Today motion sensing cameras with week-long dvr must be installed in school areas to ensure the safety of our children. A necessary tool for administrators, insurance & safety purposes.

Where are the monitors, teachers, administrators, parents who are too busy to recognize their responsibilities?
There should be digital signatures for time, date, location & camera/phone used on the video.

Yes, Hall Monitors were a reality in my days... need to bring them back, though some were known for too much enthusiasm. But no deaths.

Make it a habit to release & publish in big letters the names of these intermediaries taking bribes to expedite the proper paperwork. Embarras them & their families. To stop corruption, continue name release as policy & pay a reasonable wage based on the actual cost of living. Otherwise, this third world standard of operations will continue, irrelevant of nationality.

Cruise ship have the innate ability to hypnotize government personnel with their 'potential passenger numbers' & potential economic impact. Where is it? If a third of those cattle-boat-visitor numbers stayed for 2 overnights, the economy & tourist product would be greatly increased. (air flight in, taxi airport to hotel, 5-6 meals & bar, 2-hotel nights, excursion or two, shops, taxi hotel to airport, airport tax, air flight out).

Considering how cheap the cruise clientele are (cheap cruise begets cheap client) & particularly how easily their sheer numbers can overwhelm any reasonable service staff at any shop or restaurant; it amazes me that this demeaning practice is tolerated by the locals! An issue in all cruise ship visited ports in the Caribbean. Be Proud of your tourist product!

Then there is the issues of refuse, water discharges, engine/generator exhaust while sitting around the pool at the British Colonial. Wind most always is from the east.

Cruise ship have the innate ability to hypnotize government personnel with their 'potential passenger numbers' & potential economic impact. Where is it?
If a third of those cattle-boat-visitor numbers stayed for 2 overnights, the economy & tourist product would be greatly increased. (air flight in, taxi airport to hotel, 5-6 meals & bar, 2-hotel nights, excursion or two, shops, taxi hotel to airport, airport tax, air flight out).

Considering how cheap the cruise clientele are (cheap cruise begets cheap client) & particularly how easily their sheer numbers can overwhelm any reasonable service staff at any shop or restaurant; it amazes me that this demeaning practice is tolerated by the locals! An issue in all cruise ship visited ports in the Caribbean. Be Proud of your tourist product!

Then there is the issues of refuse, water discharges, engine/generator exhaust while sitting around the pool at the British Colonial. Wind most always is from the east.

42 mega cruise ships are presently in various stages of order or construction, if the service is professional they will come.

Ask any conch fisherman, how many more gallons of gasoline are needed to find a fair days catch? & don't talk to me on $$ for that fuel.
Why must it be All or Nothing? Manage when you have an Opportunity to Manage.

Change in port-of-call due to weather is understandable, why not Floridas ports?
Possibly for repairs in FPO.
Is the cargo still burning? The manifest is the first item released to port agencies ... wonder why it is so secretive?

As with Climate Change, politicians & managers have their heads in the sand, suffocating the rest of us. Wise Up!!
A dose of Common Sense is Required.
A small farmer, with 5 cows: a bull, a heifer & 3 young calves each a year apart. He needs to feed his family.
Does he kill the sexually mature Mother & Father? If so, he must wait for the now young to mature before he can restore the herd size. Then if he maintains the same policy of killing the mature animals, how long will he maintain his small herd? Not long, it is that simple.

Turtles & Rays, that eat conch, given the choice, do not go after the thick lipped, hard to crush the shell of mature animals. This is management, as the thick lip indicates an older, wiser animal that has survived many years of predators & is sexually mature, producing many egg masses per year.

Allowing the taking of only thick lipped sexually mature animals is Bad Management, increasing the pressures on any population. Particularly a dwindling population.
Bahamas needs to:

1. Outlaw use of Compressors or Scuba for conch harvesting, by anyone.
2. Place a Moratorium on conch meat export.
3. Limit the number of animals taken per individual, per day for visiting cruisers.
4. Limit the volume of animals taken by commercial fishermen for National Consumption.
5. Establish a No Take Season during breeding periods.
6. Establish a rule that it is unlawful to take animals with greater than 3/16" flaring lip.
7. Establish No Diving For Conch zones near shore, to encourage Hooking for Conch by older fishermen.
8. Establish No-Take Management Zones up-current of areas in need of repopulating.
9. Enforce such rules with heavy penalties for local & foreigners.

Most Importantly, learn from the errors in management by others acting too late with too little. Chile with their Abalone population, Florida with Conch, Jamaica & many Carib nations with Conch.The scientific data is available, today Ignorance is No Excuse. Conch culturing like with Grouper & Snapper culturing is possible, practiced in various countries, it is an alternative but not the only answer. Insight & Management Is.

As with Climate Change, politicians & managers have their heads in the sand, suffocating the rest of us. Wise Up!!
A dose of Common Sense is Required.
A small farmer, with 5 cows: a bull, a heifer & 3 young calves each a year apart. He needs to feed his family.
Does he kill the sexually mature Mother & Father? If so, he must wait for the now young to mature before he can restore the herd size. Then if he maintains the same policy of killing the mature animals, how long will he maintain his small herd? Not long, it is that simple.

Turtles & Rays, that eat conch, given the choice, do not go after the thick lipped, hard to crush the shell of mature animals. This is management, as the thick lip indicates an older, wiser animal that has survived many years of predators & is sexually mature, producing many egg masses per year.

Allowing the taking of only thick lipped sexually mature animals is Bad Management, increasing the pressures on any population. Particularly a dwindling population.
Bahamas needs to:
1. Outlaw use of Compressors or Scuba for conch harvesting, by anyone.
2. Place a Moratorium on conch meat export.
2. Limit the number of animals taken per individual, per day for visiting cruisers.
3. Limit the volume of animals taken by commercial fishermen for National Consumption.
4. Establish a No Take Season during breeding periods.
5. Establish a rule that it is unlawful to take animals with greater than 3/16" flaring lip.
6. Establish No Diving For Conch zones near shore, to encourage Hooking for Conch by older fishermen.
7. Establish No-Take Management Zones up-current of areas in need of repopulating.
8. Enforce such rules with heavy penalties for local & foreigners.

Most Importantly, learn from the errors in management by others acting too late with too little. Chile with their Abalone population, Florida with Conch, Jamaica & many Carib nations with Conch.The scientific data is available, today Ignorance is No Excuse. Conch culturing like with Grouper & Snapper culturing is possible, practiced in various countries, it is an alternative but not the only answer. Insight & Management Is.

Managing any resource, be it water to animal or mineral, is to recognize the limit of what amount allows that stock to replace itself (the budget) and stay within those parameters as a knowledgeable harvester.
Managing a resource requires effort, respect & funding, without these the illicit nature of any individual can mushroom into a greedy thrashing of the resource & everything associated or near it. Look at the gold rush in Ecuador & the resulting damage to the local rain forest.
PS.: Our children are the resources of our future.
The 80% is recoverable with discipline. The nature of conch growth, with it's current loving floating larvae, insinuates that what is happening with local breeders, as well as in the outer islands, will affect the growing grounds downstream. So pressure on the breeding resource by Haitian & Dominican Republic poaching, has an effect on the middle & northern islands.