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Mr Bob Foster Smith handing over the map to Hon Malcolm Guishard Minister of Tourism and Fisheries in the Nevis Island Administration. |
CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (April 7, 2006) -- The Nevis Island Administration's (NIA) support to a sea bed mapping project in some waters surrounding Nevis bore fruit, when a detailed map of the seabed in the area of The Narrows between St Kitts and Nevis, was presented to Hon Malcolm Guishard Minister of Tourism and Fisheries at his Marion Heights office on Thursday April 5, 2006.
The presentation was made by Marine Biologist Mrs Judy Foster Smith and her husband, an expert at sea bed mapping, Mr Bob Foster Smith. The British couple said they have been frequent visitors to Nevis and wanted to give something back to the island free of cost and once they received the green light from the NIA they began the project one year ago with technical assistance from their son Daniel.
Minister Guishard thanked the couple on behalf of the Administration and the people of Nevis and explained that the map would serve as an asset to the Ministry of Tourism and the Fisheries Department and would also assist with conservation.
"This [map] would certainly help us in the present and future it would help us in the Ministry of Tourism as it would in the Ministry of Fisheries. We like to advertise Nevis as a good dive site and we bring many tourists to Nevis to dive in our waters but now when we go to market Nevis, we can take the mini version and to show it to potential divers and visitors to Nevis.
"Nevis as you are quite aware, is a beautiful little island and for us to remain the way we are we need to protect every aspect of it, not only the onshore but offshore as well," he said.
Mr Guishard took the opportunity to invite the couple to visit Nevis and noted that the Administration had no objections to any further sea bed mapping work in other waters surrounding the island because of its importance to Nevis.
According to Mrs Foster Smith, the map identifies the seabed resources in the area and where they are and the distribution of the various seabed habitats. She noted that the map would be of use to persons interested in the marine environment but moreso to the Fisheries Department, Tourism, Planning, the Sea Ports Authority, conservation and to education and research.
She explained that the Fisheries Department would be able to identify the extent of the habitat's importance to the commercial species the Queen Conch and lobsters as the sea grass beds in particular, are important as nursery and feeding grounds for these species.
As far as tourism is concerned, she said the map would direct tour operators to those key sights which may be of interest to people visiting the island but at the same time would allow long term protection of the marine biodiversity there.
In the area of Planning she noted that the map would be able to identify areas that are sensitive to any development that may be in plan, such as quarrying, dredging or the building of marine installations so that damage to the sensitive areas could be avoided.
"We hope too that the [Nevis Air and Sea] Port Authority may be able to make use of the map in making decisions about mooring and anchorage areas and that conservationists would be able to focus on those rich areas that have high levels of diversity such as the corals and the lovely sea fan areas.
"Of course education comes into it too and we hope that the map will provide a basis for raising awareness about the different habitats here and how they relate to one another ecologically. It also gives a basis for further research on the sea bed and it would enable the searchers to monitor any change in the habitats which is obviously important too and they might like to focus on the different habitats for more in depth studies of the biological communities," she said.
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| The seabed map |
Mrs Foster Smith explained that the marine environment in the area mapped "is something to be really proud of. There is a fantastic array of seabed habitats and we hope the map will be a way of bringing together all the users of the sea and encouraging the process of integrated management of the marine environment in Nevis."
Meantime Mr Foster Smith explained that they had spent two weeks mapping the seabed with sophisticated equipment called a ground discrimination system, a Global Positioning System (GPS) and a video system and on their return home spent some months putting the map together.
The map according to him is charted in colours, "the blue ones show a reef edge on the west ad the Caribbean side and in between there are sea grass beds which are green and sea fans which are pink and the yellow is the sediments and there are some other patches of reef off Cotton Ground."
The couple took the opportunity to thank those who supported the project including the Ministry of Agriculture Lands Housing Cooperative and Fisheries, The Nevis Air and Sea Ports Authority, the Nevis Historical and Conservation Society, Under the Sea Nevis, Oualie Beach Hotel and the School of Marine Science and Technology at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom.
Director of Fisheries Captain Arthur Anslyn was also present and also gave brief remarks.
