investment allocations on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and are forcing alternative funds to take these factors into account in their portfolios.

A survey of 135 institutional investors, hedge fund managers and long-only managers with total assets of US$6.25 trillion in 13 countries showed that investors increasingly expect their asset managers to generate high returns and consider the environmental and social risks associated with their investments.

The sustainable investment report published by KPMG, the Alternative Investment Management Association, the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association and CREATE-Research was released at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit last week.

“The traditional risk-return equation is being rewritten to include ESG factors,” said Anthony Cowell, head of Asset Management, KPMG in the Cayman Islands and co-author of the report. “In the hedge fund industry, ESG has gone from being a nice-to-have to a must-have.”

Some 45% of institutional investors now base their investments in ESG-based hedge funds on the view that they present opportunities to generate alpha, or outsized returns, while also offering a more defensive portfolio that looks beyond the blind spots in markets that are slow to price in ESG risks, the report found. Read the whole story here.

Smith Barcadere project protest planned

10 February 2020
Cayman News Service

Smith Cove enhancement, artist’s rendition

A peaceful protest is planned at the Smith Barcadere this Saturday as a demonstration against government’s planned enhancement project at the site, even though the Ministry of Commerce, Planning and Infrastructure has already started the tendering process. Among the objections is that the enhancement will encourage tour operators to drop off cruise ship passengers there. However, Barbara Conolly, the MLA for the district that includes the beach, has stressed that there will be no commercial activity at Smith Cove.

Speaking on Radio Cayman’s call-in show “For the Record” with host Orrett Connor on Monday morning, Conolly noted that there are covenants in place to restrict commercial activity in that area, so there will be no cruise ship packages, tours or group activities conducted at Smith Cove.

Another point of contention about the redesigned enhancements at the property is that an area of ironshore next to the beach will be cleared for a parking lot for around 45 cars plus restrooms. Some objectors have noted that there is there is a vacant property immediately behind the existing parking lot accros the road that could be acquired and the parking lot tripled in size. However, former planning minister Kurt Tibbetts, now a planning consultant who also appeared on the show, said that the owner of that lot refuses to sell it.

Conolly said that what motivated her to spearhead the enhancements was that she used to get calls from police about the crime going on there, such as drugs use and sexual acts.

At the end of the show, Conolly said it was very disheartening to have to come on the radio and have to defend the project that will benefit everyone, including the disabled and the elderly. She called the objectors “selfish” and suggested that objections were about promoting people’s political ambitions. Read the whole story here.

Climate change policy push welcomed

Cayman Compass
9 February 2020

MLA Alva Suckoo

Local legislators’ agreement to create a climate change policy has been welcomed by Sustainable Cayman’s Linda Clarke.

However, she said any policy developed for the Cayman Islands must not only incorporate a way forward, but also tools to make effective changes to protect the environment.

“While the national sustainable development strategy is under development, importantly, the legislature should also look to enact and implement other legal tools prepared by the experts in the Department of Environment, which aim to manage and protect our biodiversity, including culturally important and tourist-attracting species,” Clarke told the Cayman Compass via email.

She said these legal tools should cover species named in the Turtle Conservation Plan, and ecosystems included in the Mangrove Species Conservation Plan which protect Cayman from adverse impacts of coastal erosion and provide protection during hurricanes.

Both plans have been approved by the National Conservation Council and remain in draft format awaiting Cabinet approval.

A week ago, lawmakers approved a private members’ motion filed by Newlands MLA Alva Suckoo to create a climate change policy locally, and to recommend modifications to the Cayman Islands Primary School Curriculum to ensure the topic of climate change features prominently across all the key stages of education.

Clarke said it was “very encouraging” to hear the legislature recognising the very real impacts climate change is having and will have on “our small island nation”. Read the whole story here.

Plan warns climate change poses tourism risk

Cayman News Service
7 February 2020

Beach erosion at Boggy Sand

The National Tourism Management Plan (NTMP), which was unveiled by Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell last week, makes it clear that climate change poses a serious risk to the tourism sector. The NTMP, which is designed to guide tourism development until 2023, points to a list of things government needs to do to mitigate its impact, none of which have actually been adopted. There is little sign that any of the major changes needed are likely to be implemented by government before the life of the plan expires.

The NTMP highlights the challenges of sea level rise, increased storm activity, flooding, coral bleaching and beach erosion all taking their toll on Cayman, which is significantly dependent on the quality of its beach and marine environment. Read the whole story here.

Climate change policy gets nod from LA

Cayman News Service
3 February 2020

Photo courtesy of Protect Our Future

The Legislative Assembly voted for a private member’s motion calling on government to adopt a climate change policy, after whipping through the debate Friday evening, as the latest brief meeting drew to a close. MLA Alva Suckoo (NEW) brought the motion asking government to address climate change, given that the existing policy document has been gathering dust in the ministry for almost a decade. But the move offered nothing in the way of immediate action.

Suckoo’s motion set out a comprehensive approach to developing a new policy and called for a commission to oversee its development and implementation, a public awareness campaign and to add climate change to the school curriculum. However, young people in Cayman have already demonstrated they are way ahead of politicians when it comes to understanding the impending climate crisis and what needs to be done.

Suckoo, who recognises the rising public concern about this issue, told his colleagues that Cayman, like other small island nations, may not be a major contributor to global warming but will be on the front line of its negative impacts.

He raised the question of food security as well as issues that affect our economy, such as the impact on tourism and our beaches. Suckoo called for mitigation measures and sustainable plans for how these islands will cope with the inevitable impacts coming our way over the coming decades. Read the whole story here.

Cayman the 29th most vulnerable country in the world to sea level rise

Loop Cayman
30 January 2020

Recent studies show that Cayman is one of the most vulnerable nations in the world to the inevitable rising of global sea levels.

According to the United Nations’ Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere, in a Changing Climate, if greenhouse gas emissions remain unabated, global sea level is likely to rise by up to 1.1 meters by 2100 and even if drastic measures are taken, given the damage that has already been done, the minimum possible rise is between 0.29 and 0.59 meters.

Using data produced by the ISCIENCES digital elevation model, and ranking countries based on land area where elevation is below 5 meters as a percentage of total land area, it was found that the Cayman Islands is the 29th most vulnerable country in a list of 154 countries, to sea-level rise.

In the Caribbean region, Cayman was found to be the fifth most vulnerable country, after the Bahamas (which is the second most vulnerable in the world), Cuba, Antigua & Barbuda and Belize.
As a low-lying island with its highest point at 60 feet above sea level, Cayman’s population is highly exposed.

Globalfloodmap.org reveals that a sea-level rise of the absolute minimum of 0.29 meters would displace 17,282 Caymanians.

According to a 2009 locally commissioned study, a 1-meter rise in sea level would result in a 100-meter retreat of the shoreline.  The decade-old study reported that this would impact just under 3,000 buildings. Given the development that has occurred over the past ten years, it is safe to say that this number has since increased significantly.

Sea level rise also threatens Cayman’s biodiversity. Shoreline erosion has implications for the nesting of sea turtles, wildlife ecosystems and natural resources. Read the whole story here.


Environmental leaders acknowledged for National Heroes Day

Loop Cayman
27 January 2020

Shirley Roulstone; Image Source: CPR Cayman Facebook page

Environmentalists have such a significant impact on our lives in Cayman. From biodiversity loss, to the Cruise port issue, to pollution and landfill issues, there are a number of leaders and pioneers who are fearlessly paving the way for change. 

Here are a few inspiring individuals that have shaped, or are helping to shape our environmental future, as acknowledged by Loop readers.

Shirley Roulstone was recognized for her work [by] Cathrine Welds, who endearingly referred to her as “Rascal-in-Chief of CPR Cayman,” stating, “We all know why she’s a hero.” 

Roulstone was also acknowledged by Ally McRae and Francoise Minzett, who said, “Ms Shirley Roulstone, keep reaching for the stars! You can do it!”

Melanie Carmichael and Shyvon Hydes echoed, "Shirley Roulstone- people’s Cayman 2020 national grassroots heroine.

A woman admired for her courage, warmth, and noble qualities."
Cathrine Welds acknowledged Mrs Gina Ebanks-Petrie of the Department of the Environment “who was my mentor in high school for our mentorship program, who I still highly respect and look up to for all of her and the department's efforts to protect our environment. I wish the rest of our government would give her and the department the respect and honour they truly deserve. I still love her to this day because of the impact she's had on my life.”

And according to Paula Blane, “Ellen Cuylaerts [freelance underwater and wildlife photographer, who documents animals and the challenges they are facing] for all she does for our oceans and environment and her immeasurable talents. We need more people like her.” 

These are but a small group. Cayman is so lucky to have a diverse group of brave souls who are willing to stand up for this island’s natural beauty. Read the whole story here.

Swimmers call for protection of Eden Rock

Cayman Compass
20 January 2020

Swimmers form a human chain at Eden Rock Sunday at a Solidarity Swim to to show support for the environment. - Photo: Elena McDonough

Swimmers of all ages took to the water off Eden Rock Sunday afternoon to support the conservation of the popular George Town dive and snorkel site.Led by organiser Rory Joe McDonough, around 60 people participated in the Eden Rock Solidarity Swim, which involved swimming roughly 150 metres from the shoreline and back, to show their love for the spot.

“We’re just a group of concerned citizens, as well as residents on island, that are coming together just to show some support for the reefs, to show some appreciation for one of the massive draws that this island has to offer, to recognise that it is a place worth fighting for,” McDonough told the Cayman Compass Sunday. Read the whole story here.

Tender issued for Smith Cove redevelopment

Cayman Compass
16 January 2020

Plans to enhance Smith Barcadere appears to have been resuscitated.Government last month issued a tender for construction of phase one of the Smith Barcadere redevelopment project.

The tender, which was published on government’s public procurement portal in late December, is seeking quotations for the construction of a retaining wall, carpark and adjoining office and restroom facility. The tender deadline is today, Jan. 17.

Details limited

Attempts to get further information on the plans from the government’s Public Works Department, which is in charge of the redevelopment, have proved futile.

The planned phases for the project and its overall cost have not been provided.George Town South MLA Barbara Conolly told the Cayman Compass, in an emailed statement on the project, that she too could not provide further details on the plans as they were now with the Ministry of Commerce, Planning and Infrastructure.

However, she said she is pleased that government is now in a position for phase 1 of the project to go out to tender. Read the whole story here.

Cruise line’s ‘ghost ship’ raises new concerns

Cayman News Service
15 January 2020

Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas

Royal Caribbean appears to have linked the lack of cruise berthing facilities in the Cayman Islands to problems with its Western Caribbean itinerary. But more questions have been raised about this justification for the Cayman government’s cruise port project after news reports in Jamaica revealed that the cruise line is paying fees to that country’s tourism ministry for ‘ghost’ Oasis-class ships that are no longer visiting Jamaica.

In a bizarre turn of events, Royal Caribbean is paying head taxes to Jamaica for ships that have stopped calling on Falmouth, the country’s newest and most controversial cruise port, based on a contractual agreement when the facility was built. The revelations emerged during a spat between Jamaica’s government and opposition over a serious decline in cruise passenger numbers, even though the island has several cruise berthing facilities.

Jamaica’s tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett, told the media there that after the previous government made an agreement with Royal Caribbean in 2015, visits by the mega vessels were reduced. However, he said this had not impacted government revenue because the Port Authority of Jamaica was still collecting the head tax as though the ships had arrived. Nevertheless, he accepted that it had greatly reduced the opportunity for Jamaicans to benefit from the port.

It is understood that Royal Caribbean is struggling to sell Western Caribbean cruises on Oasis-class ships without Grand Cayman on the itinerary, and has therefore diverted them to the Eastern Caribbean. While the situation is of the cruise company’s own making, given its decision not to tender the larger ships, it seems to be a major reason for the cruise line to pressure the Cayman government to build the cruise dock. Read the whole story here.

Carnival still polluting, US court finds

Cayman News Service
10 January 2020

Carnival Freedom belching plumes of black smoke

A US court has found more environmental violations by Carnival Corporation, despite it being on probation for pollution felonies and at risk of more multi-million dollar fines. Representatives for Carnival, which is one of government’s partners on the controversial cruise berthing project here, were in court Wednesday for a judge to assess the progress it is making on the issue. But instead she heard that Carnival has burned unfiltered heavy fuel oil in protected areas, dumped sewage, chemicals, food waste, gray water, oil and garbage into the sea.

Although the Cayman Islands government has been asked to justify working with a cruise partner with such a terrible environmental record, the premier recently dismissed these concerns as ridiculous and refused to answer.

But the concerns are very real.

Between July and October last year the company’s fleet made little progress towards compliance on the orders imposed by the court during the current five year probation period. While company executives tried to assure US District Judge Patricia Seitz that they were moving forward, she pressed Carnival’s chairman Micky Arison about what he is actually doing to clean up the company’s performance.

“I want to give you the necessary impetus to personally take charge and be committed,” Seitz told Arison, according to reports in the US media about the court proceedings. “I want you to become an environmentalist, I guess.” Read the whole story here.

Family donates to help buy mangrove land

Cayman Compass
9 January 2020

Karen and Chris Luijten with their daughters. Photo by: Chris Luijten

Cayman residents Chris and Karen Luijten have donated $75,000 to purchase an area of mangroves to help offset carbon dioxide emissions created by Protect Our Future students’ travel to Spain last month.

Olivia Zimmer, Connor Childs and Steff Mcdermot attended the United Nations COP 25 Climate Conference in Madrid to represent Cayman on the climate-change front. Zimmer and Childs had attended Montessori By The Sea, which the Luijten children currently attend.

The Luijtens said hearing about what the former Montessori students were doing motivated them to pledge the money. “This inspiration behind this pledge comes from the children,” Chris Luijten said.

The Luijten’s money was donated through Island Offsets, a National Trust for the Cayman Islands programme, in partnership with GreenTech Environmental, which focusses on reducing the impact of carbon footprints on the planet through local projects. Read the whole story here.

Grouper conservation an official success

Cayman News Service
8 January 2020

Nassau grouper spawning
(Photo courtesy Grouper Moon Project)

Successful conservation efforts in the Cayman Islands to protect the now critically endangered Nassau grouper have been documented in an academic report, published this week, that underscores how important marine protection can be. The Grouper Moon Project, a joint effort by the Department of Environment and US-based scientists at the aggregate site off Little Cayman, has documented how grouper numbers have recovered and set a scientific precedent to protect large-bodied fish that form spawning aggregations, making them vulnerable to over-fishing.

The research published in PNAS covers work conducted in Cayman waters over 15 years aimed at recovering the collapsed stocks of Nassau grouper. The data shows that the grouper population on Little Cayman has more than tripled in response to the conservation, which saw the former Marine Protection Board place restrictions on taking grouper, seasonal closures and bans on fishing at the hole.

The authors of the important peer-reviewed work said that the Nassau grouper “have undergone a remarkable recovery”, which is due to the implementation of deliberate “science-based conservation strategies”. The scientists said, “Little Cayman is now home to the largest remaining identified Nassau grouper aggregation anywhere in the world." Read the whole story here.

Landfill EIA planned for early 2020

Cayman Compass
5 January 2020

An environmental impact assessment of the George Town landfill is expected to be carried out early this year. – Photo: Taneos Ramsay

An environmental impact assessment into the proposed facilities and programmes for the George Town landfill is expected to begin early this year.

The EIA will be carried out by Decco Consortium, a Dart-owned entity, which was awarded the contract to design, build and maintain the new facility as part of the Cayman’s Integrated Solid Waste Management System.

On Friday, Hannah Reid, a spokesperson for Dart, said the EIA’s scope will “consider the design and impact of the suggested facilities, which include a waste-to-energy facility, a materials recycling facility, green waste facility, a household waste recycling centre and a lined landfill for residual waste in Grand Cayman”. Read the whole story here.

Assessing Cayman's contribution to global carbon emissions post COP25

Loop Cayman
3 January 2020

There appears to be a general consensus that COP25 did not meet expectations. According to António Guterrez, Secretary-General of the United Nations, “The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation & finance to tackle the climate crisis.” (Twitter)

On virtually each agenda item, a few large and powerful countries with vested interests in coal, oil and gas, selfishly and stubbornly blocked progress.

In the meantime, the past five years have been the hottest in history. In Greenland, the ice is melting at a rate that scientists predicted would not have happened until 2070. Forest fires have become commonplace. Satellite radar measurements reveal an accelerating sea level rise of 3 inches from 1993 to 2017, which is a trend of roughly 12 inches per century. We are more at risk of devastating extreme weather events than ever in our history.  The list goes on and on…

And the economic implications are staggering.

According to Dr. John Fletcher former Minister of Sustainability in Saint Lucia, “If sea levels rise by one metre, the Caribbean will lose 1,300 square kilometres of its land space (equivalent to Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Anguilla), it will displace 110,000 people, destroy 149 tourist resorts, most of which are on the coast of our islands, five powerplants, 21 airports in the CARICOM region, and 567 square kilometres of roads... A two-metre rise will result in the loss of 3,000 square kilometres of landmass, 31 airports, 233 resorts and will displace 260,000 residents.” Read the whole story here.

2019 in the top three hottest years on record

Cayman News Service
2 January 2020

With the dawn of a new decade, scientists around the world are pointed to the one we just left behind as the hottest in history, and 2019 is likely to be the second or third hottest year on record. In Australia, which is literally still on fire, 2019 was the hottest and driest year on record there, and in Russia, where they were forced to import snow for the Christmas festivities, people also experienced the hottest year since records began in 1879.

When the figures are in from around the world in the coming days, it is likely to reveal that for many countries 2019 will be one of the top three hottest and driest years since official weather records were created.

Despite the growing awareness of climate change and an increasing willingness of people to believe the scientists as they begin to experience for themselves the impact of the evident change in the global climate, the world is still not doing anywhere near enough to reverse the situation. And instead of being on track to reduce global CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 to slow temperature rise, to the United Nations said last month that emissions are set to increase by another half percent. Read the whole story here.


Year in Review: Storm over port development dominated 2019

Cayman Compass
30 December 2019

An architect's impression of how the new port could look.

No story dominated the national conversation in 2019 more than the ongoing debate over plans for new cruise and cargo piers for George Town Harbour.

As the year started, campaigners were in the midst of gathering signatures for a petition to force a people-initiated referendum on the project.

At the time, there were outstanding questions over the cost and design of the piers, among other concerns, but few in power seemed to believe the protesters would get the required numbers to force a public vote.

But, door by door, signature by signature, they crept towards their target of 5,292 names – 25% of the electorate. Read the whole story here.


Climate change costing $billions, charity reports

Cayman News Service
27 December 2019

Fires devastated parts of Australia in 2019

Fifteen of the natural disasters and extreme weather events during 2019 that resulted in damages of more than $1 billion were fuelled by climate change, Christian Aid found in a new report released Friday. These disasters killed and injured thousands of people around the world and ranged in damage costs from over one to 25 billion dollars. Counting the Cost 2019: a year of climate breakdown identifies 15 of the most destructive droughts, floods, fires, typhoons and cyclones last year.

However, the authors of the report believe their findings are likely to have underestimated the true costs as in some cases they include only insured losses and do not take into account the costs of lost productivity and uninsured losses. In addition, the climate fuelled wildfires in Australia were not included because figures on how much the ongoing fires are costing the country have not yet been collated.

The most costly disaster identified in the report was wildfire damage in California, amounting to around $25 billion, followed by Typhoon Hagibis in Japan, which is estimated to have cost over $15 billion, and floods in the American Midwest and China, both of which exceeded $12 billion in damages. The events with the greatest loss of life were floods in Northern India, which killed 1,900, and Cyclone Idai, which killed 1,300 in Southern Africa.

The key message in the report is that these billion-dollar disasters are linked with human-caused climate change. In some cases scientific studies have shown that a particular event was more likely or stronger because of the changing climate and shifts in weather patterns. 

While the report focuses on the financial cost of extreme weather events driven by climate change in many developing countries, the human cost of climate change to vulnerable communities is even higher than the financial cost, according to the charity which focuses on poverty. It further noted that there are many slow-onset droughts, weather change and sea encroachment that are also progressively and devastatingly impacting millions of people worldwide. Read the whole story here.

Dominica accelerates efforts to combat climate change

Loop
27 December 2019

Dominicans are being encouraged to join their government in its efforts to combat climate change.

Minister of the Environment, Rural Modernisation and Kalinago Upliftment, Cozier Frederick, issued a public appeal, urging citizens to participate in the Million Tree Campaign.

The reforestation project was first launched by his predecessor, Joseph Isaac in 2018. The aim of the project was to have one million trees planted by the end of 2019.With the end of the year now looming, Minister Frederick said “We are encouraging every Dominican to join in the movement to plant trees at your homes, at your schools, close to your places of worship, your workplace and within your communities.”

Speaking at the official reopening of Peebles Park in Roseau, he said the United Nations Environment Programme has pledged its support for the ongoing initiative.

The Ministry of the Environment has also installed over sixty planters in the Roseau/Portsmouth area as part of the national reforestation and beautification project. Read the whole story here.


New Camana Bay development projects approved

Loop
23 December 2019

Dart has received planning approval for the development of a new five-storey commercial office building and a 10-storey residential apartment building in Camana Bay.

At its meeting on December 18, 2019, the Central Planning Authority (CPA) approved applications by Dart for the two projects.

With Dart’s most recent projects – the Cayman International School (CIS) Early Childhood Centre, CIS High School expansion, and new Foster’s flagship store – employing over 100 local contractors and more than 700 individual employees, Dart anticipates that the new developments will generate significant employment opportunities for local contractors.

Preliminary works, permitted under the Camana Bay subdivision, are already underway at both sites. Construction for both projects will begin in January 2020, with the new commercial office building expected to be completed by 2021 and the residential building by 2022. Read the whole story here.


CUC using art to revolutionise renewable energy

Cayman Compass
16 December 2019

Caribbean Utilities Company has installed this SmartFlower 2.5-kilowatt system at the roundabout by Kings Sports Centre.

The moving sculpture is intended to encourage discussion about electricity in Cayman, according to CUC. SmartFlower opens in the morning, tracks the sun and closes at sunset, when it automatically folds up and cleans itself.

In addition to its aesthetic quality, Pat Bynoe-Clarke, CUC manager of corporate communications, explained the device has the benefit of offsetting the cost of  electricity used at the roundabout and offers a unique point of interest along with the local flora and fauna on display.

“CUC is pleased to be able to launch this solar flower, one of a kind in the Caribbean,” Bynoe-Clarke said. “The company continues to work with the regulator (OfReg) to bring other renewable energy options to the Grand Cayman market and we are looking forward to a positive outcome from our discussions.” Read the whole story here.

How much tourism is too much for a small island?

Cayman Compass
11 December 2019

Seven Mile Beach is always likely to be the key attraction for tourists in Cayman. But overcrowding is a growing concern for visitors.

Cayman’s tourism product provides plenty to boast about: world-renowned diving, the pristine beauty of Seven Mile Beach, a reputation for culinary excellence.

The islands’ strengths are what attracted a record number of visitors in 2018 – nearly 2.4 million – and pushed hotel room rates to the highest in the region.

Those same strengths are also driving anxiety in the hospitality sector, as questions loom about infrastructure, development and preserving what makes Cayman unique.

Handel Whittaker, owner of popular beach bar Calico Jack’s, refers to the refrain: ‘Kill not the goose that lays the golden egg’ – a warning against short-sighted action at the expense of long-term security.

“Being in this business as long as I have and being a local Caymanian, I’ve seen so many drastic changes,” Whittaker says.

“I think if we develop our product cautiously, we will be in great shape. If we continue to rush and build, build, build, I think people will find elsewhere to go. No one wants that to happen.” Read the whole story here.

Court to hear beach access case

Cayman News Service
11 December 2019

Beach access sign on Grand Cayman

A group of ladies from West Bay who have been quietly but persistently fighting for government to register hundreds of access points and historic rights of way to the beach have finally been given a date for their case to be considered. On 9 January the Concerned Citizens Group, which has sought a judicial review, will have the chance to persuade a judge that the government’s refusal to register the beach access points is unlawful.

The increasingly limited access to the beach for the wider public has been an issue for many years. But more recently, with the rapid acceleration of development on beachfront land, decisions by the Central Planning Authority and the government’s deals with major developers, in particular the Dart Group, the problem has been compounded.

In all of the cases where the group is pursuing the registration of the rights of way, they have been used for at least twenty years and in some cases much longer. But the battle to get the public pathways recognised, led largely by Alice Mae Coe, Ezmie Smith and Annie Multon, all from West Bay, has gone on for fifteen years and in that time many have been encroached and blocked. Read the whole story here.


Stingray City licences capped

Cayman Compass
8 December 2019

The Department of Environment will not be issuing any new licences for Stingray City.This came as Environment Minister Dwayne Seymour announced a temporary moratorium on licences, Thursday evening in the Legislative Assembly.

He said the action follows “numerous observations and complaints” made to the Department of Environment and the Ministry of Tourism.

The freeze effectively caps the total number of licensed operators at the popular Wildlife Interaction Zone at 209, the current number of licencees.

Seymour said the decision to institute the freeze was taken after careful consideration and investigation.

“The ministry knows the efforts that [have] been made by the DoE and the current constraints it has on them, so we have teamed up with the Coast Guard attachment to assist us in upholding this moratorium and capping policy,” Seymour told the House.

Opposition Leader Arden McLean said the issue was one of lack of enforcement, since there are rules in place for the operation of the WIZ. Read the whole story here.

DEVELOPMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT: a delicate dance

Caymanian Times
4 December 2019

The word ‘sustainability’, like the phrase ‘climate change’ tends to get so overused that one could be justified in wondering if, like the concerns over the environment, it too faces a threat of extinction.

However, with ‘sustainability’ factored into almost every facet of modern life, permanent, irreversible damage, if not an extinction-level threat, is indeed a clear, present and long term danger.

And that goes hand-in-glove with concerns about climate change.

Conventional wisdom suggests a balance between development and preserving the environment. It’s a worthy ideal.

If there’s no environment, there’s no development; neither the built environment or the more crucial human development.

The simple point is this; the price of development should not be the sacrifice of the environment.

Development and the environment have become the defining issues of our time.

How much development is enough development, and at what point is development determined to have reached its saturation point?

The challenge for governments and their electorate the world over is in making that determination…and distinction.

In this context the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) listed by the United Nations are crucial.

From poverty to partnerships they all revolve around a central theme; the environment.

In the pursuit of development, especially towards acceptable and affordable standards of living, external factors are inescapable.

This is particularly notable in small societies exposed and dependent on the outside world for trade, specific skills and expertise, investment and other forms of funding. Read the whole story here.

Lobster catchers urged to stick to quotas

Cayman News Service
1 December 2019

Caribbean Spiny Lobster (Photo courtesy DoE)

With the opening of the lobster season, the Department of Environment is urging the public not to exceed the daily catch limits or take what is still a threatened species from protected areas. The season lasts three months, from 1 December until 29 February, but there are strict rules about how many lobsters, and of what size, can be taken.
Lobster may only be taken from outside marine protected areas and only spiny lobsters (Panulirus argus) can be caught. Any lobster taken must have a minimum tail length of six inches and fisherfolk are limited to three spiny lobster per person per day, or six per boat per day, whichever is less.
Anyone who takes, purchases, receives or offers for sale, exchange or donation more than three lobsters per day from Cayman Islands waters commits an offence under the National Conservation Law, the DoE remineded everyone.
Visit the DoE website for more information on lobster season and other marine conservation measures.


Nat’l Trust files for judicial review over port vote

Cayman Compass
25 November 2019

Image Credit: IRG Cayman

The National Trust for the Cayman Islands has confirmed it has filed for judicial review of government’s decision to proceed with a referendum on the $200 million port project before an updated environmental impact assessment is completed.

In a statement issued late Monday evening, the Trust said it was not satisfied with government’s response to the legal letter it issued two weeks ago outlining its concerns about the project and its environmental impact.

The Trust pointed out that it delivered in confidence a letter to members of the Cayman Islands government expressing its concern with the project’s potential impacts on sites of environmental and historical significance, and again calling for updated information to be released to the general public prior to the referendum.

“The National Trust values the close working relationship it has with the Cayman Islands Government and therefore does not take this decision lightly,” the statement said.

It said it has not taken a stance in favour of or against the port project and believes that there is currently insufficient information to do so.

“The National Trust’s request is that prior to proceeding, further studies such as an updated Environmental Impact Assessment be performed, and the resulting information made available to the general public before the referendum is held,” it said in the statement. Read the whole story here.

CCMI: No evidence scientists can recreate a reef

Cayman Compass
20 November 2019

Scientists are not yet capable of regenerating complex reef systems like those found in the footprint of the pier project, according to CCMI director Carrie Manfrino. – Photo: Courtney Platt

By Carrie ManfrinoDirector, CCMI

Research aimed at improving the survival of corals has exploded in the last five years especially because it is widely accepted that corals are among the most threatened animals on Earth.

The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that one-fifth of reefs worldwide are dead, and that 90% may disappear completely within 30 years. Coral reefs in many locations are degraded and a wide variety of restoration approaches have emerged.

Research labs, including our own at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute, have made great progress in improving the ‘fitness’ of corals so they are more resilient. While there has been enormous progress, the scientific knowledge needed to regrow a coral reef is still is in its infancy.

The greatest challenge will be finding suitable habitats and environmental conditions for restoration to succeed. The survival of corals restored and relocated can vary from 80% success to 100% mortality. 

Concern over port claims

We are especially concerned about the claims by Verdant Isle that Dr. David Vaughan can regrow new reefs in Cayman as a tradeoff to destroying the reefs in our harbour. The VIPP team report that the micro-fragmenting technique in the Florida Keys has had success in the labs growing 50% of Caribbean coral species.

They have successfully grown a total of only five large individual (metre-scale) mound corals. Scientists are not yet capable of regenerating a complex reef. No project anywhere in the world has been able to replicate, restore or transplant a coral reef system with the same biodiversity of a natural reef. Read the whole story here.

The issue explained: Report outlines likely environmental impacts of port

Cayman Compass
17 November 2019

The loss of the scenic harbour view was identified by the consulants as an unquantifiable impact. - Photo: Stephen Clarke

Many of the anticipated environmental impacts of the cruise berthing project were laid out following an exhaustive investigation in 2014 and 2015.

The environmental impact assessment, led by coastal engineering firm Baird and Associates, examined everything from the impact on coral reefs in George Town Harbour to the potential for erosion on Seven Mile Beach.

We combed through their final report and the report of the Environmental Assessment Board, led by Department of Environment Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie, to answer some of the key questions on the likely environmental consequences of the project.

What is the expected impact on coral reefs in the harbour?

The reports conclude that the project will involve the removal of coral habitat that has “significant economic and ecological value”.

Critically endangered staghorn coral is found within the project footprint and critically endangered elkhorn coral is found on the adjacent reefs.

The Environmental Assessment Board’s report indicated that the project would involve the “irreversible removal” of 15 acres of coral reef habitat.

The project has since undergone design changes, moving the piers into deeper water to reduce that impact. The extent of that reduction has not yet been assessed by the environmental board.

The contractors concede that the development will still result in the removal of at least 10 acres of reef habitat.

The environmental board describes these reefs as “topographically complex” formations that converge in a network of tunnels that form a complex habitat supporting a diversity of species.

The likely loss of coral reef habitat was graded as the highest possible tier of negative impact -E in Baird’s rating system. With a coral relocation plan, this could be upgraded to a -D, still considered a significant negative impact, according to the consultants. Read the whole story here.

Annual Turtle Release a Success

Caymanian Times
14 November 2019

Continuing a tradition that started decades ago, the Cayman Turtle Centre, held its annual turtle release on Sunday, November 10th. It was a fun, family-friendly event with meaning. Everyone there seemed to have great time and there were moments of inspiration and awe all wrapped up in the event.

This event is a part of the Pirates Week schedule, as it has been for quite some years now, and so it provided a nice respite from the revelry and negative connotations of the main festival theme. This event was solely about the turtles, the people who care for them, and the persons who were fortunate enough to have earned the chance to name and release one of the twenty yearling turtles. Read the whole story here.

Gov’t and bidders to meet public on port

Cayman News Service
11 November 2019

Over three months after announcing a consortium involving cruise lines, a marine engineering firm and a local contractor had been selected as the preferred bidder on the cruise port project, the tourism ministry and those bidders will all come face to face with the public.

Government will be hosting a series of public meetings in partnership with the group known as Verdant Isle Port Partners, giving people a chance to quiz all those involved before the referendum on the project next month.

Eight meetings are planned to take place across the island, starting on Tuesday, 12 November, at 7pm at the Mary Miller Hall, where officials from the ministry and Verdant Isle will make presentations and answer questions about the project.

“These meetings are an opportunity for the public to get more information on the project and have their questions answered before Referendum Day,” said Premier Alden McLaughlin. “It is vital that the public is able to weigh up the issues and make an informed choice based on facts, and not on hearsay, opinions or assumptions.” Read the whole story here.

Thousands of scientists warn of climate emergency

Cayman News Service
6 November 2019

Over 11,000 scientists have backed comprehensive research which concludes that the world is in a climate emergency. The work is based on 40 years of data that illustrates a myriad of climate related issues. The scientists say the planet is facing “untold human suffering” and they have a moral obligation to warn humanity about the scale of the threat. The study, published in the Oxford Academic journal BioScience, came out on the same day that last month was declared the hottest October in recorded history.

The scientists said that, despite explicit warnings of insufficient progress on tackling this emergency, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are still rising, so now an “immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering”. The research by the authors, which is backed by this unprecedented number of scientists, is shown in a clear suite of graphical vital signs of climate change.

The climate crisis is closely linked to excessive consumption of the wealthy, with the most affluent countries responsible for the historical emissions.

“Profoundly troubling signs from human activities include sustained increases in both human and ruminant livestock populations, per capita meat production, world gross domestic product, global tree cover loss, fossil fuel consumption, the number of air passengers carried, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and per capita CO2 emissions since 2000,” the authors found. Read the whole story here.

Digicel Cayman goes plastic-free

Loop Cayman
6 November 2019

In its ongoing quest to contribute to a healthier environment in the Cayman Islands, Digicel has opted to go plastic-free in all of its retail outlets, with immediate effect. 

The telecommunications provider has replaced all plastic shopping bags with brown paper bags that are both eco-friendly and elegant. The paper bags are 100% recyclable and 100% biodegradable, are made of 100% PCW Recycled Paper and are FSC compliant.

Digicel recently announced that it would also be discontinuing its 2G coverage, which would reduce the company’s carbon footprint while enhancing performance. Read the whole story here.

CUC: Hot weather brings record electricity demand

Cayman Compass
5 November 2019

Higher than average temperatures in the third quarter of 2019 and a corresponding increase in air conditioning usage have pushed Caribbean Utilities Company’s sales by 8%, to 184.4 million kilowatt hours, compared to the same period last year.

The average monthly temperature for the quarter of 86.5 degrees Fahrenheit was 1.1 degrees higher than in the third quarter of 2018, CUC noted in its latest earnings report.

President and CEO Richard Hew said the period continued a trend of positive quarterly financial results for the company, which was continuously reinvesting in modern equipment in response to the record level of electricity demanded by CUC customers.

CUC experienced a new system peak demand of 113.5 megawatts on 28 Aug. In 2017, peak demand was 105.6 MW after 103.6 MW in 2018.

The company’s installed generating capacity is 161 MW. Renewable capacity connected to the grid increased to 10.3 MW in September 2019 from 9.7 MW in September 2018.

The company has invested $43.7 million in physical infrastructure so far this year to meet present and future demand. CUC anticipates investments of more than $270 million towards system extension and upgrades during the next five years, in line with its recently approved 2019-2023 Capital Investment Plan. Read the whole story here.

Ancient Reefs In The Cayman Islands Are Being Used To Model And Prevent Worldwide Coral Extinction

Forbes
31 October 2019

A scientist from the Central Caribbean Marine Institute studying coral off of Little Cayman. CENTRAL CARIBBEAN MARINE INSTITUTE

Corals washed ashore in the Cayman Islands some 5,500 years ago due to catastrophic storm events. These ancient species are alive today and offer important evidence of the longevity of modern reef systems. Thousands of years ago, when sea levels rose above the edge of the Cayman Islands, shallow reef crests developed and Island lagoons formed with millions of calcifying plants and animals (composed of calcium carbonate, which is what limestone is made of) continuously fragmenting into sand particles for beaches— a natural carbonate factory. Today, scientists are reporting net negative calcification in certain regions. More sand is eroding than being deposited, more corals are dying than recruiting— scientists are grappling with the unthinkable scenario of coral reef extinction by 2050. But scientists at the Cayman Islands’ Central Caribbean Marine Institute, based in Little Cayman, are studying the unique characteristics of resilient 5,500 year-old corals to create new and better models for predicting and safeguarding against climate change impacts. Read the whole story here.

Plastic bottles: How we got here

CBC What on Earth?
31 October 2019

Last week, Coca-Cola was named the most polluting brand in the world in an audit conducted by Break Free From Plastic, a global movement made up of roughly 1,500 organizations calling for the reduction of single-use plastics. Close followers were Nestle and PepsiCo.

It may not be a total surprise, since Coca-Cola itself disclosed in a recent report that it produced three million tonnes of plastic annually.

Plastic is found in all kinds of things, but one of the most prevalent applications is packaging for drinks, including water.

Not that long ago, all soft drinks were kept in glass bottles. (Milk was, too.) You can still find glass bottles of pop, but they're nowhere near as ubiquitous as plastic ones. How did we end up here?

According to Bart Elmore, associate professor at Ohio State University’s department of history, it all started with throwaway beer containers in the early 1900s. After Prohibition in the U.S. was lifted, the market opened up, allowing brewers to ship to more distant locations using disposable steel cans instead of glass bottles.

The single-use container was "a way of breaking into those markets with a different kind of container," Elmore said, and "having this kind of throwaway system" meant saving money on reclaiming bottles and cleaning them in-house.

Eventually, Elmore said, the soft drink industry took notice. Aluminum pop cans took off around the 1960s, but Nathaniel Wyeth, an engineer at the chemical company DuPont, wondered why the soft drink industry wasn’t using plastic. He was told carbonated beverages would cause plastic to explode, but he eventually created a new, stronger type of plastic: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which was patented in 1973.

The soft drink industry loved it because it was much cheaper to ship than glass and didn’t run the risk of breaking.

Ironically, Coca-Cola realized the environmental cost of this system. In 1969, the company commissioned a life-cycle analysis comparing the use of glass to plastic in areas such as energy expenditure, water pollution, carbon emissions and more. The original report is no longer available, but the scientists behind it reproduced it for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1974. Their conclusion: A throwaway plastic bottle would not improve on the environmental impact of a glass bottle that was returned 10 times. 

This seems obvious to us now. Coca-Cola went ahead with the plastic bottles anyway. But studies show only nine per cent of all plastic waste is ever recycled, a disturbing statistic when you consider the amount that Coca-Cola alone produces. Read the whole story here.

Premier urges Caymanians to ‘choose prosperity’

Cayman Compass
28 October 2019

Premier Alden McLaughlin delivers his speech during the port referendum debate in the Legislative Assembly on Monday morning. - Photo: Taneos Ramsay

Painting the issue as a choice between “prosperity and decline”, Premier Alden McLaughlin tabled a bill for a referendum on the cruise and cargo port project Monday.

Speaking at the beginning of two days of debate on the bill, which sets the date and question for the upcoming poll, McLaughlin insisted the case for building the cruise piers was “overwhelming”.

“Prosperity or decline? This government chooses prosperity for this and future generations of Caymanians,” he said.

“I ask all members of this honourable house to vote ‘Aye’ to this referendum bill and to those Caymanians that go out to the polls on Referendum Day, I ask them to vote a resounding yes [to the project]”.

In a two-hour speech Monday morning, McLaughlin hit back at critics of the project and of his government. Read the whole story and speech here.

Drawing a line in the sand

Cayman Compass
24 October 2019

Winsome Prendergast on patrol on Seven Mile Beach recently. - Photo: Alvaro Serey

Concern over public access to the beach is an issue that has festered for decades in the Cayman Islands. A 2018 report revealed that the vast majority of public access paths to beaches were either blocked, neglected and overgrown with vegetation, or lacking proper signs.

Disputes between landowners and beachgoers over ‘rights of way’ to the beach have also escalated over the past decade.
Combined with concern over commercial activity on the island’s beaches, the issue prompted government to establish the Public Lands Commission.

Now former police commander Winsome Prendergast is leading the new commission’s inspection unit.

In an interview with the Cayman Compass, she laid out the role of the commission, the rights of beachgoers and how to complain if you feel your beach-access rights are being restricted. Read the whole story here.

DoE: 2019 set to be a record turtle-nesting season

Cayman Compass
21 October 2019

As Cayman’s turtle-nesting season nears the homestretch, the Department of Environment said it has already been one of its busiest to date.

According to new numbers from the DoE, the current tally of turtle nests found in Grand Cayman this year is set to surpass the 406 nests recorded in all three islands in 2018.

“So far, DoE staff, visiting scientists, and volunteers have counted well over 400 nests in Grand Cayman alone,” said DoE marine research officer Janice Blumenthal. “That number will continue to increase until the end of the nesting season, which runs until November or even later.”

The rise in nests has been heartening for the department’s turtle team.
“Nests are left to hatch naturally on the beach, so hatchlings make their own way to the sea,” the DoE told the Cayman Compass on Monday. “It appears that 2019 will be a record year for Grand Cayman nesting numbers.” Read the whole story here.

Cayman plastic plume startles harbour patrol

Cayman Compass
21 October 2019

Delwin McLaughlin has been boating on the waters around Cayman for many years, but what he saw last Thursday stunned him: a floating stream of plastic more than a mile long in the ocean west of George Town.

“I’ve seen plastic here and there, but not miles long,” said McLaughlin, a harbour patrol officer for the Port Authority. “I’ve never come across miles of trash in my whole life.”

He said his fellow officer on the boat that day has even more years on the water than he does, and he had also never seen a stream of pollution like the one they encountered.

McLaughlin, who has worked for dive companies and for the Department of Environment, took a video of the trash, with his concern evident in his accompanying commentary.

“It was like 15 minutes to half an hour of constant trash,” he said. Read the whole story and watch the video here.

After Dorian, could we be next?

Cayman Compass
10 October 2019

When Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas last month as a destructive Category 5 storm that lingered for three days killing more than 50 people and leaving thousands homeless, the first reaction of Cayman Islands residents was to come to the aid of a stricken neighbour in need.

Donations flooded into the Red Cross, the police helicopter was dispatched to join the relief effort, and Premier Alden McLaughlin flew to Nassau with a planeload of medical supplies donated by Cayman’s hospitals.

Now as the dust settles and Abaco and Grand Bahama begin the long road to recovery, another reaction is starting to surface: Fear.

The onslaught of disastrous storms to hit the region in the last few years aligns with the hypothesis of climate scientists that warming oceans are likely to fuel more destructive hurricanes.

Caymanians who lived through Hurricane Ivan might have thought they had faced the worst that nature had to offer and lived to tell the tale. But, from the news reports, the accounts of the Cayman police pilots who flew into Abaco and from the premier who met with his Bahamian counterpart in the early days of the relief effort, Dorian was many times worse than anything they had seen before. Worse than Maria, worse than Irma, worse even than Ivan. Read the whole story here.

Caribbean coral reef could be destroyed to make way for cruise ships in the Cayman Islands 

The Telegraph
11 October 2019

The Soto's Reef, one of those under threat from the George Town harbour expansion CREDIT: COURTNEY PLATT /COURTNEY PLATT 

It is one of Britain's most prized coral reefs, sitting off the coast of the Cayman Islands which were praised by Prince Charles as a "shining example" of a Commonwealth nation protecting its marine life.

But 15 acres of the coral reef, which is home to critically endangered turtles, could be destroyed to make way for two cruise ship docks as part of plans to boost tourism.

Environmental campaigners warn the George Town Harbour project will see 22 acres of the seabed dredged, and silt sedimentation will turn the “crystal-clear aquamarine waters to murky white”.

In December, the first publicly initiated referendum on the islands will decide the reef's future, after 25 per cent of the electorate signed a petition to take the decision to a vote.

There are fears it may not save the reef as campaigners claim the Government has withheld the latest designs for the docks, and the date of the vote coming so close to Christmas will mean many residents are on holiday.

“The marine environment is the heritage of the Caymanian people and decisions made today will have consequences for generations to come,” said Shirely Roulstone, of the Cruise Port Referendum (CPR) Cayman campaign group.

“We must be responsible custodians of our precious natural resources.” Read the whole story here.

Cruise lines still polluting

Cayman News Service
7 October 2019

Carnival Corporation fined for pollution

Environmental credentials claimed by the cruise lines partnering with the Verdant Isle group during their recent visit to the Cayman Islands rang hollow after a US federal judge said that Carnival Corporation was still not doing enough to fix the ocean pollution it caused. Activists campaigning against the cruise port that Verdant Isle has won the bid to build want to know how people in Cayman can trust the port partners when they are violating a court order and continuing to damage the marine environment.

With the date and the question for the referendum on the proposed facility now fixed, activists continue to press government for critical information to help voters decide. In the meantime, they are also concerned about information already in the public domain that raises red flags about the organisations government is planning to work with.

“Cayman cannot afford to partner with an entity that has such a negative track record and that continues to abuse and remain non-compliant with court orders and breach environmental laws,” a spokesperson for CPR said.

They urged voters to come out in record numbers and say “no to the destruction of our God-given marine environment which ‘He hath founded it upon the seas’ for us all to enjoy and protect,” CPR said.

The news that Carnival is still not fulfilling the terms of its probation was aired in a Miami federal court last week, when Judge Patricia Seitz said she had expected more concrete action and fewer promises from the world’s biggest cruise line in addressing the conviction over pollution dating back to 2016.

Carnival was fined a further $20 million for violating the terms of its probation, on top of the original $40 million fine imposed in 2016. Read the whole story here.

A deep dive into the seaweed

Cayman Compass
6 October 2019

Work crews have been required to clean up the beaches and occasionally the streets on days when Grand Cayman has been inundated.

You smell it, before you see it. That pungent rotten-egg scent that carries on the sea breeze is the first warning sign of an unwelcome visitor to Cayman’s shores.

It was impossible to travel around Grand Cayman this summer without encountering sargassum. Thick brown clumps of the stringy seaweed clogged up coastal inlets and swamped beaches for weeks at a time. Hotels and condos were severely impacted. Residents suffered the suffocating odour and saw their beach access diminished. Crews of unemployed people were mobilised to clear the coastline while government and hoteliers were forced to shell out for specialist equipment to maintain the island’s pristine sandy beaches.

In comparison to some of our neighbours in the region, Cayman has been lucky. Seven Mile Beach has remained relatively unscathed and the efforts of business owners and government have kept the impact on tourism to a minimum. So far. Scientists agree that regular sargassum landings are likely to be the “new normal” for the Caribbean. For some countries, it may simply be a seasonal irritant; for others, it could be an existential threat to their tourism industries. Where Cayman will fit within that spectrum remains to be seen. Read the whole story here.


DoE registers 60 Cayman parrots in amnesty effort

Cayman Compass
1 October 2019

Anyone owning a Cayman parrot has until 29 Feb. 2020 to register it. - PHOTO: STUART MAILER

Sixty Cayman parrots have been signed up for registration so far under the Department of Environment’s ongoing amnesty.

The department said 54 birds on Grand Cayman and six on Cayman Brac have been signed up.

The six-month amnesty began this month and is scheduled to end in February 2020.

It is illegal to possess a Cayman parrot, but the DoE opted to give those keeping the parrots as pets an opportunity to register the birds, rather than confiscating all parrots being kept as pets.

Additionally, the department does not have the resources to deal with so many seized birds.

The DoE, in a statement to the Cayman Compass, said the amnesty efforts have been going well. Read the whole story here.

Coral spawning provides an underwater spectacle

Cayman Compass
23 September 2019

Illuminated by the moody glow of a dozen torchlights, a group of divers hovers over the reef.

The distinctive antler-like shape of a large staghorn formation emerges from the gloom. An octopus squirts between coral heads. Bloodworms swarm in the torch beams.

It’s just after 10pm on a reef off East End known as Fantasea Land. It is an unusual time to be in the water, but the group from Ocean Frontiers dive shop is here for a reason. One of the most iconic displays in nature is about to begin.

The spectacle starts slowly at first.

Tiny pink bubbles fizz from a large head of mountainous star coral, so named because of the peaks and valleys that cover its stony surface. Then it erupts, and bundles of gametes gush into the water column, drifting upwards like a snowstorm in reverse.

Soon the entire reef is exploding.

Across Cayman’s reefs, the same phenomenon occurs almost simultaneously. Within the space of 20 minutes, six or seven nights after the September full moon, almost every hard coral in Cayman’s reef system spontaneously reproduces. Read the whole story here.

Young climate activists worry over future

Cayman News Service
23 September 2019

Protesters at the Sunset Climate Strike

Dozens of adults joined the younger generation on Friday evening for the Sunset Climate Strike in George Town. The teenage organisers from Protect Our Future focused on the specific threat to the harbour from the port project, on a day where millions of people around the world protested the lack of action on climate change. Dejea Lyons (16), one of the leaders of the local campaign, said she is very worried that the government here is not listening but it is her generation that will suffer.

Lyons told CNS that she and her fellow teenage activists are very frustrated that they will not be able to vote in the upcoming referendum. “If I could I would vote ‘no’ a thousand times,” she said, adding that she was convinced that if teenage students could vote, 90% of them would also say no to the project.

As one of the leaders of Protect our Future, an organisation which has gathered momentum in very short period of time, Lyons is passionate about conserving the natural beauty of her home. But the campaign has seen many local young people get involved in the goal to raise awareness about the environment and what is being lost, which will have a detrimental impact on their generation.

The decision by the young people to use the global action day on climate change to focus on the cruise port project is because of the specific impact the loss of so much irreplaceable marine habitat will have on them. Lyons said that the young people need “the adults that can vote to hear us”, as she noted that they “will be the ones that are going to be clearing up the mess” they leave behind. “But I am really worried that government just isn’t listening to the people,” she said. Read the whole story here.

DoE raises concerns over Beach Bay hotel

Cayman News Service
9 September 2019

Beach Bay development, artist’s rendition

A controversial $167 million resort project proposed for the quiet residential community of Beach Bay has not only raised significant concerns for the residents in the area but also the Department of Environment. The DoE has said that the National Conservation Council does not require the developers to conduct an EIA because local experts are already familiar with the site. However, the department has identified a number of problems with the planned development.

In its submission to the Central Planning Authority, which is set to hear the application Wednesday, the DoE said that if the CPA does grant planning permission it should not allow the developer to build on the beach, as currently proposed. The applicant wants to put beachfront villas, a pool deck, a guest services area, a pathway and a even a sewer directly on the beach, which will reduce the beach significantly.

“This has the effect of reducing the beach area by almost half in some areas,” the DoE stated.”The existing beach is approximately 170 feet wide at its widest point and with the proposed villas, sewer and pathway, there will be only approximately 90 feet remaining of beach. While we understand the desire to create an experience where villas open directly onto the beach, we do not support building directly on the beach.” Read the whole story here.

Department of Environment rescue turtle from ‘ghost net’

Cayman Compass
3 September 2019

Department of Environment officers, en route by boat to Cayman Brac last week, freed a turtle they came across that was trapped in a floating ‘ghost net’.

DoE Conservation Officer Joe Kellog and Cayman Brac Field Officer Martin van der Touw rescued the tangled turtle as they travelled to Grand Cayman from Cayman Brac. The 26 Aug. rescue was captured on video and posted online.

The video, posted on the DoE’s Facebook page, appears to show the turtle swimming freely in the water moments after the net was removed.

Ghost nets are fishing nets left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. The nets can be dangerous for marine life as they can trap animals or get hung up on reefs.

In April 2018, a ghost net with dead sharks and hundreds of other fish trapped inside was discovered on a reef north of Grand Cayman. It was towed to shore by local fishermen and removed from the water. Read the whole story and watch the video here.

Real protection needed to stop mangrove clearance

Cayman News Service
3 September 2019

The Department of Environment is hoping that if Cabinet accepts the recommendations of the National Conservation Council for a species protection plan for mangroves, it will help curtail the constant clearance of these important plants for development. With a number of sites, from West Bay to Snug Harbour, being cleared of mangroves in recent months ahead of more canal and other developments, the DoE is in a constant battle to preserve them.

Despite mangrove buffer zones on the now extremely dated National Development Plan and the DoE’s recommendations that developers try to use mangroves in landscaping and retain the buffers around canal developments, they are often ignored. The DoE urges developers not to clear mangroves until construction is ready to start, but that advice is also often unheeded, with some developers clearing sites even before planning permission is granted without any apparent consequences.

“The clearing of mangroves is a major issue and it is happening sometimes without permission and it is too late for us to have any input after the fact,” DoE Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie told CNS.

She hopes that the proposed species protection plan for mangroves will make it harder for the CPA to ignore the environmental issues regarding mangroves and will stop this general clearance of mangroves unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Ebanks-Petrie said that clearance should not be happening without some kind of scrutiny. The DoE should be making their recommendations to planning about proposed developments on uncleared land, especially about eco-alternatives to mass land clearance that can lead to landscapes that are native and far easier and cheaper to manage.

While the DoE has managed with work with the developers to preserve a mangrove buffer at one planned canal development off the Esterly Tibbetts Highway, they were not so successful with another development. They were unable to prevent the CPA from granting planning permission to a site where the mangrove buffer has now been completely cleared. Even government has ripped out several acres of mangrove off Boatswain Road ahead of the development of a new police station in West Bay. Read the whole story here.

Letter: CPR outlines key concerns on cruise berthing facility – part 3 of 3

Cayman Compass
1 September 2019

A cruise ship docks at Nassau, Bahamas. Proposals are under way to create a new cruise ship dock at Lighthouse Point in Eleuthra, Bahamas.

Proudly supporting participatory democracy in our country, the first people-initiated referendum will empower voters to have their say on the cruise berthing facility.

This letter forms Part 3 of a 3-part letter which seeks to highlight some, but not all, of the numerous significant and unquantified risks associated with this project. Part one can be read here and part two can be read here. 

Finance model transparency

What will Caymanians really pay for the project? Governments have a duty to deliver value-for-money projects with public finances.

Capital investment will be CI$196 million for Option 2 from the preferred bidder, Verdant Isle Consortium, funded by (1) 40% from its own capital (2) 60% through a bank loan. However, required feasibility studies and public infrastructure costs remain either unassessed or publicly undisclosed including: (1) Geotechnical study of George Town Harbour (2) George Town revitalisation (3) Road upgrades (4) Increased demand for island resources – waste management/water/electricity (5) Spotts Dock upgrades (6) Coral and shipwreck relocation.

What are the interest rates and payment terms to repay investors (1) Verdant Isle; and (2) on the Bank loan? Section 3.6 of the Outline Business Case (PWC report) indicates private cost of funds could be 10-15% per year, who will ultimately pay for this?

Read the whole story here.

Suspect turtle poachers arrested

Cayman News Service
27 August 2019

Shell of suspected poached turtle

Two men were arrested last Wednesday on suspicion of poaching and drug offences after police and customs found a green turtle shell and meat during a raid at a West Bay home. RCIPS and Customs and Border Control officers carried out a joint operation at a house on Up The Hill Road, where they recovered a package of ganja from one of the men. But during a search of a vehicle at the location they also discovered a still bloody turtle shell and then a package of turtle meat inside the house.

A 27-year-old man from Bodden Town was arrested for possession and consumption of ganja as well as taking marine life without being licensed. A second man, aged 39 of West Bay, was also arrested over the poached turtle.

Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown said the raid had been based on suspicion about drug offences but the discovery of the turtle shell and meat was quite significant.

“As the police service, it is part of our remit to investigate and prosecute these offences as well, in conjunction with our partner agencies, and it is a responsibility we take very seriously,” he stated.

This is the second adult green turtle discovered to have been poached in the West Bay area recently. The DoE also found a shell in a dumpster in the district, indicating that the animal had already been butchered.

Dr Janice Blumenthal, a specialist in turtles at the Department of Environment, said that this most recent discovery demonstrates the ongoing threat poachers present to the endangered species.

“The shell was taken from an adult green sea turtle that was one of less than 150 such animals left in the wild around the Cayman Islands. It is also the second turtle shell recovered in an apparent poaching incident within the past month on Grand Cayman,” she said. “Although the Department of Environment has seen a steady increase in the number of turtle nests in recent years, poaching of even a few endangered adult sea turtles can lead to a reversal of that trend very quickly.” Read the whole story here.

https://www.caymaniantimes.ky/news/development-and-the-environment-a-delicate-dance

Cayman Compass

20 January 2020

Swimmers form a human chain at Eden Rock Sunday at a Solidarity Swim to to show support for the environment. - Photo: Elena McDonough

Swimmers of all ages took to the water off Eden Rock Sunday afternoon to support the conservation of the popular George Town dive and snorkel site.

Led by organiser Rory Joe McDonough, around 60 people participated in the Eden Rock Solidarity Swim, which involved swimming roughly 150 metres from the shoreline and back, to show their love for the spot. 

https://www.steeldreamsdevelopment.com/

UN: World could hit 1.5-degree warming threshold in 5 years

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