Young environmentalists push to have filthy harbour cleaned
THE Student Environment Network (SEN), the youth arm of the environment lobby group Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), has added its voice to the call for the immediate cleaning of the Kingston Harbour.
The call comes in the wake of a recent survey of the Port Royal mangroves and on Refuge Cay in the harbour, which revealed an enormous pile-up of garbage that is threatening to deplete the area’s seabird population.
“Port Royal and Refuge Cay are part of the Palisadoes-Port Royal Protected Area and, as such, should not be littered with so much garbage,” said SEN president Patrice Lawrence.
Lawrence, a sixth form student at the Immaculate Conception High School, said that not only was the pile-up of garbage “unsightly”, but it was also having an “effect on the birds that nest there”.
“There have been incidents of birds becoming entangled in the garbage, and dying. The mangroves are also stressed because of the pollution,” Lawrence added.
The young environmental lobbyist noted that if the harbour was not cleaned as a matter of immediacy, the risk went beyond environmental damage to Jamaica’s loss of heritage.
“We will not just be losing the mangroves or a few birds, but our natural heritage is an area of significant ecological value and benefit to us. For example, Refuge Cay is among the top 10 sites for nesting Brown Pelicans and contains five per cent of the Brown Pelican population in the Caribbean. The Port Royal mangroves act as a nursery for many of the fish that we eat,” the teenager argued.
SEN, meanwhile, observed 10 species of birds – predominantly nesting Brown Pelicans – on their recent visit to the cay. More than Brown Pelicans, including immature birds, were observed at the cay.
Other birds spotted were Magnificent Frigatebirds, Laughing Gulls, Terns and Green Herons. The West Indian Whistling Duck and Wetlands Project, funded by the Society for the Study and Conservation of Caribbean Birds, facilitated the survey.
The teens’ voices have been added to that of marine biologist Dayne Buddo, who also recently called for the cleaning of the harbour, having cited dolphins swimming there.
“Thinking about all these magnificent mammals, these dolphins, you are actually encouraging their existence and their survival by having a good feeding ground in Kingston Harbour,” Buddo said in a September interview with the Sunday Observer.
His comments came in the wake of his July 27 sighting of two dolphins in a lagoon off the Port Royal mangroves.
Kingston Harbour is affected by a range of problems. Among them is urbanisation, with some 800,000 Jamaicans living in areas where activities impact its ecology.