Like many people, I am appalled by the article in the Dec. 1 Beacon titled “Scrub Island focuses on finishing touches.”
Resort managers are now wondering what guests will do to amuse themselves! Shouldn’t that have been part of the initial planning and logistics of putting such a major, inappropriate resort on Scrub Island in the first place?
Now Scrub has guests coming to stay, and they need to be entertained! So they want to feed the tarpon.
For years in the Virgin Islands, there has been information disseminated to discourage the feeding of fish. I also understand that in the national park on St. John, the bright underwater lights now so common on big yachts are forbidden, as they are extremely disruptive to the normal behavioural patterns of fish.
During the construction of the resort, the Scrub Island developers constantly failed to adhere to environmental restrictions put in place to protect the area. The attempts to relocate corals from what is now the marina were a fiasco. Few, if any, meaningful hydrographic studies were carried out prior to the design for the marina. Work there destroyed much new growth of staghorn coral, which is considered endangered in the United States.
Scrub was supposed to put in a nursery for native plants, but we now see $85,000 earmarked for bringing in plants that are not part of the natural vegetation.
Scrub was one of the islands badly hit by the invasive weevil (brought into the VI by a local nursery plant importer) that has decimated native century plants. Bringing in plants from overseas increases the chance that more invasive pests will be introduced or that someone may plant an invasive plant such as the neem tree, the casuarina or the Hawaiian sea grape.
During the construction phase at Scrub, control of sediment flow was abysmal. Silt fences put in place had great gaps underneath. The sediment control boom used during the marina dredging appeared to be out of order more often than not, and there were frequent reports of massive sediment flows escaping during that phase of the works.
Bright lights shine from Scrub every night, and nothing appears to have been done to minimise the lighting to keep it from affecting nesting turtles and hatchlings. Both beaches on Scrub are major nesting sites for green and hawksbill turtles.
Perhaps if the Scrub management cares so much about the environment, they may want to pause a while, ask for local advice, and endeavour to educate the hordes of guests about the beauty of nature that abounds on the dry, scrubby island. This would be far better, perhaps, than wasting money by importing more Disney-style props in the continuing disastrous attempt to turn the island into a fantasy destination.