By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

NORTH Abaco pastors are helping residents voluntarily return items taken from the Brooklyn Bridge barge that ran aground last month, as pressure mounts over repeated ship groundings in Abaco and what critics call inadequate penalties for reef damage.

Bishop Cedric Bullard of the North Abaco Pastors Association said people have begun contacting their pastors to say items from the barge are in their possession. He said the goods will be collected and taken to the port for Customs inspection.

He said several people have indicated they will return items, though he could not yet say how many. Bishop Bullard said some residents initially took goods believing they were helping protect cargo from water damage.

“They got items from the barge, thinking they were retrieving by lightening the load or sealing the stuff from being destroyed by water, eventually going into the sea,” he said. “After they realised the news of the government and they were talking about, ‘well, if you move the stuff, it's considered stolen, they decided to turn it back.”

Chief Superintendent Michael Thurston, officer in charge of Abaco, said police must evaluate the circumstances of attempts to return items — whether they were given to people, received unintentionally, or taken from the barge.

Pressed on whether voluntary returns would spare people from charges, he said: “We will consider, we sit down and consider them voluntarily bringing it. Each situation may be different, but we would consider persons in that category.”

He said no additional arrests have been made. Three men have been charged with looting to date: Darron Lightbourne, Fairel McIntosh and Mosell Smith, who allegedly stole washers, dryers, engines and electronics.

Environment Minister Zane Lightbourne told Parliament yesterday the barge owner will be fined and required to cover all restoration costs under the Environmental Planning and Protection Act. Dr Rhianna Neely-Murphy, director of the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP), has said the owners will be fined at least a $20k spot fine. Mr Lightbourne said an on-site inspection by ministry divers confirmed “extensive physical damage” to the reef.

During the Brooklyn Bridge barge’s journey, the chain connecting the tug boat to the vessel snapped, allowing it to drift and run aground. The minister said: “The ministry's initial assessment documented widespread damage, including broken coral fragments on the sea floor, shattered reef structures and areas where the reef was scraped down to bare limestone. The damage caused by the tow line dragging across the reef, the barge resting directly on the coral, and the debris that fell from the vessel caused extensive damage.”

“The ministry has determined that continued monitoring and further assessment will be necessary to determine the precise restoration needs and to guide any required legal or remedial actions.”

The ministry has asked the Perry Institute of Marine Science Bahamas Undersea Research Foundation to undertake a more detailed assessment. Mr Lightbourne said standardised data is needed to support mitigation and restoration work, guide planning and regulatory decisions, and assist with insurance or legal evaluations. He added: “Although immediate replacement of lost coral is not possible significantly or scientifically, guided intervention can significantly enhance recovery, reduce erosion and help compensate for ecological loss.”

North Andros MP John Pinder said the Brooklyn Bridge incident is part of a wider pattern of barges running aground in Abaco and “ruin our natural resources.” He said vessels are travelling too close to Bahamian waters to “take shortcuts for a profit,” arguing that if they remained further offshore “they would have been able to get a hold of that vessel before it ruined another reef.”

He pointed to groundings in Fowl Cay National Park, Treasure Cay and near Sandy Cay National Park, saying there have been “probably about a half dozen in the past few years that have run aground in Abaco because of the negligence of the captain, the owners, the operators going too close to shore in Abaco.” He said operators should “stop taking shortcuts to make a small profit and ruin the livelihoods of Abacocians.”

Mr Pinder said people in the area “are fishermen” and “seamen” who “live and breathe in those waters,” adding that when a reef is destroyed, “you're not just destroying some coral, you're not just destroying some fish and some livelihood. You're destroying livelihoods. You're destroying Bahamians paychecks. You're destroying what we have for the next generations.”

He called for dramatically higher penalties for barge groundings, saying “we should increase the fees for these barges running the ground to astronomical amounts. Charge them a million dollars. I guarantee we won't see another one of them,” and argued that “having only 10s of 1000s of dollars of penalties on the books to relay, we need to increase that. We need to increase it to seven figures, easily, seven figures, and make a statement that our waters are not to be trifled with. Our reefs are not to be trifled with. Bahamians livelihoods are not to be trifled with. Stop cutting your journey short to make an extra profit or save a little bit of time and running in to the abaconian waters.”

Environmental activist Casuarina McKinney-Lambert, executive director of BREEF, also criticised the proposed $20,000 fine. “I did see what was posted, that they were being fined $20,000 which is obviously totally inadequate, and there needs to be, you know, proper evaluation of the area of reef that was damaged and a calculation of the fines that should be assessed.”

She said she does not believe $20,000 is the legal maximum, pointing to provisions in the Environmental Planning and Protection Act. She noted there is “a provision for assessing damages and also the cost to restore the reef,” and said that in other jurisdictions “the fines are in the range of several million dollars,” adding that The Bahamas does “have provisions in the Environmental Planning and Protection Act to assess larger fine from that.”

Asked if a $20,000 fine would be a meaningful penalty, she said: “It would be a slap on the wrist, and it definitely needs to be considerably higher than that.”

She said a proper assessment is needed of “how much reef area was actually damaged and how much was destroyed,” adding there is “a critical window of time to recover some of the corals that may have been displaced and reattach them.” She warned that “that window of time is rapidly closing,” and said that “from what I've seen, there are parts of the reef that have been completely destroyed, and a proper assessment needs to be done with that.”