Dear Editor,
One morning, late last week, I took a visitor to Little Bay via Calvin’s boat to do some snorkelling. Several yachts anchored well outside the restricted area and ferried people ashore so they could also snorkel. Just before noon a boat from St Martin dropped anchor off the “jumping” rock well within the protected area. People swimming there were not happy but assumed that the “foreigners” knew no better.
Then a bigger vessel, belonging to a well known local fleet of tourist boats, motored into the bay. With no hesitation it drove slowly past the other boat, going deeper into the bay through the people snorkelling there and anchored amongst them! This local captain did not have the excuse of not knowing what he was doing. In fact he had obviously done this many times before.
I believe that the Deparment of Fisheries is supposed to monitor protected areas like this. Do they ever check? Is there some way for people to report infringements of this sort?
Certainly, the actions of this captain did nothing to encourage visitors to revisit the bay or to recommend it to others. His dangerous and illegal action spoiled the enjoyment of this wonderful spot for the others present. He, and his employers, must know the reasons for the anchoring restrictions but choose to ignore them, feeling themselves safe from any reaction or penalty. Shame!
Concerned environmentalist.
