ARC Arrives - Caribbean Compass

JANUARY 2008 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 24
DECK VIEW FROM TI KANOT BY CHRIS DOYLE
Tobago Cays
Making a
Comeback
I spent a couple of days in the Tobago Cays Marine Park in early December. This
was the first time I had visited since the park became active about a year ago.
Before then, as regular readers of Compass will be aware, there had been a lot of
controversy about how the park should be run and who should manage it. At one
time, the government of St. Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG) planned to hand the
park’s operation over to Palm Island Resorts Ltd, a hotel-management company run
by US-born Robert A. Barrett. One line of logic for doing so, which I heard at the
time, was that Vincentians would lack the skills and abilities to run their national
park themselves. Happily, popular opposition to Barrett’s for-profit management
proposal led to its collapse. Subsequently, many of us feared that, after the strongly
pro-Barrett position taken by SVG’s Prime Minister, Dr. the Right Honorable
Ralph Gonsalves, the administration might not be able to switch gears and put in a
capable team of locals to do the job. I am happy to say that, at this point, such
thoughts seem to have been totally unfounded.
The progress the Tobago Cays Marine Park has made in a year is significant; the
government headed by Prime Minister Gonsalves is to be congratulated for putting
in a good management team. The board of directors; the park manager, Vibert
Dublin; and the rangers are making an excellent start, and showing that SVG’s only
national marine park can be — and should be — locally run. The current management
plan, developed with local consultation, is conservation-based, not profitoriented.
The EC$10 per person, per day, park entry fee is intended to maintain and
protect the park.
The island of Baradel has been returned to its pristine state. All litter and charcoal
remnants, once the dominant features of the beach, are gone. The vegetation has
made an excellent comeback against the previous depredations of the goats.
I went out to Petit Tabac for the first time in years and found it also in a pristine
condition. I did not visit Petit Rameau and Jamesby, but feel confident they are the
same. Petit Bateau is the only island where barbecues and T-shirt sales are now
allowed. It is clean and well cared for. A toilet, which is essential for day-tourists,
has been installed in a completely hidden and secluded area, which is exactly as it
should be.
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A series of small buoys now mark the sea turtles’ feeding area in front of Baradel.
These buoys prevent boats from anchoring between them and the shore, and help
protect swimmers as well as the turtles. The buoys are a huge success; nearly everyone
that snorkels here manages to swim with some turtles. (I think a useful addition
to this would be two or three dinghy moorings close together, right outside the
entrance to this area, so that people wanting to snorkel do not have to take their
dinghy inside the buoyed area at all.)
These tiny, uninhabited islets in the Grenadines, and the reefs and waters
surrounding them, are slowly but surely becoming a well-protected area
By and large the vendors are driving their boats carefully and within the five-knot
speed limit. There is more of a problem with yacht tenders. During my recent visit,
while the majority drove slowly, a few zoomed out to the reef at full speed, and one
yachtsman was water-skiing through the anchorage on both the Saturday and
Sunday afternoons (no rangers were around at this time).
—Continued on next page
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