Stephanie Schwabe Ph.D,
www.blueholes.org
e-mail: steffi@blueholes.org

The Bahamas comprised of thousands of islands stretches along the coast of Florida and south to the tropic of cancer. An aerial view shows only a small part of the islands, a larger part is submerged and discernible only by the abundance of blue dots onshore and in the shallow water around the islands. The blue holes are entrances to an underwater world wherein biology seems to have slowed down, offering a fascinating view of forgotten species and species rarely seen elsewhere in the world, and of rock formations that tell a story of the ancient subterranean world below the islands. In a sense the cave system is an underground geo-biosphere wherein the peculiar water flow patterns foster a specific, sometimes rich and unusual, fauna and flora that is a treasure for science and a sight for humans to enjoy.

Unfortunately this story is not a happy story about the beauty found within these blue water-filled corridors. This article will not tell you of wonderful scientific discoveries, which could provide a possible cure for cancers and other human ailments. Nor will it offer up clues to life forms, which existed long before humans wandered the earth. No, this article tells of a destructive force that is entering the underworld of the blue holes from the surface, like a cancer, silent and deadly.

The Blue Holes of the Bahamas, particularly on Grand Bahama Island, are being destroyed by development, which is breaking these caves up and also trying, in many cases unsuccessfully, to fill in caves with cement and other rubble. Caves are also being destroyed by industry, which is embarking the Bahamas mainly from the USA and Europe. The practice of the United States in particular, to allow dirty industry to leave its strictly, environmentally regulated borders and to set up their operations outside of the United States, is taking a devastating toll on the environmental health of these host. Countries, which open their boarders to this form of industry, tend to be developing countries, hungry for money and with limited ability and interest in enforcing the few environmental policies they have.

A few of the companies which have now been in operation on Grand Bahama for as long as 30 years have been allowed to pollute, unchecked, the environment surrounding the industrial site, including the ground water which lies only, in many cases, three feet below the surface. The result of this activity has been that diving in the few caves, which are still in tact on the western side of Grand Bahama, is extremely dangerous due to the presence of toxic chemical waste. They are also dangerous because they are very unstable and made more so as a result of the blasting activity going on at the development site of the nearby container port facility.

On Andros Island, the threat to the blue holes is due to industry but rather human refuse. The outer islands do not have any sewage treatment plants nor do they have a regular or reliable garbage pick up. Unlike during passed historical time in the Bahamas, when the native Bahamians, the Lucayans, worshiped blue holes, the care-takers of today's Bahamas see blue holes as places where monsters and other strange creatures live. As a result of their fear of these gateways to the underworld, blue holes have no value to the locals except for the children who on occasion swim in the cool waters. Instead, the blue holes are being used as receptacle for their unwanted items such as old vehicles, garbage, and human waste. The greatest tragedy here is that the majority of locals have no idea that blue holes are the entrances to their only fresh water resource.

Hazard to cave divers in these areas is very serious, something Rob Palmer and several other expedition members learned already in 1987. Unaware of how serious the sewage problem is on Andros, Palmer and his team members entered a cave system to the north of another blue hole located behind a school (School House Blue Hole) in a small township known as the Bluff. Swimming south underground, they found that they were able to exit into School House Blue Hole. Little did they know that they were diving in the township sewer. The result of this dive was that within 24 hours all three team members suffered full-blown septicaemia and, without high doses of antibiotics, which were administered to them by the medical doctor on their team, they would have died. Repeated letters and notifications to central government of this problem have resulted in no improvements.

These cave sites are a part of the 150-kilometre crack, which runs along the eastern side of the entire island of Andros. From the surface the crack is not continues but, from beneath the surface, water finds its way through the entire systems carrying with it diluted human waste. Although pollution is at its highest concentration at the sites of waste input, over time the material does eventually flow through the system. The famous Stargate Blue Hole is not far from some of these hot spots, raising again serious concerns regarding water quality.

Recently Stargate fell victim to a tragedy of human making. In late 1998 I received a phone call from my South Andros informant; a friend who would report to me anything unusual that was happening at blue holes and other related environments. He told me of a blue hole site that had all its surrounding vegetation bulldozed down a few days earlier, with a fair bit of the vegetation burnt and part of the material shoved into the cave system. He was not familiar with the names the Foundation had given many of the blue holes sites, so I was not able to ascertain which hole it was. Twenty-four hours later I was on South Andros at my friend's house picking him and his wife up so that they could take me to this site. As we turned toward the township known as the Bluff, I began to worry. As we turned up the road, which took us to Stargate, my heart stopped. We pulled up to an entrance which now was blocked by two huge piles of gravel. The rest of the surrounding had been stripped of all vegetation. The entrance and immediate surrounding area around Stargate lay fully exposed to the relentless sunshine with the remnants of a formerly pristine forest in various stages of ash and rubble, choking off her once formidable entrance, "the entrance of a thousand lights". Fortunately I was able to stop this project from coming to fruition and even though the vegetation is gone, there will be no parking lot.

As a result of this event, I requested an international diving ban at this site, which almost all divers agreed to acknowledge; except for one dive operation out of Miami. By ignoring the Foundation's request and bringing 12 divers to this site while the ban was still on, this individual undermined years of work and status that the Foundation had acquired working with the locals on Andros. We had actually begun to be recognized and respected as an authority on blue holes on this island. Without this influence we would not have been able to stop the continued destruction of Stargate. This was a great letdown for the Foundation and its efforts to protect blue hole sites. The financial gain of one person won over the protection of dive sites on South Andros Island. This was a particularly thoughtless move on the part of this individual, especially when one considers that there are virtually thousands of other blue holes which could have been visited.

So what can we do to stop the destruction of these sites? Unfortunately, the answer to that question is "not much". In most countries pressure can be put to bear on governments by other countries to clean up their act, but this is usually only possible when the polluting country is a signature along with other countries to environmental polices or conventions, which in this case, the Bahamas are not. All this means is that nothing can be done through litigation. However, there may be ways to put pressure onto the Bahamian government to change things and that is to make the pollution problem public knowledge. This may result in loss of tourism dollars and, hopefully, that would get the attention of the people, especially those which depend on their environment to make a living.

The industrial problem in part is the responsibility of the United States and Europe. These countries need to change their policies concerning the transfer of polluting activities from their companies to developing countries in order to escape the high cost of environmental compliance at their home base.

So the future of blue holes in the Bahamas, especially those on islands where development is a priority, looks grim indeed. Blue Holes Foundation diving on Grand Bahama had to stop in 1999 for safety reasons. At the beginning of 1999, a significant collapse occurred within Lucayan Caverns. The most likely the cause was an increase in heavy vehicle traffic, the shock waves resulting from blasting of limestone for mining purposes. and the use of dynamite for enlarging and deepening of the container port.

Diving on the outer, densely populated island is also a concern. Hydrologically connected cave systems are threatened by dispersion of sewage to various blue holes. For the most part however, isolated blue holes away from local townships are probably safe. Trying to protect blue holes is very difficult primarily because the majority of the population of the world does not dive. They do not understand the importance of these enclaves of ancient biology for science nor can they fathom what irreplaceable treasures are needlessly destroyed. Would one bulldoze a museum because most people do not visit them very often. Or the pyramids; would they make place for a shopping centre because they are only the playgrounds for anthropologist? The blue holes rank with these monuments, would they not be worthy of protection for our use and all that come after us? Unfortunately till that happens, the job of trying to protect these wonderful places is left in the hands of the few who have fallen under the spell of the magical and mystical blue holes of the Bahamas.

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