By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A world-renowned dive guru yesterday said he was personally “devastated” by the potential damage Resorts World’s cruise terminal will inflict on the diving and fishing industries, which generate 90 per cent of Bimini’s hotel occupancies and “millions” for its economy.

Neal Watson, president of Neal Watson Undersea Adventures, said there was “no way on earth” that the proposed terminal and jetty locations would not “create an environmental disaster” for surrounding coral reefs and marine habitats.

Mr Watson, who first dived off Bimini in 1953, and is the immediate past president of the Bahamas Diving Association, told Tribune Business that the development threatened to cost the island its reputation as one of the Caribbean, and world’s, prime diving destinations.

The “majority” of Bimini’s prime dive sites, he added, were located close to where Resorts World is proposing to place its pier and cruise ship terminal. And, with the loss of coral reefs and marine habitats, there came the loss of potential marine resources.

Acknowledging that the project was a ‘double edged sword, as the increased visitor numbers promised to boost the Neal Watson Dive Centre and Bimini Scuba Centre at Bimini Sands resort, which are both run by his son, Mr Watson said even this was “absolutely not worth” the long-term negative consequences for Bimini.

Backing environmental attorney, Romauld Ferreira’s, assertions that the Resorts World project was both “overdevelopment” and unsustainable, Mr Watson said Bimini had changed more in the last 12 months than it had in the past 40 years.

Emphasising that he was not anti-business or opposed to creating jobs for Bahamians, he questioned whether Resorts World and its parent, the Malaysian conglomerate, Genting, would be in Bimini for the long-term.

If they were not, Mr Watson said, Bimini’s heritage might be destroyed and the island’s inhabitants left to pick up the pieces as “collateral damage”.

Resorts World’s own EIA effectively admits that both the diving industry and Bimini’s fish population will be placed at risk by the project. Some 14 known dive spots, or almost 70 per cent of Bimini’s favourite underwater locations, are situated within 1.5 miles of the proposed cruise ship terminal and jetty. The closest are 700 feet and 1,500 feet, respectively, from the construction zone.

“I’m devastated over the whole project for a lot of reasons,” Mr Watson told Tribune Business.

“I have to put on two hats. From an entrepreneurial standpoint, does it stand to make me more money if more people come to the island. Yes. Is it worth the damage to the island? Absolutely not.

“They’re talking about building a 1,000 foot pier, which is bad enough, and dredging 2,000 feet or so to get to the pier,” he added.

“There’s no way on earth that this isn’t going to create an environmental disaster for the reefs. Some of our major diving is off the northern end of the island, and the majority are where they are putting this pier.”

Apart from the island and pier, Mr Watson expressed major reservations about the silt impact from the dredging that will create a channel for Resorts World’s 1,500 foot, 1,595-passenger, cruise ship.

Noting that tidal currents would ensure this silt blanketed Bimini’s waters, especially when the cruise ship stirred it up twice a day (four times on weekends), Mr Watson said this would run diving by “turning visibility to milk”.

“When you get silt on a reef, it’s like throwing a tarpaulin over your garden,” he added. “The coral reefs need sunlight to grow, and when the reefs disappear that’s your fisheries habitats. You’re going to lose your marine habitats

“I can imagine a situation like this creating enormous damage. This is like something you can’t repair. Once it’s done, it’s done.”

Mr Watson noted that the Atlantis Road had been listed by AOL as the world’s premier dive site a few years ago, and suggested the Resorts World project would force dive operators to take clients to Cat Cay.

He added that it would also interfere with the wild dolphin encounters that took place off north Bimini.

The Resorts World EIA highlights water turbidity/silt as major concerns, both during dredging and with the cruise ship’s arrival/departure.

And Mr Watson, who started his first dive operation in Bimini in 1975, added his voice to those questioning the project’s sustainability and Resorts World/Genting’s long-term intentions.

Pointing to failures such as the Grand Lucayan Beach Resort and Casino, the Princess Casino, Discovery Cruise Line, all of which occurred before Florida permitted legalised gaming, Mr Watson questioned what made a similar project - on an island 700 feet wide, and whose population had lived off boating, fishing and diving should fare any differently.

And, if the Resorts World development was to go “belly up” after causing irreparable harm to Bimini’s fishing and diving industries, Mr Watson warned: “The Biminites will be left with their heritage destroyed. They’re the collateral damage in this.

“It breaks my heart that the reefs and marine resources can be collateral damage for money. I can remember projects in the Bahamas that took years to get approval, and went through all sorts of vetting and meetings. With this one, it was suddenly like they were out there dredging. It just doesn’t pass the smell test.

“I’m not faulting the Biminites. When you need the jobs, it looks good on paper, but I don’t think the Government has done a very good job of protecting them and their island,” he added.

“I’m not anti-business. I’m not anti-jobs for Bahamians. That’s critical. I can understand a Bahamian’s feelings about having a job, supporting his family and seeing a future. But the jobs are eventually going to be lost, and this will do more harm than good.”

Emphasising that Bimini’s existing utilities and infrastructure simply cannot handle the projected visitor influx, Mr Watson said that once children and the elderly were stripped out, Bimini’s workforce likely numbered no more than 600-700 persons.

Pointing out that Resorts World/Bimini Bay required a much larger workforce alone, he added: “We needed progress in Bimini, but not to this degree.”

Mr Watson said it was the dive industry’s spin-off impacts that generated the most economic benefits for the Bahamas.

Drawing on his experience in running the Abaco Beach Hotel, Mr Watson said that while there was only one dive boat, complete with captain and instructor, diving accounted for 90 per cent of the occupancies.

Noting that most divers coming to the Bahamas arrived on pre-booked packages, he told Tribune Business: “It creates an enormous number of room nights.

“For Out Island hotels, diving is critical to their survival. It’s not seasonal; it’s year-round.”

Mr Watson estimated that between diving and tourism-related fishing, these industries generated 90 per cent of Bimini’s hotel occupancies and millions of dollars in annual economic activity.

“People are already turned off by this project. They see Bimini was not what it was,” he told Tribune Business. “Diving is a major economic impact. Bimini is one of the major dive destinations, not just in the Bahamas but the Caribbean. It’s as important as fishing, and this is going to devastate fishing.

“The people this resort [Bimini Bay] will attract are not my customers. I go to Bimini to talk to the Biminites, and ask a lot of merchants how the boat is working for them, and they don’t see anything.”

“Fishing and diving has supported the population of Bimini since Hemmingway,” Mr Watson said. “That’s why you go there.

“It’s never had fine dining, golf and shopping. There’s one reason to come to Bimini; that’s for fishing, diving and boating. Most people are looking for the laid back Family Island atmosphere. That is going to take this away.

“To have, on any given day, the population of the island doubled from one ship, and now you’re talking about flying from the major cities with the runway expansion, how many people can you jam on this tiny island?

“It appears to me to be a boondoggle, and I have such a love for the island that it breaks my heart to see it change like this.”