BEACH POLLUTION ON RENDEZVOUS BAY

The Editor
The Anguillian

March 19, 2006

Dear Editor,

BEACH POLLUTION AT RENDEZVOUS BAY

We awoke Sunday morning to a fleet of 16 sailboats anchored below our house in Rendezvous Bay. These boats with home ports as far away as Rio de Janeiro and as nearby as Marigot, were here for this year’s MoonSplash. Our daughter, home from college for spring break had come home during the wee hours after enjoying Bankie’s annual bash.

Sunday afternoon, we took our ski boat out to pull our daughter and her friend on her kneeboard. We cruised by Cuisinart and the Dune Preserve to see if there was anyone there we knew. To our horror, the water just offshore of Cusinart was filled with sewage, drifting downwind from the anchored sailboats.

Having lived in Sint Maarten/Saint Martin in the 70’s and 80’s we witnessed the decline of the marine environment on that island. Phillipsburg’s Great Bay was clean and clear in ’76 when I organized snorkel trips out of Little Bay Hotel and Great Bay Hotel. Today, if you have a cut and happen to bathe in murky Great Bay, chances are that you will wind up with a staph infection. The beautiful, bountiful reef off of La Belle Creole was once alive with marine life. It is now empty, washed by pea-green water polluted by nitrate run-off and the crush of uncontrolled marine latrines in Marigot.

The resorts of Rendezvous Bay: Anguilla Greathouse, Cuisinart, Temenos and to a lesser extent, Rendezvous Bay Hotel, enjoy onshore winds if the breeze is east or south of east. This means that whatever goes in the water in Rendezvous Bay is very likely going to wash up in front of one of these hotels. This is not as big a problem in Sandy ground where the wind is typically offshore, carrying detritus away from the island.

Please don’t get us wrong. We are not criticizing MoonSplash. We support Bankie’s efforts to increase tourism and generate culture. What concerns us is the future of one of Anguilla’s largest bays and the danger it faces if it is allowed to become an unmitigated boat harbour. Sewage washing up on the beach next to the Temenos Estates will be the kiss of death to the high-end business of the discerning visitor Anguilla is courting.
Let us profit by the sad example of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin and anticipate the problems development will bring to our island. We have so much to lose.

Very concerned,
Bob & Althea Turner,
Cul de Sac