The Sandy Bay and West End / West Bay Marine Park Monthly Newsletter
June 2006 in Roatan, Honduras

It has been quite a while since I sent a group e-mail as I've been away, but I'm back now and taking a firm grip on the steering wheel, directing the marine park in the desired direction.

While being away, the office has been run by Lidia, who has been great in building bridges between the SBWEMP and BICA and PMAIB. She has been excellent in developing the marine park and connecting with the other organizations operating in the bay islands.

Since being away, and just before I left, there has been loads of things going on. As many of you should know, there was a work shop which some of you attended last month with CORAL, discussing the developments of the park and the standards regarding marine users. The workshop was set up to review the marine park and also to develop projects that would help in the protecting the reefs.

Two main subjects were targeted and lead to the application of a grant focusing on marine infrastructure and education. We are waiting on conformation of the grant but if all goes well we will be improving the marine infrastructure through introduction of 8 new channel markers, 30 heavy duty dive moorings, 10 yacht moorings, fishing moorings, taxi channels, zoning and much more. Education will be targeting mostly tourists at present and will involve the use of signs, leaflets, posters etc and focus on entrance points e.g. airport, cruise ship dock and ferry terminal. We realize the threats from the influx of tourists and see education as a vital method in reducing impacts to the reefs. Further projects we are developing regarding education involve a DVD for local school, television broadcasting and for tourists. This is a long term project and will require help from anyone with experience in this field. Anyone wishing to help, please contact us.

Plastic bottle recycling has been a project we have been trying to promote, and there was an organization collecting bottles and using them as building blocks. Sadly, like many things that begin with good intentions, this project has failed and we no longer are dealing with these persons. We do however still want your bottles as we are currently communicating with persons on the mainland and hopefully we will be able to send the bottles on the ferry for recycling.

Other news, we are currently trying to expand the marine park and hope to become an umbrella organization for the whole of roatan, helping establish other parks around the island. If other parks are created and are managed successfully, the future looks very bright for the reefs of roatan. There is a meeting this coming Tuesday at bare foot key at 7pm so anyone interested in getting involved in establishing a park this side of the island, please come along and join in the discussion.

As always, we are constantly on the drive to find new members, so anyone interested in joining, please drop by the office or contact us by email or phone. We now have all members listed on the website and where possible have links to websites. By being a member, you are personally helping in the protection of roatan's reefs and allowing for the park to develop new projects.

Well i think that's enough for one email, its great to be back and look forward to the coming months when great things will be happening here.

happy diving and speak again soon
nic

P.S. one more thing, there is a meeting at 3pm this saturday at the office so directors and others wishing to say their piece, come along

Relevant web sites:

For more information about PMAIB (Proyecto de Manejo Ambiental de Las Islas de la Bahia/), visit www.islasdelabahia.org.

For more information about the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL), visit www.coralreefalliance.org.

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