Royal Gazette: Environmentalists balk at remediation plan

Royal Gazette: Environmentalists balk at remediation plan

Environmental groups have warned that a plan to combat erosion at a property near Harrington Sound could damage a unique ecosystem.

A planning application for Palmetto Gardens, submitted this year, proposed remediation works to address undercutting of the cliff face caused by tides and storms.

However, it has garnered a series of objections and calls for an environmental-impact statement to be prepared, citing concern about the Harrington Sound Notch.

In a letter of objection, the Bermuda Audubon Society said that the notch was a deep undercutting of the rock below the high tide level formed by black date mussels and other rock-boring organisms.

The charity said the area was so unique that in 2004 the Bermuda Government proposed that Harrington Sound and the notch be considered a “Ramsar site”, protected under the Ramsar Convention created to conserve wetlands.

It explained: “According to the Ramsar information sheet prepared by the Bermuda Department of Conservation, it is a ‘globally unique feature and probably supports the greatest species diversity of sponges in the wider Caribbean’.

“This is further reiterated in the monograph, Ecology of Harrington Sound, Bermuda, by Martin L.H. Thomas, which states: ‘There seems to be no other example of a structure like the Harrington Sound Notch anywhere in the world.’

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September 10, 2024 News