Reef destruction revealed in report
Cruise ship tender (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)
(CNS): Local environmental activists and eco groups are urging people to attend a meeting being hosted by the tourism ministry tomorrow evening because coral reefs, shorelines and marine resources remain under serious threat in the face of the proposed cruise berthing facilities. Several acres of reef will be completely destroyed, according to the draft statement on the EIA, which has now been published and will be the subject of Tuesday’s critical meeting.
The statement relating to the cruise project reveals the serious and costly damage to local reefs in George Town Harbour as a result of the project, which government is proposing as a means of improving cruise tourism.
The report has concluded that the development of the piers will not “result in any significant impact on Seven Mile Beach”, a key issue that had raised concerns. The tourism minister said in Finance Committee that the public can be reassured that the EIA found that the development will not affect Cayman’s famous beach. However, the report made it clear the project will have significant negative impacts on the marine ecology within the George Town Harbour.
“These impacts are directly related to the areal extent of the project and the volume of dredging, and the operation of large cruise ships in the nearshore area. Key ecological impacts would include coral destruction, habitat fragmentation and reduced biodiversity,” the report has said.
The authors have suggested that if the project proceeds, a significant coral relocation programme would be required, a notoriously difficult and costly task.
“The overall objective of the coral relocation program would be to mitigate/compensate for habitat destruction caused by the project,” the report states but also paints a gloomy picture.
“A coral relocation program will not achieve ‘no net loss’, and success is not guaranteed,” the experts admit. “Based on the information presented above, the estimated cost of a full coral relocation program for this project would be in excess of $CI13M. Should the project proceed, the objectives, scope and budget for the coral relocation program would require further discussion with the CIG and DoE.”
The report points to devastating damage but also undermines suggestions that there will be any significant gain from the berthing facilities. Experts said that while piers would increase cruise passengers numbers, there would no overall improvement in disembarkation rates, compared with the current tendering.
Tomorrow night’s meeting will include an open house session to allow the public to see the display relating to the draft environmental statement and the impact the project will have. This will be followed by a presentation. Representatives from the consultancy team from WF Baird & Associates Coastal Engineers, Smith Warner International & TEM Network that worked on the project as well as government officials will be there to answer questions and explain the findings of the EIA.
See details of the meeting and read the report on the DoE website
Category: Marine Environment, Science & Nature
The cruise lines are committed to the project. Carnival Corp (Carnival, Holland America, Princess, P&O, Aida, Costa, Cunard) want one of the piers and Royal and Disney want the other. This is a no brainer for cayman. If the cruise business reduces by 50% due to ships pulling out it will be a perpetual summer. How narrow minded can you get to say that only a few will benefit? How many thousands of people work in downtown George Town? Do these people not rent apartments, buy groceries, dine at restaurants, go to happy hour, pay electric bills…all money that goes into our economy. When you look at spending in CI vs. other ports, CI spend is around $90 a person while other ports with berthing facilities that attract the bigger, newer, more expensive ships are around $140 per passenger. It is not just about the number of cruise passengers, it’s about the type of passengers and right now they are sailing right by Cayman for other ports. We are treating the cruise business in the complete opposite to our strategy. We are a high end island, targeting high end clientele in all other aspects, but in cruise we are not able to get the high end customers because the best ships can’t come here without berthing. Where to do think a lot of the stayover guests found out about Cayman? They went on a cruise and then decided to come back. Right now we are sending the best ships and best potential stayover guests to other islands. How do we not see that letting these customers go means that future travelers will now be going to other islands. Tourism is all linked.
The cargo facility of the port is already at capacity and needs expansion. Right now all shipping companies are having to use smaller ships and make multiple trips due to the shallow water. Taking multiple trips and using multiple smaller ships increases the cost of all items brought into Cayman and these ships already will be phased out. Regardless of whether this pier is built or not, there will have to be dredging done to accommodate the cargo operations.
The way that the environmental push is spinning the information is not accurate. The area shown in the dredge area is 15 acres but only approximately 10 to 15% of that is actual live coral. The Dive companies and watersports operators do not use this area, this area is currently always occupied by the tender boats. The real push that is being delivered is being funded by the owners of the tender ships. When talking about benefiting the few at the cost of many, that is what the tendering process is now pushing for. Tendering cruise passengers is a thing of the past. It is for lack of a better phrase, outdated technology. The cruise ships don’t want to tender, all cruise development has been to berthing facilities.
It doesn’t take a lot of common sense to figure out that removing a 10 minute boat ride from the disembarkation process has to quicken the loading and offloading of the ships. Go downtown on any day and see how long those passengers are sitting out in the sun. We are the most affluent Caribbean Country and we have the absolute worst maritime facility and port experience. This is constantly the number one complaint of the cruisers when visiting. We are in the dark ages and this is the reason the cruiselines will start removing ships. If the dock is not built you can write GT off right now.
I don’t envy the decision makers on this issue one little bit. They will be confronted with a very hard decision when all the information is in.
It was not made clear in the EIA presentation last night that Cayman risks losing some of the cruise lines within ten years if we fail to provide them with cruise docks. The conservative figure of 1-3% annual increase in cruise business over 20 years, on account of the proposed docks, masks the catastrophic drop in cruise arrivals over ten years, if we do nothing.
The damage to the surrounding reefs caused by fine, drifting silt has the capacity to destroy some adjacent dive operations, exactly where the cruise passengers now conveniently experience the finely preserved, ancient and quite exceptional, high-relief coral beds. The effects of a nor’wester or hurricane during construction were not discussed, but they could be very damaging in unpredictable ways, and carry fine silt to remote corals, I believe.
The decision-makers really are between the devil and the deep blue sea on this one, but if the Government commits to the maximum mitigation possible, such as vacuuming up silt during and after the dredging and then stabilizing the bottom with with stones or rocks, this expected and continuing silt damage might be reduced to a more acceptable level.
This national omlette will involve many broken eggs if it goes forward, but just as many if it is shelved. Those who like to dismiss the cruise lines as being unimportant to Cayman’s economy, need to do more research on the matter. But the same comment applies to the dive industry.
What I do know is that Nature will always recover if we allow it, but on a slow time scale that is impossible for the affected dive operations to accommodate. After last night’s impressively attended meeting, I believe the Government is approaching the issue in the correct, honourable and professional way, paving a path that will lead to the right decision for the long-term interests of the Caymanian people.
Wake up Cayman. Pay attention to this report not to PPM vs Compass. If the reefs are destroyed and the SMB is gone as aresult of this berthing facility then Alden Vs Legge will be a non-story in 10 years time.
Georgetown cannot absorb the flood of tourists it currently receives.
We should be looking at limiting the number of ships.
Conservation comes at a price.
Look what has happened to Seven Mile Beach in a generation.
We are killing the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg.
If you follow the news in the cruise industry you’ll know they all plan to move more capacity into this region to accommodate the interest in Cuba.
We need to build out these piers as soon as possible to ensure the cruise operators include us in these New Cuba routes.
Still a US travel embargo, few ports that can handle these ships better than us, and nothing in those Cuban venues that compares or should worry us. Call back in 20 years.
7:27 that is complete BS and I suspect you know it. Troll!
Only a handful of these larger ships planned out to 2018 and they aren’t all destined for Carib waters.
@ 5:47
Read the comment posted below –
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“Once the rules allow us to go legally, once the embargo is lifted, which is the main restriction …yes, we’re ready,” said Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., parent company of cruise lines Norwegian, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. “And I would bet that all of us in this town are ready to move at a drop of a hat.”
Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corp. & PLC, which has nine cruise brands including Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn, said, “Certainly we have plans, and when the embargo is lifted, we’ll be there.”
While Cuba currently lacks modern cruise industry infrastructure, cruise lines don’t see that as a deterrent.
“The cruise industry brings our own infrastructure,” Del Rio said.
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Building the cruise dock will not make any difference. The cruise lines are already 100% committed to Cuba and ready to spend megabucks there when it opens up. I’ll bet their representatives are already in country working things out.
It’s a complete no-brainer. Cuba has an almost unlimited labour force and with the necessary funding could build something like the GT cruise dock in months – check out the Mariel container terminal.
The bottom line is if we try to compete head on with Cuba in tourism there can only be one result and that is bankruptcy.
You know I believe all of you folks are right we shouldn’t build the cruise ship docks. We should make another Camana bay . We should just tell all those ships we don’t want them. They not spending no money here . We are going to protect the environment and we should not allow anybody to take apart the reef. We need to save the George Town to 7 mile beach and only allow stay over guests to come to the islands and dive here or go to stingray city.
All those busses and stingray boats are just to greedy. We should make a law that only six people will be allowed per boat to see stingray city . That way it won’t get crowded but they should charge more, say $150 per person. Taxis should no longer be more then four passengers. Again they should charge more ,less people more expense. They should only buy a brand new vehicle every four or five years? Of course boats being smaller and transportation being smaller , we are going to need more four or six lane roads?
This would be just the beginning because there are over 150 busses plus 300 taxis and 60 boats. 2000 people just in those 2 industries would have to change their whole structure of their business. By the way they are all Caymanians.
Scuba diving on the other hand have over 200 dive sites around just Grand Cayman? Lets see how many Caymanians work in a dive company less then 10,5 or 2?
I don’t know but I think we could be making a mistake don’t you? Lets see for a minute: My new way of life everything is suppose to either make you or me a better citizen or a healthy person. While all the time you are changing the island . Can’t smoke ,drink, cuss, let the dog go without a leash ,fish, party, play loud music ,no jobs or use swampland but everything has got to change because we are stupid and corrupt? Crime is on the rise and it costs $69,000 per prisoner. Do you want to add more?
Can’t we just get another shipwreck from somewhere? How else did you all think the cruise pier was going to be built? Surely you knew dredging and taking the reef was part of it.
The option is NOT this or nothing. We could improve the current cargo area, improve downtown, and improve the tendering without destroying what a lot of folks are coming here for. In the meeting we learned water clarity will be an ongoing issue, wave action will increase right in the area ships are coming through to berth and where there will still need to be anchorage, there are only 3 of the Oasis class ships this is built to service in operation and only one more even in the planning stages and that almost all of the new ships being built are smaller ones we can handle with current procedures, traffic will worsen, full-time tender operator positions will turn into occasional employment when needed, and that we have serious carrying capacity issues that WILL impinge on the predicted income growth curve. I also noticed the lower, conservative estimate doesn’t even cover costs and losses – we could very easily build this and lose money… that’s even assuming the costs stay what they are currently projected, and we also learned the budget for coral remediation is half of the minimum they know it would take, so there’s one place where we KNOW the projected cost is too low.
Wow, comments are rife with “only select families will make profit”, “kickbacks” etc. and people are losing their minds when someone calls this place EXACTLY what is…corrupt!
To the Cayman society, sticking your head in the sand and accepting the Status Quo
is perhaps the most corrupt act of all!
People from the cruise ships dont spend no money here what part of that these people do not understand????
I have already posted my thoughts below on cruise ship vs stay over tourism but here are some thoughts related to GT beautification.
Instead of building cruise ship piers how about we turn the GT waterfront into something similar to the Paseo in Caymana Bay. Close it for traffic, move the rusting shipping cranes to the south of the island, cobble stone the road, allow for empty office buildings to be converted into condos, allow for mix use, allow small 3-4 story hotels to open up, incentivize cafes, restaurants to open up and spill on the roads, host events, add lush landscaping, provide tree shaded sitting areas with views of the ocean, add bike paths, build small docks so tourists and locals can reach GT by water. While we are at it let’s build a nice wooden boardwalk please!
We know the Caymana Bay’s Paseo vision works, no studies are required, no eia required, and the cost of this revitalization is minimal compared to the cost of building and maintaining piers. No damage to reefs, no traffic congestion and another $$$ attraction for our stay over tourists and residents alike.
Let’s think long term Alden and ensure we focus on Cayman’s core competencies, those things you mention in your address in the cayman airways magazine: top class restaurants, cafes, snorkeling, diving, quiet beautiful beaches, unique ecological experience (stingray city).
For someone so familiar with the model at Camana Bay —- note there is no ‘y’ in the name.
What a HUGE deal (09/06/2015 AT 10:42), there is no wonder why we can’t get any where you are focussing on the ” Y ” for Caymana Bay as oppose to the suggestions made. You take that to the rest of the world and try surviving from the money you or anyone else will make from your big ” Y “. It’s a good thing that people like you didn’t keep the world from turning. Have a great ” Y “.
Why are we trying to compete with Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica and soon come Cuba? We won’t win against those jurisdictions because they will always be more attractive to cruise ships due to lower costs, more tourist attractions and larger land mass.
In cayman just the overcrowding and reef impact should stop us in our tracks. These make our stay tourism less attractive. The stay over tourists are the ones who contribute most relative to their impact.
Why not focus on the airport to establish more direct routes to larger cities and advertise the exclusivity of our island, the luxurious amenities including hotels and restaurants, quiet beaches, top class diving and unparalleled ecological encounters (stingray city).
Have a read of the cayman airways magazine next time you fly the flagship!!!! It talks to exclusivity. Every time I read it I am wondering why we even allow cruise ship tourism on our island.
Let’s aim to be the exclusive island of the Caribbean not just another Carribbean island.
Sorry, but this makes too much sense…
PPM Spin machine and Alden are trying to take the attention away from this damning EIA report by creating a Compass editorial rucus. I give 2 hoots about the personal tiffs and ego clashes of Mr Vanity Alden while the country’s reefs and harbour is being dstroyed. Mr Moses and PPM merchant class we the people know good from bad from evil- we know you will do anything to keep alive your merchant famiy business in Georgetown harbour. Please give up this crazy idea of building a pier at such a high cost.
Has there been any study done what the positive economic benefits would be if a dock is built or are they just “assuming” that it will benefit Cayman?
12:35 This is all based on the flawed principle of ‘If we build it, they will come.’
I’ve been connected with the retail and tourism industries in some form or other for the past 30 years and trust me that does not work. In fact it is the quickest way into bankruptcy on this planet.
Can’t agree more. No sense doing another expensive 3rd party study when we know the answer already. Apparently one was done for the turtle farm but we all knew that project was never going to turn a profit!
The question should be where do we see our tourism product in 20 years? Once we answer that question, we need to determine the short term milestones to get us there.
Do we want 80,000 cruise shippers come off the piers daily crowding all attractions and seven mile beach on a daily basis? Or do we want to be an exclusive destination catering to stay over tourism?
We can’t have both given the land constraints. Ie. 80,000 people coming off 20 cruise ships daily in 20 years will significantly impact stay over tourism. For example, I avoid sting ray city when there are more than 2 ships in port. Would my stingray city experience be exclusive when 20 ships are parked in GT? Will there even be a sting ray city or will the stingrays Fxxx off?
We need to start with a long term vision. But for that we need visionary leaders. Unfortunately we’re not there yet and so we jump to short sighted decisions. We have done this for 30 years.
3:26 you got that spot on. All the people who clicked thumbs down to your comment are delusional.
The world moves towards conservation and preservation and as usual, Cayman goes in the opposite direction. We will have a substandard marine life despite touting ourselves as a world class diving destination, the docks will likely crumble within 10 years, no funds will be there to maintain them and what happens if the cruise ship industry decides to move on elsewhere or experiences a major slump? Well I guess let’s not think about all of that…………
The blue-water cruise berthing terminal idea is dumb on so many levels: it offers no actual shelter (no improvement on disembarkation times?!?), the subsea geology is cavernous (and may not hold the structure or could catastrophically fail!), endless reef-suffocating silt, and creates whole new inequalities (additional ships still have to tender!)…oh yes, and none of the liners are going to commit a dime to fund our mistake. All so that a few more wristwatches and t-shirts can be sold – family companies of Minister in charge.
Alden probably would not “endorse” an replacement staff following this debacle. Spineless he is.
What?!
The one crucial thing we have still not seen is any commitment by the cruise lines to use this facility if it was ever built.
People are referring to this proposal in the context of income over a 20-year period but right now we don’t even know what the cruise lines are planning for 2017. In fact if you look at their websites there seems to be a shift away from the Cayman Islands.
One major factor in cruise line planning is probably Cuba. Despite a lot of negative comments (many of them made by people who should know better) the opening up of Cuba is rattling along at a very rapid pace.
This is from 17 March 2015 –
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“Once the rules allow us to go legally, once the embargo is lifted, which is the main restriction …yes, we’re ready,” said Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., parent company of cruise lines Norwegian, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. “And I would bet that all of us in this town are ready to move at a drop of a hat.”
Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corp. & PLC, which has nine cruise brands including Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn, said, “Certainly we have plans, and when the embargo is lifted, we’ll be there.”
While Cuba currently lacks modern cruise industry infrastructure, cruise lines don’t see that as a deterrent.
“The cruise industry brings our own infrastructure,” Del Rio said.
——————————————————————————————————————
Note that last comment – do see that happening in Grand Cayman? Quite the opposite, the cruise lines are putting as little money as possible into these islands.
If anyone wants to splash out over CI$100million I’d suggest they use it to get onboard the all-inclusive stayover market by extending ORIA to take direct UK and European flights and encouraging the construction of sensibly-priced hotels for the big tour operators.
Wow, I didn’t know they hadn’t made ANY sort of commitment to using it. So, it doesn’t lower disembarkation time, it doesn’t completely remove the need for tendering, it destroys all of the nearest (walking distance) snorkel/dive sites AND there’s no guarantee the cruise lines will even use the damn thing? Is there ANYTHING right about this plan?
No.
11:30 that’s not quite correct. A very small, select group of people will pocket $millions in commissions, consultancy fees and other kickbacks if this is built so it’s very right for them. As for the rest of us? Talk about mortgaging your future to fate – our great, great grandchildren could end up paying for this mess of it goes ahead.
You want to make an omlette, you got to break some eggs. Did you really think a pier (or anything man made) would have no negative environmental impacts?
“Want to make an omelette, you gotta break some eggs.” hahaha this is one of my top 5 quotes from Big Mac!
What if I want a chicken?
Coral relocation. Unbelievable. Any government that moves ahead with this disaster will go down badly in the annals of history. Very badly indeed.
The Legge thing was probably hatched to distract everybody!
In paragraph 3 on page 12 of the Summary: It is stated that a comprehensive subsurface investigation is required to address the geological uncertainties. Second only to the initial destruction of the marine environment due to excavation, the transport of suspended sediments is a very real concern. I think it is worth the time, effort and cost to actually put down some boreholes to characterize the geology that will be encountered. In parts of Appendix D-2 they make mention of some samples taken but nowhere can I find what type of samples were taken, how they were taken, or how they were analyzed. The parameters from geotechnical samples are a primary input to the modeling they used to predict sediment transport. I find it very unprofessional to make the statements that are being made about sediment transport predictions from fancy scientific models when the primary input data is so uncertain.
Furthermore, based on my 30+ years of engineering experience in Cayman, I question some of the geotechnical parameters that were used when running the sediment transport models. The input parameters are biased towards producing results that minimize the plumes from dredging and disposal of material. For instance, they state they used sand in some of the models instead of silt. When they did consider silty material, they used values representing coarse silt instead of fine silt and they used silt contents of only up to 21%. This is not representative of the materials I have found and tested in other “ironshore” formations. I have tested some materials with silt contents up to 40% – twice the amount they used as an upper limit.
Hard limestone rock is likely to be encountered is some parts of the dredge pockets. This may necessitate the use of explosives. No mention is made of this. It is not listed as a potential issue either. I am concerned about how explosives may be transported, stored and used in such a high traffic, highly populated area. I wonder how the cruise ship operators would react to explosives being used in the vicinity of their ships.
On page 19 of the Summary it is stated, “The project will not result in any significant impact on Seven Mile Beach, as no significant sediment transport occurs between George Town Harbour and Seven Mile Beach.” If more realistic geotechnical parameters for the sediment transport models were used, this statement may be quite different. Also, Figure 14.1 would be much different. The affected areas would be much larger, resulting in larger coral relocation areas and a significant increase in cost.
To the DOE: Please consider these comments in your review of the project. Perhaps the DOE needs to hire their own experienced dredging engineer to review this report. I don’t think it would stand up to a professional engineering challenge the way it currently stands.
If you’re on island you should go to the meeting(link at end of article), I’m sure lots of folks would be interested to hear the answers to your questions.
Thank you Brian. I am so glad the that someone with your background has spoken out about this ill conceived proposal.
it was never going to happen anyway……..
One terrorist attack on any cruise ship berthing facility within the Caribbean will cause the islands with cruise berthing facilities to realize that they will all be discontinued because of the risk with ships docked along side. if such a thing occurs the Cayman Islands will then see it was not a priority to build cruise berthing docks and place more resources in the stay over tourist.