Help Protect Bahamian Waters

By Ann Colley

The Moore Bahamas Foundation, the Bahamas affiliate of The Moore Charitable Foundation, is a strong supporter of the Our Islands, Our Future coalition to stop offshore oil drilling in The Bahamas.

At the moment, a drillship is waiting in the Canary Islands, ready to be deployed as soon as December 15 to commence drilling off the coast of the Bahamas in one of the last wild places in the Caribbean.

The first drilling target by the Bahamas Petroleum Company threatens some of the most important ocean wilderness in the Caribbean — off western Andros Island, just outside the ecologically important Cay Sal Marine Managed Area and the Andros West Side National Park. This area is a marine mammal hot spot filled with dolphins and other marine life, and it borders the important commercial fishing grounds of the Great Bahama Bank and the world-famous bonefishing flats of Andros.

Like with BP Deepwater Horizon, a single oil disaster would not only devastate these Marine Protected Areas, but could destroy the country’s tourism economy — estimated by the Government of The Bahamas to be 50 percent of its national GDP — as well as cause extreme damage to Florida and up the East Coast of the United States.

What can you do?

Our Islands, Our Future, formed with the support of Moore Bahamas, Bloomberg’s Vibrant Oceans Initiative and Oceans 5, is calling on the public to oppose this short-sighted plan to drill in the off the Bahamian coast.

Sign on to an opposition letter by November 10, 2020. The text of the letter is here.

Sign the Our Islands, Our Future Change.org petition.

Please share these links on social media to encourage others to help stop this travesty before it happens!