[Coral-List] Guana Cay Post

Tom Williams ctwiliams at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 12 22:08:54 EDT 2005


Dear ALL  Good reply -
See below - My reply


--- Erik Gauger <erik at notesfromtheroad.com> wrote:
Dear Coral List folks,
Some of you have asked to see more photos of the
actual coral reef which is adjacent to the proposed
golf course on Guana Cay. I just got some photos that
were taken last week. They are posted here:
http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/coral.htm

TW-Thanks for the photo ref.s

--- Erik Gauger <erik at notesfromtheroad.com> wrote:
If you look at the images and compare them to the
developers master plan, you can extrapolate the
enormity of this project. 

TW-If the project is successful ¨C islands and reefs
will be gone.

--- Erik Gauger <erik at notesfromtheroad.com> wrote:
One of you, Andrew Ross, had mistaken me for being the
developer and thanked me for being transparent, which
he said was unusual for a developer.
With that said, now I am curious why the coral
community becomes so tight-lipped once it gets
involved in development issues?   Shouldn't marine
ecologists associated with developments communicate
with the public and the scientific community
regardless of who they work for? No offense, but it
seems there is no baseline of ethics among the coral
world. 

TW-Wakeup ¨C ecologists that work for the developers
usually have a confidentially clause or have a
¡°professional¡± ethic of not talking whether they
believe in the Project or know it is a diaster ¨C they
may try to minimize but engineers are there to make
the project successfully as they are paid far more in
supervision than in design.

TW-Scientific community usually have too many other
things to do unless they are involved in the site or
live in the area.

--- Erik Gauger <erik at notesfromtheroad.com> wrote:
It would seem common sense that marine ecologists
associated with developments should have to answer the
deficiencies that the rest of the scientific community
is digging up regarding their EIA. 

TW-NO developer ecologists would expose project
deficiencies to the public

--- Erik Gauger <erik at notesfromtheroad.com> wrote:
In this case, even the International Vice President of
the Sierra Club is asking the developer for more
transparency. Why is communication so difficult?

TW-MONEY ¨C A project of this type, location, and size
would suggest at least a 30-35% rate of return ¨C LOTS
OF MONEY.  Developers do not like to know of bad news
during design¡­as it affects the developers funding.

Tom

--- Erik Gauger <erik at notesfromtheroad.com> wrote:
> Dear Coral List folks,
> Some of you have asked to see more photos of the
> actual coral reef> which is adjacent to the proposed
golf course on Guana Cay. I just> got some photos that
were taken last week. They are posted here:
> 
> http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/coral.htm
> 
> If you look at the images and compare them to the
> developers master plan, you can extrapolate the
enormity of this project. One of you, Andrew Ross, had
mistaken me for being the developer and thanked me
> for being transparent, which he said was unusual for
> a developer. With that said, now I am curious why
the coral community becomes so tight-lipped once it
gets involved in development issues? Shouldn't marine
ecologists associated with developments communicate
with the public and the scientific community
regardless of who they work for? No offense, but it
seems there is no baseline of ethics among the coral
world. It would seem common sense that marine
ecologists associated with developments should have to
answer the deficiencies that the rest of the
scientific community is digging up regarding their
EIA. In this case, even the International Vice
President of the Sierra Club is asking the developer
for more transparency. Why is communication so
difficult?   Erik





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