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- Bimini, Bahamas
Bill Parks
919 SW 27th Place
Boynton Beach, Florida 33435
Tel: (561)-734-0095
email: bertram25@worldnet.att.net
12
December 2004
Mr. Anthony Capron, Editor
The Nassau Guardian
P.O. Box N-3011
Nassau, New Providence
Bahamas
re: Bimini Bay
Dear Mr. Capron,
The enclosed DVD is from the No-Take
Marine Protected Area (MPA) presentation meeting held in
Bimini by BREEF at the end of July 2004.
The local promoters did a poor job of publicizing the
meeting and a lot of people, some who I know personally, would
liked to have been there but didn’t hear about it.
Still, the ones who did come make some very good
comments about how helpless they feel in trying to get the
government to listen to their concerns.
Dr. Samuel Gruber gives a short version of his
presentation about the perils of the Bimini Bay development
that is worth seeing and then more comments are at the end.
The Bahamas Journal of Science issue is
dedicated to Bimini and has a lot of background articles about
mangrove ecology, birds and development damage in the Bimini
Islands. At the
time it was written Mr. Capo was still struggling with
financing but has since done a lot more building.
The concerns with the boat channel problem and other work by the Bimini Sands development is here as well but by comparison to Bimini Bay
is no more than a minor annoyance.
Although it’s not mentioned
it is common knowledge that Mr. Capo has been bringing
in poor cheap labor from Mexico and other countries to do jobs
that Bahamians could fill while the government looks the other
way. I have gone
to the site and talked to some of the Mexican so as to confirm
that the rumors were true.
Thank you again for looking into this
matter.
Sincerely,
Bill Parks
As a footnote, in
spite of Mr. Capron’s assurances that he would pursue the
matter, nothing was ever done and no story was written.
One has to wonder if Mr. Capron’s intentions have
been compromised by pressure from government officials.
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