March 22, 2022
BNT Head, Coral Scientists, and Conservationists support ABS law reform and call for swift movement on dozens of outstanding scientific and habitat restoration permits
After more than a year, the Government of The Bahamas has given the green light for marine conservationists to treat corals infected with Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) as well as to study and better understand its spread. SCTLD is the deadly and relentless plague ravaging the country’s reefs like a forest fire, for which conservationists sounded the alarm at a press conference at the Bahamas National Trust on March 4, 2022. This breaking news is being celebrated after backlogged research permits had sidelined action by the country’s own world-renowned scientific experts and local environmental groups for over a year.
“It’s like Christmas came early – we’re so pleased the Government is partnering with us on this life-saving work,” said Dr. Craig Dahlgren, executive director of Perry Institute for Marine Science (PIMS), a Bahamas-based research non-profit on the frontlines of the Caribbean coral crisis. “This country made history when it established the world’s first land and sea park more than half a century ago. Together, we’re ready to make history again and tackle SCTLD with everything we’ve got.”
Science across the country came to halt after the new Biological Resources & Traditional Knowledge Act was passed in 2021. Government adopted the new legal framework to capture value from commercial innovation and ensure research involving the country’s natural resources benefits Bahamians first and foremost. But the consequent implementation of the act has, until now, been fraught with political turmoil and bureaucratic peril. This created a quagmire for local non-profits, mom and pop businesses and both national and international environmental organizations hoping to do economically and environmentally critical and time-sensitive science and conservation work. But now there are signs of hope for transitional permits while the Cabinet has undertaken to revise the law to aim at its original intent – to capture monetary through patents where commercially possible while simultaneously promoting, not blocking conservation-oriented, non-profit scientific research and ecosystem restoration.
“We strongly support the government’s leadership and well-intentioned desire to build economic value from commercial research in The Bahamas through Access & Benefit Sharing legislative reform,” said Eric Carey, Executive Director of the Bahamas National Trust which issued a strong “warning to the public” via press conference earlier this month urging the Government, Bahamians, and tourists to take action on the lethal coral disease. “We hope the permits scientists received last week are a harbinger of much more science and conservation approvals to come, and reiterate Government’s leading role in all environmental and economic issues.”
With permits in hand, a coalition of environmental non-profits are set to begin broad-sweeping SCTLD monitoring, evaluation, and treatment across The Bahamas. Scientists now hope the Government will soon allow samples to be sent to state-of-the-art international analytical laboratories which is a key tool in speeding humanity’s ability to stop the spread. Alongside Government staff, Perry Institute marine biologists will work as fast as possible to heal infected corals using an antibiotic paste and prevent the extinction of coral species from The Bahamas. Given the severity of the crisis at hand, the Perry Institute has also co-led the establishment of a living coral “gene bank” to preserve Bahamian corals in Atlantis’ aquarium; to date, the Perry Institute has secured sustainable project funding upwards of $1 million USD with more to come.
“The gene bank is a groundbreaking opportunity for us to save corals from SCTLD and for The Bahamas to fully establish itself as the global leader in coral science and restoration,” Dr. Dahlgren added. “We’re excited to work closely with the Government, already-committed philanthropic funding, and Atlantis so see this project through.”
SCTLD was first discovered off the coast of Miami in 2014. Five years later, Dr. Dahlgren’s team at the Perry Institute confirmed its presence off the southern coast of Grand Bahama. The disease, which is so fatal it can wipe out a 200-year old coral in less than two months, has already caused far-reaching and irreversible damage to Bahamian coral reefs – the lifeblood of the nation’s blue economy. This draws yet another line under the exceeding need for the Bahamian coral “gene bank” at Atlantis.
Coral reefs are the nation’s chief tourism and fisheries asset, valued at up to USD 135 million per square kilometer. They also protect coastlines from storm surges and erosion, reducing wave energy by about 97%. In the three years since SCTLD first spread to The Bahamas, it has wiped out corals over more than 100 square miles of reef across the country: nearly 50,000 football fields worth of dead coral. The highly contagious disease has been identified offshore of at least six major Bahamian islands to date and scientists are linking its spread to ballast water from commercial shipping vessels and cross-contamination by recreational and commercial boating.
“These individual permits have empowered scientists to start tackling the disease destroying our reefs and for that we are beyond relieved,” said Rashema Ingraham, Executive Director of Waterkeepers Bahamas, an organization committed to protecting the Bahamian environment through policy, education and advocacy. “At the same time, we need to tackle other environmental challenges at hand that have been held up by permits such as replanting millions of mangroves wiped out by Hurricane Dorian and replanting corals onto degraded reefs … we embrace Government’s reform of the Biological Resources Act but also implore their immediate action on science and conservation permitting across the board.”
Anwar Godet, a Nassau-born Bahamian PIMS scientist and scuba instructor, also applauded Government’s leadership while emphasizing that more Government support for the sake of the country’s environment is needed. “I’m elated we got our permit and our whole team is excited to be in the water again. Until now, it’s been a very difficult year standing by helplessly watching our own reefs die. At the same time, the public should know that the coral crisis in our country is bigger than SCTLD,” said Godet, who works as a coral research technician at the Perry Institute. “Many permits are still pending to actively restore and rebuild reefs that are crucial fish habitats, reefs that are disintegrating because of climate change and pollution as well. Reefs protect shorelines from storm surges, help create our unparalleled beaches, and ultimately keep most of us Bahamians in a job, one way or another.”
Over the last two years Godet has worked diligently to expand the Reef Rescue Network, the country-wide alliance of businesses and environmentalists fighting back against climate change and coral disease by planting new corals in a scientifically sound way. Launched in 2017 by the Perry Institute, the Network is The Bahamas’ largest coral restoration initiative, spanning 12 islands and growing nearly 8,000 corals so far. Without Government-sanctioned permits, the Reef Rescue Network stands to lose more than $1 million USD of secured Foreign Direct Investment in less than 30 days.
“I want my children to be able to enjoy our reefs the same way I did growing up. I want them to know what it’s like to dive, swim with sharks and revel in the biodiverse wonders of our reefs,” Godet said. “That’s why I do what I do.”
Eric Carey of the Bahamas National Trust and country’s leading voice for environmental science concluded, “I want to thank again the Government for their renewed commitment to environmental stewardship and look forward to a thriving and accelerated partnership to get scientists back to work within the unmatched living laboratory and bed of sustainable economic opportunity that The Bahamas has to offer.”