By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Disney promises 75 percent of its  fleet will have one stop in The Bahamas when it becomes fully operational.

Kim Prunty, vice president of communications and public affairs at Disney Signature Experiences - speaking at a virtual town hall last week on the company’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its project at Lighthouse Point - said the company contributed $60m a year to our economy when fully operational.

Ms Prunty said: “The Bahamas is as much our home as anywhere. From an economic impact perspective it is estimated their operations lead to more than $60m annually in direct spending in The Bahamas. That’s when we’re operational and when we’re operational, 75 percent of the cruises have at least one stop in The Bahamas.”

Disney has been operating Castaway Cay off  the coast of South Abaco for over 20 years.

The town hall last week was to assure members of the public in Eleuthera that the company’s latest investment at the Lighthouse Point in South Eleuthera, will have minimal environmental impact and that Disney was following all of the environmental guidelines on maintaining proper environmental protocols.

Dr Mark Penning, vice president of animal science and environment at Disney, said: “On the very first conversation we had about Lighthouse Point, we said that we as Disney would not move forward unless we could do so in an environmentally responsible way .

“There are no unique marine habitats or species in the development footprint. There are no coral reefs in the footprint, there are no patch reefs either.”

Disney intends to add a “75 foot buffer space” on either side of the pier it will build off the point. Dr Penning said: “When you think about the extent of the pier itself, that total space will result in around a 10th of an acre of coral that we will mitigate.”

Scott Tiegs, a biology professor at Oakland University in Michigan, challenged Dr Penning’s analysis that there are no unique animal life and particularly, the EIA’s claim that no bonefish have been sighted at Lighthouse Point.

He said through his own visits to the site over the past 10 years and bringing students to the area he knows that “bonefish are all over the place”. He wondered how could Disney put forward an EIA when this “conspicuous species” featured very prominently at Lighthouse Point.

Another of Disney’s representatives responded saying: “We do have plans in the fall to tag fish to understand exactly how to use that area.

“One of the biggest concerns from the bonefish trust is the Marina. We have discussed with them exactly how we can mitigate that and they have given feedback which we’ve incorporated.

“It’s kind of experimental at this point, but we are looking at having some time to tag in that exact area to make sure that we know exactly how to utilize that point.”

Ms Prunty also spoke about the partnerships Disney has created on the ground in Eleuthera saying: “We spent a lot of time in The Bahamas, talking to people about what’s important to make sure that when we contribute to the community, we’re doing it in a way that meets community needs.

“A few things can come out of that and one is the importance of Bahamian ownership, which is why we invested a million dollars over three years to the Small Business Development Centre and the Eleuthera chamber to create an Eleuthera business hub to take advantage of the project that we’re bringing as well as the others that we are bringing to Eleuthera.”

The EIA will now be open for public feedback until May 7. Interested parties may submit their concerns to Disney itself or to the department of environmental planning and after this process is completed, the results will be posted on the department’s website.