Be they initiatives of the church or any one of the dozens of charitable organizations that further the interests of the community, residents routinely show up and contribute their support to individuals, groups and worthwhile causes.
Last Saturday, 28 volunteers – with the backing of several local businesses and the Department of Environment – donated their time and energy to another cause, this time underwater at Don Foster’s Dive site in George Town Harbour. They were taking part in the first day of an ongoing mission to shift rubble, crushed and dead coral and other debris from the site and to relocate living coral.
Nearly 12,000 square feet of the reef was severely damaged on Aug. 27, when the cruise ship Carnival Magic dropped its anchor in an unauthorized area of the harbor.
Four weeks later, the liability for the error is still undetermined, partially because the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands authorized a pilot from Bodden Shipping Agency to direct the vessel to anchorage. While the government works its way through the process of determining liability, Cayman’s concerned citizens went to work, and local businesses added their support.
As Ocean Frontiers’ Lois Hatcher described the task: “This is going to be something where we really need the community to come together. If nobody’s going to be held accountable for this, we have to be accountable for it.”
This newspaper has advocated personal responsibility on many occasions. Hearing Ms. Hatcher call for responsibility from individuals in the community is most welcome. Rather than waiting and risking that the reef could sustain even more damage if a storm were to scatter the rubble into the remaining living coral, Ms. Hatcher and others are acting.
While the task at hand is daunting and will take months, there is a precedent to suggest the effort will not be in vain. In 1996, the Holland America cruise ship Maasdam dragged its anchor over Soto’s Reef as a result of a sudden wind shift at the beginning of a Nor’wester storm.
The Maasdam’s anchor crushed coral formations and a large section of the reef platform over a 10,000 square foot area. It required about 9,000 hours of labor over the next three months to restore.
Posting on a Facebook page set up to support the current restoration project, local dive operator Peter Milburn made this comment on Tuesday about the results of those efforts 18 years ago: “Today it’s very hard to even notice where most of that work was done, so this is not an exercise in futility.”
The effort, however, will take more than volunteer work. Right now, several private companies, including the dive operations of Don Foster’s, Sunset House and Off the Wall Divers, Harbour House Marina, and Foster’s Food Fair, are providing supplies needed for the effort. However, they can’t be expected to fund the massive restoration project indefinitely.
At some point, some entity must be held accountable and made to pay. The tab should not be handed to the taxpayers of the Cayman Islands.
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Thanks to everyone involved in the restoration. Can we as visiting divers get involved when we come to dive. I am not alone when I say that many of us that come to Cayman to dive would gladly pay for several dives and help with the restoration. Is there a way to contribute for the effort as well. The above article should be sent to all the dive publications. Good Luck, Kevin, Annette and Jillian Smith.