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In my previous blog, I wrote about the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park and the valiant efforts of the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust to protect and conserve them. In this blog, I’d like to profile Montego Bay Marine Park and the remarkable group of volunteers who have dedicated themselves to its protection and restoration.

Just over two weeks ago, while passing through Montego Bay, I was invited to explore the marine park with Andrew Ross, a fellow British Columbian, and his friend, Brian Zane, who hails from the Southern US. No sooner where we on the water, bouncing over the chop stirred up by a stiff breeze, when we encountered a local spearfisherman well inside the park boundaries. Pulling alongside, Andrew asked the fellow if he had any luck. With a big grin, he showed off a string of 6 or so fish. Andrew then informed him that he was inside the marine park which was closed to spearfishing and asked him to leave the area. At first the fisherman appeared reluctant to do so, but as I got my camera and began taking pictures, he swam off hastily.

Andrew explained that Montego Bay has been pretty much cleaned out of fish and as much as he and the Montego Bay Marine Park organization, an non-government organization given responsibility for the management of these waters, would like to re-build the populations, they were fighting an uphill battle with the local fisherman, most of whom are concerned more about their own immediate survival than that of the fish.

Elsewhere we passed over a coral shelf that had been ripped apart by dredging to enable large freighters and soon to come, cruise ships, to gain entry into the harbour. Above the bay, Brian pointed out where a crude sewage treatment plant stood that was frequently overwhelmed by the residential and commercial load placed on it, resulting in its operators sometimes purposefully dumping the excess directly into the bay. Andrew and Brian have taken their protests to Jamaican government authorities by phone, e-mail and direct face-to-face lobbying, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

Rounding a corner in the bay, we entered a quiet lagoon, one side partially surrounded by million dollar homes. Many of these are built almost to the water’s edge and to obtain the million dollar views, the developers have either trimmed the mangroves or completely removed them, thus destroying valuable habitat. Elsewhere, patches of mangrove lay broken and in shambles from where fisherman and other boat owners would run their craft in among the thick tangle to protect them during hurricanes.

The Montego Bay Marine Park Organization receives next to no support from the Jamaican government and so it is a miracle that they’ve been able to retain and train two rangers who strive to patrol the park as best as they can. The organization operates on a shoe-string budget eked out from various project-specific grants. The rangers face significant challenges as the Jamaican government, as was the case in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, appears unwilling to give them clear and unambiguous authority to enforce various pieces of existing legislation which could be used to protect the marine park.

Here is another organization worthy of support.

Go to http://www.mbmp.org/ to learn more about this special place.