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Conservation / Locations — 2 Comments
03
Jan 11

Placencia, Belize… the bulldozers and dredgers are there now

So, it seems that over development isn’t just a problem in Ambergris and I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise.  Placencia, a bit further south from Ambergris in Belize, is also going through the throws of major (and horribly ill-conceived) development. At least for once the US isn’t somehow to blame for the problem.  In this case, it is the Italians.

It is going on now… dredging, bull-dozing, leveling… basically screwing up what makes the place special and what makes the place prime permit habitat (with a mix of bones and poons in there as well).

“The Placencia” is one of the key offenders (although not the only douchebags working there by any stretch).  The website photo below has to be the most egregious use of a fly fishing photograph in recent history (not to mention the most egregious casting).  These guys are actually using fly fishing as a hook to get people interested in their development… the development which will (and is) destroy the habitat where the fish live, grow and feed.

I also like the “Eco-Visionaries” label.  How you could be “Eco” anything but Eco-Destroyer while you are bulldozing and dredging.  Of course, this is “green washing” and rather cleverly done at that.  Fly anglers have a reputation for conservation and you put “Eco” on anything and PRESTO, it must be a good thing… right?

The Placencia Citizens for Sustainable Development has some of the info on this particular project and none of it sounds awesome.

Not good.  Not good at all.

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Conservation / Locations — 4 Comments
26
Aug 10

South Beach Belize… douchebags.

I enjoyed my recent interview with Lori-Ann Murphy of El Pescador.  After talking with her I did some more poking around on-line to see what I could find out about development or over-development in Ambergris.

The first thing I found was nice little video by Wil Flack, good friend of Lori-Ann and seemingly all around good guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSrWsFRPuQM?fs=1&hl=en_US

South Beach Belize… it sounds pleasant, doesn’t it?  Wouldn’t it be nice to retire down in Belize… grab your rod in the morning after you’ve had your coffee and go and catch a bonefish in out your front door?  It does sound nice.  The downside is that they have to dredge the bejesus out of the flats and bulldoze the hell out of the mangroves to get that front door there.  All those mangroves are where the fish live/grow/hunt.  You nuke the mangroves and you nuke the fishing.

I don’t even know that much about saltwater fishing, but I can understand that pretty well.

This is what greed looks like.

Sounds like these guys have been botching the job since day -1 (and more).

You can seen the construction, right up against a protected area.

It is a little difficult to figure out what exactly is happening on the ground.  I found the website for Ambergris Caye Citizens for Sustainable Development and their listing of the status of current projects. They seem to think that the project has not been green-lit, although it is easy enough to find folks selling South Beach Belize property.

It sounds like the project is on hold for now.  Before you go and drop some coin on a little bit of raped and pillaged Belize, just think that these guys sold plots for a project that isn’t even in the bag.  That can’t be good.

I have no idea, but I can’t get this video to embed in this post… here’s a link to a video called “How South Beach Belize Will Impact Ambergris.”

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Conservation / Locations — No Comments
10
Jul 10

Want to fish Bimini?

Well… you might want to do so quickly before every last mangrove in Bimini is taken out, filled in and turned into golf courses and resorts… because the world doesn’t have enough golf courses.

I found this little video of Bonefish Ebbie talking about the Bimini Bay development that is dredging up bonefish habitat to make way for pure and bottled greed.

Read more about the badness that is this Bimini Development.

Bonefish Ebbie can be found here.

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Conservation / Locations — 5 Comments
11
Mar 10

Development Trumps Bonefish

Saw a story on Moldy Chum about a mangrove-crushing, environment-destroying developments in New Providence.  It isn’t pretty and the good folks at Secret Soul Fly Fishing Adventures (Aaron Bain and Clint Kemp) are pretty pissed about it… and you should be too.

You can read the whole story here from The Tribune.

It seems like over-development is a real emerging issue all throughout the Caribbean.  I would have thought that this little economic blip we are coming out of would have stopped a few thousand bulldozers and chain saws, but it continues.  I’ve read stories about development threatening Bimini and fears about development in Belize.

This makes me grumpy.

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Conservation — 1 Comment
17
Nov 09

Bimini in Peril

The never-ending string of good news just keeps on coming.  This time it is about Bimini… over-development… taking paradise and crushing it under the weight of “progress.”  Do we really need a golf course on every island?  When I become the Leviathan, this sort of thing will stop (and I’ll be allowed to fish in Cuba too).

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