[Coral-List] please comment

[Steve Palumbi]

Dear Ellen and all, The other aspect of this kind of thing is that cruise ship tourism brings very little new income to local merchants, restaurants or hotels. The costs are paid by the town to build the pier and then the tourists stay on the ship and spend very little. So that is my question for the virtual group - does anyone have numbers for tourism value for an acre of good reef per year vs local value for cruise ships? Gathering these numbers up and passing them along may help.

Steve
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Stephen R. Palumbi
Harold A Miller Director, Hopkins Marine Station
Jane and Marshall Steel Professor of Biology
Stanford University




> On Jul 1, 2015, at 8:03 PM, Ellen Prager <pragere at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> Dear Coral listers
> 
> The Minister of Tourism in Grand Cayman is pushing a plan to build an extended cruise/port pier. The Environmental Impact Statement is very clear, it will destroy acres of coral reef and the indirect impacts remain questionable.
> 
> Grand Cayman's nearshore reefs are surprisingly healthy (relatively speaking) and still have fish, sea turtles, sharks etc. The plan mentions coral transplants and relocation as mitigation - but you cannot transplant or relocate entire reef structures (this is not just a few coral heads).
> 
> Please take a moment if you would and comment on the plan to their Department of Environment.  Sorry for the short notice….the comment period closes July 3rd. 
> Here is the link to the plan and information:
> 
> http://www.doe.ky/proposed-cruise-berthing-facility-eia-consultation-june-2015/
> 
> The Cruise Industry was not aware of the plan and is now reviewing it and I have urged some of the major players to oppose the plan from their end as well. 
> 
> Sincerely
> Ellen
> 
> Dr. Ellen Prager
> Earth2Ocean, Inc
> @elprager
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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