Royal Caribbean wants taxpayers to help dredge Key West Harbor (again) so that its largest ships can disgorge thousands more passengers in the Southermost city. Fishing in the Florida Keys brought me to the fight. In my lifetime, beginning in the early 1970s, I witnessed the last of the Everglades ecosystem firing on all cylinders in Florida Bay. Every battle to protect wetlands from development, shoreline from condos, every battle to enforce water quality laws, is a repetition of an outcome that has already been contested. Should Key West channels be dredged to advance the profit motive of a few corporations? No. No. No.
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Should we let the Port of Miami Deep Dredge Biscayne Bay and destory acres of seagrass and coral reefs so the world's largest freighter ships can theoretically (Because no shipping company has committed to to do this yet) dock in Miami. No. No. No. Yet that is what is going to happen this summer when the Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to start blasting and dredging the channel from off shore of Miami Beach through the state-designed Critical Wildlife Area between Virginia Key and Fisher Island.
With so much environmental devastation (we're donw to 2 percent of Caribbean Coral Reefs left), can we afford to destroy more? Apparently so.
Key West of course is a disaster waiting to happen - hurricanes and sea level rise in our kids lifetime will lay the place to waste. and of course huge amounts of public money will be spent to try to repair/restore the mess that will be created.
it's time to start abandoning Key West not spend more public funds there on such silly projects.
Not only is this dredging project up for referendum in the City of Key West but the commissioners in unincorporated Monroe County will vote on a Comprehensive Plan amendment that will allow dredging of private channels with seagrass and other benthic resources in April. The private developer's consultant wrote the language of the amendment. The county staff estimate that there may be as many as 200 others who would be able to utilize this amendment and dredge in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Take a look at the proposed dredge site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BdSps5Bunbw
It is a beautiful seagrass meadow. Monroe County Commissioners need to vote NO on this amendment in April, and the City of Key West residents need to vote against the Shipping Channel dredge proposal.
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