By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

LOCAL environmentalists are calling for government to launch investigations into a sunken barge that was spotted off Goodman’s Bay last week, citing concerns about its potential environmental impact.

Activist Eric Carey, outgoing executive director for Bahamas National Trust, told The Tribune yesterday that the situation was particularly worrying because the barge appeared to be resting on a coral reef.

He was contacted by this newspaper after concerns were expressed on social media about the barge’s potential impact to coral reefs in the vicinity.

One Facebook user posted drone photos he took of the barge several days ago and said based on what he saw, it appeared that a “huge chunk” of coral reef had been removed by the vessel in question.

Mr Carey said he had reached out to officials at the Port Department several days ago about the matter, asking them to investigate.

“I saw a barge out there a couple days ago,” Mr Carey said. “It appeared to be immobile. It appeared to be on the reef from my vantage point from the ‘Go Slow Bend’ so I would join the call for there to be an investigation and for someone to do an assessment.

“That reef is an important reef,” he added. “It protects the northern coastline of New Providence. It protects all of those properties — Goodman’s Bay and Baha Mar — and all of those properties are protected because of the presence of that barrier reef so I mean obviously, there’s the ecological damage to the reef that results in certainly, loss of ecological function because coral reefs are very important.”

He also said penalties should be levied out against the barge’s owners if damage has been done, regardless of whether the vessel has been removed or not.

 “I just don’t know what the formula is for assessing the damage but certainly that is something certainly the government should be asked to do and when we talk about climate change and how much we’re doing, the prime minister has a very aggressive climate change agenda,” he continued.

 “And one of the things you have to do is protect the system and keep them intact because coral reefs are already stressed from things like ocean temperatures, the stony coral loss tissue disease and so it doesn’t need additional pressures like wayward barges and ships running into them so that really needs to be investigated to the fullest.”

 Environment and Natural Resources Minister Vaughn Miller could not be reached for comment up to press time yesterday.