‘We did have plenty more beach’
NEPA urged to take action to save St Elizabeth shoreline
RESIDENTS OF Calabash Bay in St Elizabeth are growing increasingly anxious over the continued silence of the authorities as the beach slowly disappears, urging immediate action to halt – and, if possible, reverse – the steady shoreline erosion.
Fisherman Bernard Sutherland recalls that Hurricane Ivan dealt a massive blow to the beach when it landed in 2004.
“We did have plenty more beach and now, we don’t have any beach. We lose like 70 to 100 feet of beach, because we could walk around to the nearby property of Jack Sprat on sand, but during Hurricane Ivan it swept it away, and from that, nothing build back,” Sutherland observed as he surveyed the area.
“This is low tide now, so it look good, but when is high tide and the sea get rough, all up underneath here so the water deh,” he told The Gleaner, pointing to where he stood.
Owen Clarke, whose family has operated restaurant and bar on the beach for some four decades, explained that the sand is being washed away, noting that its depth has been eroded by at least a foot.
He is fearful that with the sea almost level with the sand, a strong wind blowing from the southwest could take the waters up through the gates, swamping the property and going all the way across the road as it did during Hurricane Ivan.
He is suggesting the need for more sand to replace what has been lost and other measures undertaken to build coastal resilience.
Sutherland believes that because the shallow reefs are under stress, they are unable to adequately protect the shoreline.
As such, he wants the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), the State’s chief environmental regulatory body, to take a more aggressive approach to tackling these and other issues.
For him, one significant step in the right direction would be the establishment of more fish sanctuaries, with specific emphasis on protection for areas such as the Pedro Banks and Alligator Pond.
“The exposed shallow areas need to be protected. [There is] too much overfishing, so some of these areas need to become sanctuaries so that the fish can get fi breed and get fi expand out. If we could see that in the bay, where it becomes a sanctuary, it would be a thumbs up,” he suggested.
The residents noted that despite numerous assessments from NEPA and other representatives over the years, nothing has come of talks to address the situation.
Sutherland says that he is watching keenly, hoping that no significant weather system emerges as the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season winds down this month.
“We used to that, but I don’t know what is going to happen if a disaster comes,” he said.