Cash from reef destruction funds new moorings

| 23/05/2017 | 13 Comments

(CNS): Cash received by the government from the settlement it agreed with billionaire Paul Allen after the anchor chain of his yacht crushed a section of coral off Seven Mile Beach last year is now being used to install permanent moorings. Environment Minister Wayne Panton said materials are now being bought and contracts agreed to install the first mooring at the north end of the Seven Mile Beach Marine Park and more will be installed with the money from Allen’s company,  TDE Maritime, which owns the M/Y Tatoosh.

“Final approvals for payment of the invoices were recently obtained, which means we can move forward with the moorings,” Panton said Tuesday. “This permanent mooring will accommodate vessels up to 300 feet long, meaning it can be used by the vast majority of yachts which visit Cayman,”

He added, “This is an important step forward for us because it will help prevent damage to our corals and, more broadly, to our marine environment, which provides so much enjoyment to us and which boosts our economy.”

Department of Environment Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie said the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands had donated the anchor for the mooring, leaving more funds for more moorings.

“The Port Authority, as well as private-sector service agents for visiting vessels, will help to identify preferred locations for future moorings, which the DoE will consider in light of environmental factors,” she explained.

Government and the owner of the Tatoosh, announced an agreement last October in relation to the coral damage, although the computer billionaire and his firm never admitted any liability regarding the January incident, in which around 14,000 square feet of reef was damaged. Allen’s representatives also disputed that the yacht caused the damage in the area where the boat had been anchored during a visit to Grand Cayman in January 2016.

Government has not revealed the amount of cash Allen or his firm have paid to CIG but officials have stated that all of the cash will be used for the moorings and continuing the work to try to restore the damaged reef.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Category: Marine Environment, Science & Nature

Comments (13)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Sharkey says:

    Why we didn’t hear anything about the amount of dollars , is because there would be a high end Contractor that gets the bid , and his estimate would be more than they got , then we would hear we didn’t get enough money from the settlement to put the moorings in .
    Government will never put in moorings with that money , that’s why there’s none today ,after all the years of asking for the moorings .
    I think that if we don’t presure Government to put the moorings now with that money we will never get moorings put in .

    9
    5
    • Sharkey says:

      I miss to put into my other comment that an Environmental study is needed to be able put the moorings in . Now we don’t have a enough money left for the moorings .

      But how Mr Panton talked about this money , sound like a poor man that just got a big settlement and he can see and fix those problems . Then why was Port Authority
      sitting on that anchor that they donated ? Maybe this is the big achor I saw sitting on George town dock some years ago .

      3
      4
  2. Anonymous says:

    Sounds more like a Cayman shake down to me. Now I know why the big yachts don’t come here.

    14
    10
  3. Anonymous says:

    why are some of you people so inquisitive, all that matters is government
    got the money and they are putting it to a well needed cause, government didn’t
    have to tell the public they got the money in the first place, be happy we know
    this much

    7
    13
  4. Wes van der Bol says:

    When will this be going out for local bid, I haven’t seen anything as yet. Capt Wes van der Bol
    Flying Dutchman Marine Services wesvanderbol@Gmail.com

    11
    3
  5. Anonymous says:

    ??? Transparent goverment,material purchased and contract agreed on for the first mooring,did not see this job go out for tender or maybe it did and it was just transparent!

    14
    4
  6. Anonymous says:

    We should have permanent cruise ship moorings as well – we’ve been talking about it since the ’90s and even earlier. What are we waiting for?

    18
    1
  7. Anonymous says:

    How many decades have people sought moorings and those calls have fallen on deaf ears. Why?

    20
    1
  8. a skilpot says:

    What a wonderful solution to a bad situation. Thank you Mr. Panton & Ms. Ebanks-Petrie

    20
    2
  9. Anonymous says:

    Still no mention of how much the cash settlement was? Why not PPM? Why so secretive?

    21
    15

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.