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Field Study in the Bahamas

January 15, 2009

Right after I had finished all my final exams, I had the chance to leave the stressful environment that is finals week and depart for Abaco Island with 18 other students from the RCC class I was a peer mentor for throughout the semester. We had all been looking forward to this trip because we were going to do service work in the Bahamas and learn about the work a non-governmental organization called “Friends of the Environment” does on the island. Unlike any other trip I had ever been on before, I got to meet different aspects of Abaconian society from government officials to businessmen, play volleyball at a youth night in the town centre, and got the chance to help out the local community while we were there.

The day we got there was one of the most interesting days in the trip. At Friends, we were presented a little bit about Bahamian history by Millie Dawkins, a representative from the Ministry of Tourism. Along with her and a representative from Friends, we heard about the history of the NGO “Friends of the Environment” and the Bahamas National Trust.

What is interesting and unique to the Bahamas is that their national parks are all managed and run by a non-governmental organization called the Bahamas National Trust. They are not politicized and serve no interest other than preserving the environment of their national parks. The government in Parliament receives proposal of whether to make certain grounds or ‘crownland’ (as they call public property) a national park.

While we were there, they were trying to finish a proposal to make the area from Snake Cay to Cherokee on the coast of southern Abaco a national park. The reasoning behind that was that illegal commercial fishing was going on but primordially it was because of the presence of ‘blue holes.’ I will get more into that later when I speak about the ranger, David Knowles.

That first night after we had our presentations and left our stuff at Camp Abaco, we were back to the Friends headquarters for a town hall meeting. There were about 20-30 members of the community in attendance to debate whether they should send the proposal to Parliament in Nassau to make the area extending from Snake Cay to Cherokee a national park. There was active debate going on between different people whose main concerns were that in the future they would make that coastline off limits for personal fishing. There were some fishers there who rely on bonefishing for their living and believed this proposal was a threat to them. Some of us in the class asked questions during the debate as well because we wanted to be in the loop of things that was going on. Earlier on in the day we had heard about the marvels of the proposal and now we were getting a chance to see what some of the citizenry had to say.

Unfortunately that debate was the last in a series of town hall meetings Friends had been hosting but at least we got a chance to see the community at play. For the next three days we conducted service work for coastline restoration and the removing invasive species at Coconut Tree Bay. It was definitely work but we got a great view while removing Australian pine cones, picking up trash from the area, and collecting seaweed in a pile for local farmers.

We learned through Millie, from the government’s Ministry of Tourism, that these Australian pine cones were affecting the native species because they were using much more water than the rest and as they grew taller they blocked off sunlight and ended up killing native species. What was even worse is that the pine needles that fell to the ground were altering the pH level of the soil, further fending off native species from growing. A special work we did was pile up seaweed from out of the coastline because the local farmers use it to plant their crops as a sort of fertilizer. We had several farmers come and load their trucks with seaweed and as different people from the community trickled in, they were grateful for the work we were doing on their coastline. Although we were doing service work, we did not have too bad of a view while working.

Another highlight of the trip was being able to meet with two men from DPZ developers who were working on a project they called “Schooner Bay.” They envision a small sustainable community in a plan they expect to finish in around 12 years while opening up at several stages. It seemed really interesting because they picture having a farmer’s market where people can buy their food, all walkways thus eliminating the use of cars inside the complex, and some schools and stores for people to spend lots of time inside the community. Because Abaco Island gets hit a lot by hurricanes, they have homes for people to live in made out of concrete with original Bahamian architectural facades, to make it both aesthetically pleasing and hurricane-proof. They had great white-sand beaches inside their complex and the first stage they said would be done in around 2-3 years.

After some beach outings, we had a chance to enter the area in southern Abaco which is being pushed for a national park. We saw the main reason why they want to preserve these areas; it is because of the blue holes. These are caves and sink holes formed thousands of years ago where there are some pre-historic remains. There are research units diving in and National Geographic is making a documentary on these due to be released next year. David Knowles, the park ranger for Abaco Island was explaining to us the importance of these and how if there are developments built alongside of these valuable sinkholes of Bahamians pre-human history will be lost. We took a short hike and some people went inside the caves nearby and then we all went to the Hole-in-Wall Lighthouse. The view was great from up top and then back down we went on some rocks where the waves were crashing and many of us got soaked.

We had several activities planned out for us while we were there and the highlight of these was going snorkeling around Parrot Cay. While snorkeling, several of us saw lionfish, native to the Pacific Ocean, around the cay. We then went to a nearby island called Elbow Cay where the town of Hope Town is located. We got to have lunch on the beautiful island and saw another lighthouse. This one was not as tall as the Hole-in-Wall lighthouse but nonetheless a more advertised one because of touristy Hope Town. We had lunch at a nearby hotel with oceanfront view. It was a relaxing end to our week’s stay on Abaco Island. It was a great conclusion to the semester and my fear that everybody would be sick of each other towards the end would be dispelled. I got to know better several people and we will have a lifetime of memories to share. We even made it on the local paper for our efforts, check out The Abaconian online in its Jan. 1 edition!

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