Thorne: Tell the country about the ship-damaged reefs

Government has been chided by the opposition for not giving a “full report card” to Barbadians on the damage done to the island’s coral reefs by cruise ships that were given permission to dock off the coastline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Opposition Leader and Christ Church South Member of Parliament Ralph Thorne, while conceding that the Maritime Underwater and Heritage Bill introduced by the Minister of Tourism and International Transport was “serious” legislation, it was time for the administration to provide a full report on the extraordinary damage inflicted on the coral reef.

 

The bill seeks to bring Barbados into compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas and prevent pollution, damage and unsustainable marine practices. However, Thorne stressed that Barbadians and  “people who are interested in the marine environment” wanted Minister Ian Gooding-Edghill to “produce . . . a report card on the state of our marine environment . . . in a few areas”.

 

He stressed people “want to know what is the state of the reefs which were reportedly damaged by the cruise ships during COVID.  A former minister did tell this country that we were an extremely hospitable jurisdiction and that we allowed those cruise liners to berth within our territorial waters – in fact very close to the coastline – and we did hear in the aftermath of that most hospitable act, that certain discharge from those cruise ships may have damaged reefs that took perhaps thousands of years to grow”.

 

Moreover, Thorne criticised the former minister of tourism for suggesting that Barbados would be rewarded with future visits by the cruise lines.

 

“Not everyone who lives in Barbados is so naïve as to believe that a cruise ship is going to come back here because it was allowed to berth off the shore; not everybody is that naïve,” the Democratic Labour Party leader told the Lower Chamber on Tuesday as government introduced new legislation to protect the country’s coastal and marine assets.

 

In his presentation, Thorne also requested full disclosure on the state of the waters off the island’s west coast as well, adding that evidence suggested the reefs there are also dying.

 

While offering his support for the rehabilitation of Bridgetown through the long-touted Pierhead Project, he called for an update on the “ancient grave site” that was located in the area where the project is being undertaken.

 

During his presentation, Thorne again called on government to make good on its promise to assist members of the fisherfolk community who were impacted by the devastation inflicted on the local fishing industry by Hurricane Beryl earlier this year.

 

During his introduction of the bill Minister of Tourism Ian Gooding-Edghill referenced various clauses in the bill such as Clause 10 which requires the tourism ministry to promote the protection and sustainable utilisation of maritime heritage assets.

 

“It is important that we continue to ensure that all relics, treasures, and objects of prehistoric character, that they remain protected and that you don’t have persons coming into your territorial waters and obviously removing items that they ought not to,” the minister stated.

(IMC1)