SOS for Blue Bay Marine Park/Mauritius

[Alexander Stone]

ATTENTION
***Please reply directly to Doris Sénèque <ecosud at intnet.mu>***


----- Original Message ----- 

       From: Doris Sénèque 
       Organization: Eco Sud
       Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 7:42 PM
       Subject: SOS for Blue Bay marine park in Mauritius

       Dear nature lovers,
        
       We are convinced you must be informed about what is going on in
Mauritius at the moment. 
        
       The promoters of the "Follies" hotel project on Ile aux Deux
Cocos, right in the middle of the
       marine park of Blue Bay have dug out the basaltic coastline of
the bay to build a marina as
       part of that project.
       On the 9th of September 2000 two machines - a rock hammer and a
mechanical shovel -
       have displaced about 400m3 of soil and rocks.The filtering nets
placed in the sea by the
       promoters the day before have been totally useless to contain the
mud which spread in the
       marine park over a distance of 80m.
       The Ministry of Environment reacted accordingly and issued a
prohibition order to stop the
       works on the 13th of September.But damage had already been done
to the environment and it
       is a very serious situation.There is at the present time a layer
of silt up to 15cm deep on the
       corals, suffocating them and bringing about their death in the
days to come.The alteration to
       the coastline may have unpredictable and adverse impacts on the
currents prevailing in the
       lagoon. This gaping trench causes more mud to go on spreading in
the marine park with
       each tide and laboratory analysis of water samples have shown
that that mud is acidic.
        
       ECO-SUD being an ecologist association, we feel it is our
responsibility as citizens to take
       immediate action to put an end to that criminal assault on our
natural heritage. But we are no
       scientists and desperately need urgent help from overseas
experts.
       Please advise us as to what to do right now !
        
       Best regards.
        
       Doris Sénèque
       Secretary
        
       ECO-SUD
       Casa do Sol
       Bonites Street
       Blue Bay
       MAURITIUS.