Topic: Verdant Isle

Royal Caribbean has not completely abandoned plans for new cruise berthing facilities in Grand Cayman, the company’s CEO Michael Bayley said Wednesday.

Verdant Isle Port Partners, the consortium selected as the preferred bidder on the $200 million cruise and cargo berthing project, released a brief statement Wednesday in response to a court decision to delay the referendum on the port vote.

A scientist whose methods have been heralded as a potential game-changer in the emerging field of growing corals has been recruited as part of the mitigation plan for the cruise port.

Coral relocation can help alleviate some impacts of dredging but moving an entire ecosystem is “impossible”, according to Cayman’s research centre, the Central Caribbean Marine Institute.

The National Trust for the Cayman Islands is following closely ongoing discussions regarding the proposed cruise ship berthing facility. The National Trust issued statements in October 2015 and October 2018 expressing its concerns with the project’s impacts on sites of environmental and historical significance.

The Verdant Isle consortium held a job fair on Tuesday in an effort to attract local employees to jobs related to the proposed cruise berthing and cargo port project.

The Dart group has confirmed it is in talks to sell a plot of land in George Town for the port project should the development get the people’s blessing in a referendum later this year.

Students from Cayman’s environmental youth movement met cruise line executives Wednesday and urged them to think again about the project to build new piers in George Town Harbour.

Members of the Verdant Isle group behind the proposed $200 million cruise port project came face to face with opponents of the controversial scheme during a whirlwind series of meetings this week.

Opposition politicians say they are “deeply concerned” by the visit of cruise line executives to the Cayman Islands to promote a $200-million project to build a new cruise berthing facility in George Town harbour.

The Compass featured an extensive report on the key questions and answers about the deal that were addressed by the government. We asked readers to submit any questions they felt were not answered in that story, and we endeavour to answer those questions here.