back to Environment - Bimini, Bahamas

The Bimini Bay Development - An Ongoing Environmental Disaster

The Bimini’s are a small group of isolated Bahamian islands and cays fifty miles east of Miami, Florida. Immortalized by Ernest Hemingway in his novel “Islands in the Stream”, Bimini is famous as the original home of big game fishing in the Gulf Stream waters that touch it’s shores. The two principal islands are North and South Bimini which lie adjacent to each other in a pairing seven miles long north to south that forms a lagoon, mangrove estuary and sea grass habitat. At the southwest end of North Bimini is Alicetown perched on a narrow strip of high ground where the majority of Bimini’s 1600 residents live. A number of other natives and foreigners live in developments on South Bimini. Until recently the rest of North Bimini was uninhabited and most is still a combination of mangrove wetlands and sandy scrub areas. Bimini has the only mangrove estuary on the entire northwest Great Bahama Bank and serves as a fish nursery for thousands of square miles of sea bottom. This rich area has supported commercial and recreational fishing for nearly a century and it is the unique geography of North Bimini that makes this possible. Contained within Bimini’s north pointing arrow headed shape is an extensive system of tidal flow channels which course through mangrove habitat. In the northern interior is North Sound, a shallow large cul-de-sac surrounded by mangroves that researchers have found to be a rich area for post larval fish and invertebrate development and the richest for juvenile lobster in all of Bimini. The warm waters of the north flowing Gulf Stream deliver millions of floating larval sea creatures every day to Bimini where they settle and begin to develop. Generations of Biminites have earned their living from the conch and lobster that originate in the Bimini lagoon and disperse throughout the region. Now however Bimini faces biological annihilation.

Of critical concern is the ongoing construction of a mega-development on North Bimini. Known as the Bimini Bay Resort and Casino, Phase I of the present three phase plan is well on it’s way to completion. The developer, Gerardo Capo of Miami, Florida plans to build homes and condominium apartments for thousands of people, a large marina, a gambling casino and worst of all, a golf course, all on an island with no room for such a project. Most of the golf course will be built on what is now mangrove wetland adjacent to North Sound which will be dredged and the sea bottom destroyed. The surrounding land will be scarified and filled. Also, there is no adequate plan for disposing of the solid waste or sewerage that so many residents will generate and no plan to prevent golf course fertilizer runoff from entering the remaining natural areas. Mr. Capo has little regard for the environment and his bulldozers and backhoes have already destroyed large numbers of mangroves, dug up the seafloor and silted the entire North Bimini lagoon with dredge effluent. Research scientists and fishermen working there have reported a catastrophic decline in biological productivity. Their work has revealed reductions in numerous species including conch, lobster and the lemon shark, a top predator that traditionally reproduces in the shallow waters of the lagoon. Examination of shark specimens has revealed neurological damage due to the release of toxins during the dredging operations. This is just the beginning of problems for Bimini. If allowed to be built, Phases II & III will destroy the Islands’ biology. 

Many native Biminites and environmentalists are desperate to stop Bimini Bay at Phase I before Mr. Capo enters North Sound but to date the National Government in Nassau ignores their pleas. The government did “force” Mr. Capo to reduce the scope of his project somewhat and now tout it as “environmentally friendly” but the reality is that it’s no more than window dressing. The same amount of land will be scarified, dredged and filled. Furthermore Mr. Capo has plans not only to do Phases I, II & III but to expand into all of the remaining uninhabited areas of North Bimini. The greatest irony is that another branch of the Government, the Department of Fisheries, in conjunction with the NGO Bahamas Reef Environmental Education Foundation (BREEF), is simultaneously trying to create a marine sanctuary in North Bimini that would preclude Mr. Capo’s Phase II & III development plans. Already on paper, the plan is referred to as the Bimini Marine Protected Area or MPA. It was recognized early on that so vital was the Bimini MPA that it was to be the first one designated. Unfortunately communication between Fisheries, BREEF and other parts of the government seem non-existent and the time table has been derailed by Mr. Capo’s development. The Department of Fisheries and BREEF have plans drawn for a sanctuary in and around North Sound and BREEF representatives were in Bimini recently to tell the locals about it. People who attended the meeting voiced strong opposition to Mr. Capo and supported the MPA but the Department of Fisheries and BREEF seems to have no power to counter the development. In Bahamian politics Bimini is considered a backwater and so officials in the National Government make their decisions based on direct negotiations with Mr. Capo to the exclusion of the Bimini residents. Mr. Capo promises all kinds of employment for Bahamians but then imports cheap labor from Mexico and other poor countries. Rarely are more than a few Bahamians employed on his project but the Nassau government allows him to continue.

The loss of the Bimini estuary would be a tragedy far greater than the size of the islands themselves or the problems it will cause for the local population. Bimini is a special place both biologically and historically and it needs international help if it is to survive. The Bahamian Government must be convinced to stop Bimini Bay at Phase I and to implement the Bimini MPA. Historically the Government of the Bahamas responds to public outcry if it is indeed public. A letter writing campaign can be most effective but all letters, whether directly to the newspapers or to the politicians must get press coverage. To ensure this the letters to government officials should be “open letters” and copies should be sent to all major newspapers in the Bahamas. Press coverage in the USA, Canada and Europe can also be helpful, particularly newspapers and magazine publications that cater to the fishing, diving and international tourist community. 

Bimini can be rescued if enough people make enough noise. Please consider writing to the Bahamas and others and ask them to save Bimini.