UK offers support to protect Cayman’s deep ocean
(CNS): An upcoming workshop will explore opportunities for expanding deep-sea marine conservation efforts in the Cayman Islands with support from the United Kingdom’s flagship Blue Belt Programme. The workshop is part of a week-long series of events where local agencies will develop plans for safeguarding Cayman’s Exclusive Economic Zone waters from pollution, illegal fishing and climate change.
Premier and Minister of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency Wayne Panton said the Blue Belt Programme offers unique opportunities for the Cayman Islands to strengthen protections for marine biodiversity and manage human impacts on deep-sea marine areas.
“Here in the Cayman Islands, we have recognised the unique value of our marine ecosystems for a long time and have taken significant steps to safeguard our coastal waters through an enhanced marine protected area network with zones covering an impressive 55% of our nearshore waters,” he said in a press release about the upcoming workshop.
“But, further out at sea, we know our pelagic species and environments are at risk from human impacts like illegal fishing and pollution that our islands do not currently have the capacity or infrastructure to monitor and enforce,” he added.
The Blue Belt Programme offers the chance for local experts to tap into a broader network of support to help with compliance and enforcement, strengthening governance and management frameworks, as well as building local capacity in these areas, the premier explained.
The workshop will be facilitated by representatives visiting from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, the Marine Management Organisation and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Attendees at the workshops will include representatives from the Cayman Islands Coast Guard, Customs and Border Control, the Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands, the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands and representatives of local offshore fishing vessels or “snapper boats”, which fish far offshore from the Cayman Islands.
The Blue Belt Programme aims to assist UK Overseas Territories in protecting and enhancing ocean health to halt biodiversity loss, enable sustainable growth, ensure climate change resilience, and connect people with the natural environment.
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Category: Marine Environment, Science & Nature
Yet no help for the smallest and most compromised indigenous population in the Realm. Even the world perhaps.
Oh.
Watch the trolls n newbie ticks now deny we even exist.
What did the Romans ever do for us..?
This green-washing regime strokes itself and prattles on, while failing to understand (for years) the public-commissioned bathymetric surveys which explain sand loss from seven mile beach. The sustainability-selling mind-trust proposes to import $25,000,000 worth of sand from overseas and then position it for flushing down the sand chutes to 1000 ft…smothering whatever life they now claim to want to protect.
Ironically, the deep ocean of our exclusive economic zone, less than 20 miles south of George Town, hosts prolific geothermal vents capable of delivering endless megawatts of free state-amortized power for our people and industry, much like Iceland. The surplus power could be used to convert ocean water to clean hydrogen fuel for international export, and an array of other beneficial diversified cleantech enterprises. Instead, this sleepyhead regime mothballs and padlocks those sustainable energy ideas for the exclusive benefit of the entrenched petro-monopolies (CUC, SOL), and even dirtier WTE (ReGen/Dart). Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.
Cayman can’t manage crushing glass bottles instead of tossing them into a landfill. Not quite sure we can expect them to fire up a geothermal plant , with it’s source in +5,000 meters of water depth. But the idea sounds good on paper.
This Special Economic Zone, how far does it extend? 12 miles, 21 miles, or is it 200 miles?
Here you go 1:51,
https://www.indexmundi.com/Cayman_Islands/maritime_claims.html
Considering however after implementing a law to stem on-island littering 30 years ago and seeing the first prosecution about 2 weeks ago, – don’t hold your breath
200nm
This is perfect symmetry for Wayne’s ongoing action pursuing climate resiliency, – sounds like we’ll have that list any day now of the single use plastics ban that was promised ‘in the coming weeks’ over two months ago, – useless
I hope this isn’t the first step toward banning us from using the twelve-mile bank and having to be licensed and taxed for regular free access to the ocean.
Another opportunity for Wayne to Waffle on.
Will they stop the cruise ships which dump their bilge waste into theCaribbean sea?
It floats ashore daily. Plus what sinks snd pollutes.
The Gulf is almost a dead zone.
Soon we can’t swim or fish anywhere.
These ships have been caught in our harbor and fined.
This must stop sistah.
Should the DoE be involved in this? And maybe CCMI?
The main stakeholders are DOE, Port Authority, Customs, Coastguard, Cayman shipping and a few others. It looks to be more government bodies that research institutes like CCMI and Guy Harvey
I want to like this, but it reads like a vacation program for international do-gooders.
A stellar first step would be to *gasp!* fully enforce the Marine Laws already on the books, especially in the Sister Islands, which are not yet as lost as Grand Cayman. Do we even have patrol boats there? Yes, we have the boats, but do we have the patrols?
There is no marine enforcement unit on Little Cayman. Occasionally (holidays) they send a boat and officer from the Brac.
Lol! Want to show them what Baer have done or show them the plans for the hotel in Little Cayman? All lip service.