It isn’t just in Belize that we face these sorts of tough questions about dredging. There are plans to further dredge around Key West to accommodate Mega Cruise Ships. Here’s a fantastic video by Will Benson.
The Lower Keys Guide Association has this to say:
Harbor dredging: The cruise ship industry, and segments of Key West business support a new dredging project to widen the shipping channel in Key West Harbor so that the city can accommodate the arrival of “mega cruise ships”.
We stand adamantly opposed to this idea. Such a dredging project would negatively impact the health of the area’s ecosystem in ways that cannot be anticipated. This project could devastate our fishery; one that has yet to fully recover from the last such event in 2004. The area to be dredged is located in one of Key West’s prime tarpon staging areas off Ft Zachary Taylor. As tarpon fishing communities in Texas and Homosassa have learned, you can negatively affect the fishery to such a degree that the tarpon no longer frequent the area.
We believe that dredging Key West Harbor could very well be just such an event and the repercussions could be permanent and devastating.
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Tags: dredging, Key West, Will Benson
As a lifelong Floridian, 5 generation, the things they’ve done and are doing to my home disgust me . . . Key West (the waters surrounding it) is a place that cannot be replaced – just so some bratty kids can get some cheap souvenirs made in Taiwan.
Couple the cruise industry’s sway with that of the sugar companies, and the discharge that’s pouring into the Caloosahatchee and Indian River Lagoon, and, if drastic measures aren’t taken soon, my kids (ages 7 & 13) won’t have a quarter of the fishing opportunities that I was privileged to enjoy. Disgusted and sad.
An excellent video that I meant to post to my blog months ago. I hope everyone watches Will’s video and does what they can. Who gives a f*** about cruise ships? Sink ’em for reefs.