Major Exuma dive operator says Bahamas 'shooting itself in the foot' with Yntegra's Rosewood project

A dredged channel and seawall for a new fuel dock in North Bay of Sampson Cay would kill the coral reef and seagrass beds that draw divers and snorkellers to the area, a veteran Exuma charter operator told an appeal board, warning that the Rosewood Exuma project threatens both a fragile ecosystem and his livelihood.

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Keiran Miller, who operates dive, snorkel and fishing charters along the length of the Exuma chain, said he visits North Bay frequently and knows the proposed dock site well. He described a cut with a three-quarter-mile coral reef hosting groupers, jacks, eels, eagle rays and the occasional shark, alongside healthy turtle grass that sustains queen conch and protected sea turtles.

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“In my personal opinion, I think it's directly detrimental to my business and my offerings to my guests and visitors,” he said, noting that most Exuma visitors stay several days and expect access to a variety of unspoiled sites. “It seems, quite frankly, asinine to me to put a structure in place to invite more people to visit The Bahamas, and in the very same breath, put in a detriment to the very reason they're coming,” he told the board, describing the move as “shooting yourself in the foot.”

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Miller, who runs Staniel Cay Adventures, testified on September 17 before the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (SDAB), in an action in which Yntegra’s neighbours, Turtlegrass and Over Yonder Cay, are contesting a site plan approval granted to the developer for its proposed project on Sampson Cay. The appellants argue the approval was granted following an improper consultation process  - in which concerned parties like Miller did not have an adequate opportunity to contribute - and therefore the approvals should not stand.

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The North Bay is teeming with sea life because it benefits from near-constant tidal flow, Miller told the board - “approximately 22 to 23 hours” of current a day, reversing roughly every six hours in what he called “a washing machine effect” that feeds nutrients into the ecosystem and flushes sediment back out. 

Dredging a channel for a 120-foot fuel barge and introducing a seawall would disrupt that cycle and cause harm that is “critical, close to and quite likely the death of the ecosystems we are directly referencing, most notably the coral reef.”

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Coral, he told the board, is highly sensitive to physical disturbance, warm water and chemicals, and the machinery and uncontained sediment from dredging would smother reef and seabed alike.

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Yntegra is planning to construct two marinas on the southern end of the island which already have deepwater access and the appellants have argued the developer should put their service dock in that location instead of North Bay. 

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In his testimony, Miller noted that other resorts in the Exumas have their own service docks  actually within their marinas, which handles mega yachts and super yachts “without any hesitation” and has drawn no complaints from owners, guests or crew in his years of firsthand dealings with those vessels.

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Miller also raised navigational and safety concerns about the route proposed to reach Yntegra’s North Bay dock, describing a bottlenecked cut between Over Yonder and Sampson Cay guarded by a well-known submerged rock that locals who know the area call “the Can Opener”, and currents he estimated at “three and a half to about five knots,” compounded by prevailing easterly winds. He said mail boats and larger shipping vessels avoid the route for those reasons.

Miller, who said his company is the largest of roughly a dozen local dive, snorkel and fishing operators in the area, told the board he had seen ongoing development-related activity on Sampson Cay as recently as the preceding Saturday.

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On August 11, Yntegra was ordered by the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection to stop all activity at the site, as the work then underway amounted to development which is prohibited by a mandatory stay due to the ongoing appeal. He also said he understands many of the workers at the site are individuals who would require work permits.

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Miller told the board he had also been denied a fair hearing at the Town Planning Committee’s public consultation meetings on the project, in Black Point and Georgetown.

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“I don't feel like I was given anywhere near an appropriate amount of time,” he said, telling the board he was held to a one-minute limit, interrupted repeatedly and cut off before finishing his remarks and before his time was up - while, by his account, Yntegra's representatives faced no time limit at all and presented at length using visual aids. 

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The Georgetown meeting, he said, was “absolutely chaotic,” with a heavy police presence that blocked residents from having their full say. Asked why he never followed up in writing, Miller said he had trusted the town hall process to do what a letter could not. “Letters, emails, texts, and things of that sort don't have the effectiveness of an in-person meeting,” he said, adding that he had expected a further meeting at which to be heard but this never materialised. Calling the consultation process “flawed,” he said it “does not afford the opportunity that it should represent.”

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Yntegra’s attorney Robert Adams KC objected to Miller's testimony being introduced, arguing that his team had not been given advance notice of it and that it breached the rules of natural justice.

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Attorney for Turtlegrass, Fred Smith KC, rejected that objection, saying the substance of Miller's account had already been disclosed weeks earlier in an affidavit he swore in a related judicial review.

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