Bracker aims to rescue wetlands

| 24/04/2009

(CNS): As fish start to die in the dried up wetlands on Cayman Brac, a concerned Bracker is using his own funds to pump oxygenated sea water into Salt Water Pond, which he claims will save the creatures living in it. Percy Whorms says he has counted 16 dead tarpon in the Westerly Ponds, opposite the old Divi Tiara Beach Resort, where water levels are very low and in some places has disappeared altogether. Now, with Cabinet’s permission, he is hoping to keep wetland creatures alive by keeping water levels up during dry season.

Whorms has put two pipes under the road in front of the Coral Isle Club on the South Side. A 6-inch pipe with an oxygen vent, attached to four 2-inch high pressure lines, links the ocean to the pond via a high pressure pump, which can fill the pond with 1,000 gallons per minute. A second 16-inch pipe acts as a storm drain in times of storm or flooding.

Whorms says can remember when there was surface access and underground holes connecting the ponds to the ocean which have become blocked due to human activity and development. “We’re the ones who did this and we’re the ones who must clear it up,” he told CNS.

While his efforts have Cabinet approval, the initiative was not recommended by the Department of Environment Director. As Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie explained, Salt Water Pond was created as an Animal Sanctuary in 1980 under the Animals Law and is the only one on Cayman Brac, encompassing some 15 acres.

“The Animals Law makes it an offence to disturb any natural feature or any vegetable or animal life so the DoE was not in a position to support the proposal. However, the Animals Law does permit Cabinet to grant exemptions under the Law (including allowance to disturb a natural feature) for purposes of conservation or for scientific, historic or educational purposes or for the purpose of protecting human life or aircraft operations. It is the Department’s position that adding water to the pond in order to facilitate development or promote human comfort in the vicinity does not satisfy the listed criteria for an exemption," she said.

According to Whorms Salt Water Pond, which lies behind the new Alexander Hotel, has two small 3-foot tarpons in the pond, as well as mullets, grunts, mangrove snappers, shads, juvenile angel fish and sergeant majors, and blue crabs (also known as sea cutters) that are 6 inches across the back and 15 inches claw to claw, the largest he has ever seen. He believes a waterfall in the pond may be the most desirable thing to oxygenate the pond and keep it clean and clear. “It would give the animals a much better habitat than they have now,” he said. (Left: dead tarpon float on Westerly Ponds)

Whorms began pumping at the beginning of April, as soon as he had government permission, and pumped for ten days and nights straight, with just two 12-hour breaks to service the pump. He said that at this time of year he would like to be able to do the same thing for all the ponds in the Cayman Islands. “In my youth, the ponds never used to stink because there was flow going in and out,” he said, adding that he felt guilty because he helped build the roads, knowing that this would have a detrimental effect on the environment. “But the powers that be wouldn’t listen and now we’re paying the price.”

Right now, Whorms has run out of money to continue and wants all the stakeholders to contribute funds to make the project viable and sustainable.

However, Ebanks-Petrie says the underlying problem is the lack of legislation that protects environmental resources – even existing protected areas. "A central issue is that, since its designation as an Animal Sanctuary in 1980, physical development has been approved right up to the boundary of the pond with no apparent consideration for the impact of the development on the protected area or the compatibility of each with the other. In the absence of any legislation requiring the impact of development on protected areas to be considered in the planning process this type of situation will continue," she said.

Category: Science and Nature

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Dear Idiot who confirms he knows nothing,


    Your short response has proven once again that you have no knowledge of the local environment.  Instead of wasting any more time on you, I will state once again, Stay in Cayman and deal with your multitude of problems!

    D.T.  Let me get this right… the Buccaneer hotel that opened in 1954 and had no tourists staying in it for 19 years???  You are right in the modern tourism area but I did not speak in regards to which type of tourism market, merely that there were tourists here for the past 50 years.  I am still therefore correct and accurate.

    I think we may be working along the same lines because I too agree with a long term plan for development.  I don’t agree with making Salt Water Pond an anchorage though.  I think we should utilize the quarry and have a safe harbor for large boats and a docking station for cruise ship tenders.  Maybe we’ll have an elected official who will work towards this over the next few years to make sure we have long term growth. 

    It is important that you also realize who this story is from.  Mr. Whorms!!! I’m not going to elaborate but I don’t think you should blame anyone for it because his name is the only one in there (other than government environmentalist).  It is quite possible and plausible that he told this to CNS an they printed it as such. 

    Don’t be so sure that any business person or politician had anything to do with this ploy.

    Peace!!!

     

    • D.T. says:

      Thanks, neighbor!

      Realistically, tourism before 1973 was extremely small on the Brac.  And while it grew in the 70s and 80s, what most don’t necessarily realize is that the Brac peaked as a tourist destination in the mid-1990s: the decline that followed was due to a combination of external competition and internal stagnation.  Longer term, there’s still Cuba on the horizon as competition for all of Cayman … its only a matter of time until it opens up fully to Amercians. 

      We do need a long term development plan, and we need it started a year ago.  Its specfiics such as the Salt Pond vs. somewhere else (the west Quarry) can be debated in due course.  In the bigger picture, I don’t personally think that an inland anchorage is that critical while we have waterfront real estate that’s going to waste – the old Buccaneer and Divi hotels are the prime examples.   

      However, what’s not as obvious but also critially missing from the development planning is a good long term governmentpartnership in the form of tourism-friendly regulations. 

      The only way to encourage outside investments, such as timeshares and condos, is to positively prevent a repeat of the "Indies Suites" rip-off from Ivan, which means that government consumer protection laws are necessary.  

      The current reguatory structure chases after the short term quick buck – and that’s how we end up hurting ourselves in the long run.   We should have learned our lesson with Ivan, but even now after Paloma, consider how down at the West End we have a mess of unrepaired condos that are an eyesore and going to waste.

      Ask yourself how those existing properties are going to get fixed up and returned to service – – and keep in mind that the ones I’m talking about were all effectively sold as being managed properties where the management company promised the buyer that the room would be available for them to use – – but because of a failure to rebuild, they’re not delivering what they promised.  

      This is now hurting the Brac, in more than one way:  

      First, because those rooms haven’t been all repaired for those repeat vistors to try to come back to the Brac.   This is a loss of repeat customers who would normally continue to visit even during economic downturns (which is when we need them the most). 

      Second, the people whose rooms are sitting rotting tell all their friends:  "Don’t buy in the Caymans, because the government lets the building managers totally rip you off."   

      And while on Grand Cayman they struggle with similar issues, they’re in for a much bigger bag of hurt than they realize:  sure, Cruise Ship visitors help Government coffers and a few big-time merchants, but the average guy merely sees the mess of excessive traffic and garbage. 

      For stay-over visitors, Cayman believes that they can escape upscale, but have forgotten two important facts.  First, an upscale visitor turns up his nose at anyplace that lets the cruise ship riff-raff in.  Second, that you can create "white glove" service anywhere, so that’s not a unique prouct – its a niche that already has a lot of very well established competition. 

      Historically, what has been Cayman’s attraction has been the reefs for scuba diving, and to make money from scuba diving, you have to bring in divers.   Sure, there are "High End" scuba divers, but there’re very few of them and they’ll only visit once because they’re then off to experience diving in the Red Sea, Australia, the South Pacific, and other destinations that are significantly more exotic than anything found anywhere in the Caribbean.  This means that the divers who will be your repeat guests will be the ones who aren’t "high end", but the ones who can afford to only travel to the Caribbean.  

      Before we can sell to others, we have to really know and understand our own product.   The primary competition to Cayman is Cozumel, so we should think long and hard about what makes us different and better. 

      D.T.

  2. D.T. says:

    To ‘Donkey Year’ bickering Braccer,

    I think that you missed my point:  the current facade is that this water pumping is to "HELP" the environment.   This claim is utter rubbish.  

    We all know that this is merely one step to try to "commercialize" the Salt Pond and hopefully build jobs for our youth … and we do need that ..!

    My criticism isn’t this commercialization effort, but that the storey that they’re spinning is merely an elaborate dance to develop business hidden by the lie that’s needed to sidestep the existing Environmental laws that have the pond has a desginated protected area.  

    And its not like the Brac has never before destroyed areas of the environement when it suit’s someone’s buisness development, so let’s simply be honest and admit that this is what’s happening here … AGAIN!

    And if it means that we bulldoze all areas for Nature right off the island, then we do that with our eyes wide open for what we’re doing, rather than to fool to ourselves that its not happening because we’re only doing it piecemeal, one acre at a time. 

    If we value keeping Nature as part of our island, then let’s step up and say that, so that we can then sit down and discuss how much nature we’re going to sacrifice jobs in order to support and vice versa, how much we’re going to ask nature to sacrifice so as to give us jobs. 

    Personally, I can easily see making the Salt Pond into a small anchorage (and I do like the idea of a drawbridge for making something for tourists to take pictures of), with the caveat that we don’t really need to destroy all 14 acres of the pond:   4-5 acres should be enough room for a beach and a couple of fishing & diveboats, and this means that the other 10 can be set aside to develop as a natural mangrove area, which will provide habitat for little critters to grow up that will help maintain healthy fish populations out on the reef, as well as some tourist kayaking.  This seems a reasonable balance to me, but it starts with everying daring to tell the truth for what they want to do, and where they’re willing to have some give-and-take.  

    If we don’t do this upfront with a long term sustainable plan, we’re going to end up with the Brac being torn apart and carved up just like Grand, with empty canals with big houses along them that sit empty most of the time, which doesn’t benefit the day-to-day economy.  The only personwho benefitted from that development was the builder, and for him it was only a one-shot that’s now over.   We don’t have an infinite amount of virgin land to constantly bulldoze and build new, and even if we did, what’s the real benefit to the Brac of being the host to 5,000 empty homes?  Do we really want our kids to grow up to find that the only jobs on the islands are to be servents who maintain empty houses? 

    And FYI, on them old donkey years, me thinks that it was a tad hard to scare off tourists some 50 years ago, since that would mostly have just been Charley Briggs and Walter Godfrey.  

    Modern tourism didn’t happen until after the original 1955 runway was extended in 1972, with Red Carpet Airlines starting in 1973 (35 years ago) because LACSA’s Cayman Brac Airways wasn’t really doing all that well.   And keeping on topic, let’s not forget that the 1972 airstrip construction altered the westerly ponds…but at least back then, we were able to admit that we weren’t putting in a bigger airstrip to help the little fishies! 

    D.T. 

  3. Anonymous says:

    In response to "Dear Idiot who thinks..". Thank you for answering my questions so honestly. "No" you don’t know what effect the seawater has on the pond life, and "no" you don’t know what the Law is either. It must be very frustrating for you to have so much emotion and so little knowledge.

     

  4. Merle McGann (nee Whorms) says:

    Agh bickering!   Shame on you!  Shame on you!  You know what happened here?  FEAR knocked on the door!  FAITH answered,  and ……. there was NO ONE THERE! 

    Brackers tell me they are very happy!

  5. Anonymous says:

    Dear Idiot who thinks he knows all,

    Are you sure I am not an scientist?  Do  you know whether I have done studies?  The answer to both questions is NO.  So please get off your high horse or whatever you’re riding on and HUSH!!!

    Tell me something… what makes an environmentalist a specialist in my islands?  Is it because they have a college degree in biology? or even marine biology?   How does he or she know what works best for the ecology of the pond, or even the island.  Let me guess, they have done controlled, decade long studies right???  NOT EVEN A CHANCE.

    So now, lets get real.  The pond is an annoyance to everyone at best and certainly the birds and other sea life in there can adapt or move to the next pond over.  However, the seeminly immobile coors fish and bud shanny’s will have a hard time relocating.  Maybe they can hitch a ride on the mighty henieken.  Also, from time to time we have sightings of the small red stripes that pop up.

    That being said, let me use your own medicine for your terminal illness (stupidity) how many of the law makers that passed this law into being were Cayman Brac environmentalist?  NONE!!!  So please don’t tell me what is best for my island.

    Educating myself… been there, done that, still do it.  It’s a life long process!!!  Certainly higher qualified than you will ever be.  All of those papers though are irrelevant here because in this case the only qualification that matters is that I am a Bracker and you are not!  Who are you to say what will destroy a stink pond?  Tell you what… go crawl under your sanctuaried rock in some other pond!

    For over 50 years that pond has been stinking every tourist out who visits during tourist season.   But it was ok for Dart to tear up the mangroves?  It is so funny how when Cayman wants something it’s ok but for the Brac to do it, "it’s destroying the environment."  STAY IN CAYMAN.  Let the Brac decide what it wants.  If you want to do something about it try to sit on the DCB.  Otherwise… see opening line.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Dear "Stop All This Bickering"

    If you honestly, and I mean honestly, think that you and everyone else has a better idea about what is best for the pond environmentally than the Department of the Environment, that really beggars the question why highly qualified people know less about this sort of thing than you (… and everyone else). I guess there are two possible answers to this mystery, either, you are right, and the "so called environmentalists" know less about their area of expertise than the man in the street, OR, alternatively, could it simply be that they know what they are talking about, and you are just plain ignorant? I am glad you have stated that "it is not destroying the pond" – do you have any evidence to support your "facts" or did you just make it up? Do you even know what the Law says about what you can and can’t do in an Animal Sanctuary? If the answer to either of these questions is, perhaps, "no", maybe you should go educate yourself.

     

  7. Anonymous says:

    All of this bickering is really rediculous.  Talking about young people and this and that.  Let’s stop being foolish.  How would you expect to provide for the youth on a long term basis without sustainable income?  Putting a one time sum to youth and job creation is as stupid as giving a person a fish and saying, here, live on this.

    PPM’s wreckless spending?   How would you make money?  Out of thin air?  You have to spend money!!!

    I hope it is a political trick.  At least it proves which politicians can get things done.

    Salt Water Pond!!! – D.T.  You have NOOOOO clue what you are talking about.  These ponds have been doing this for donkey years… long before any drains were even thought of.  I say we need to stop letting so called environmentalist tell us what they want to do and do what it takes to make something out of nothing.  It’s not destroying the pondand I would love for someone to tell me what good it does there other than harbor 5 million empty beer bottles and stink to the highest heavens.

  8. Anonymous says:

    When will this wildlife ever stop, I ask??? Wildlife all over 15 acres of prime marina land… who does this wildlife think it is… dragging down the tone of the place and making smells! This pond is not sea water – it is not fresh water – it is brackish water – commonly regarded to be the most worthless sort of pond in the whole world. Sillywater pond I call it. It gets saltier as it dries up and fresher when it rains. I for one think it should make up its mind. Thank goodness we all know better than dead-beat Mother Nature on this one, and there is a man with a big pump and stuff, so now it can be just like the sea, only smaller and with a drawbridge, and I am sure everything will turn out just great… and we will get lots more tourists too.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Shouldn’t Percy be filling it with fresh water? I’m no scientist, but I would have thought that when the old water evaporated, the salt would be left behind… in which case pumping more salt water into the pond will make extremely salty… which may end up killing the fish anyway.

    Just a thought…

    • Anonymous says:

      Filling the Pond with fresh water would probably be preferable, however maybe you could indicate where the fresh water would come from for that purpose.

      The best disinfectant is sunlight followed closely by salt, therefore if the stench at the pond is bacterial fresh water would only make it worse anyway. Fresh water by itself has very low disinfecting qualities and usually require some added chemistry to make it effective.

      • Anonymous says:

        Hello Hello Hello

        ITS CALLED SALT WATER POND FOR A REASON – certainly not because it contains fresh water!!!!!!!!!!!!

  10. D.T. says:

    Its business in disguise.

    The low water levels in Westerly ponds have been occurring annually ever since flood drains were installed at the western tip a few years ago. 

    Before these drains existed, there wasn’t  a major dry season problem, but in the wet season, there was flooding up at the low-lying apartments across from Brac Caribbean.  This was a man-made intervention that was done to benefit development, not the environment.  

    Thus, in the very words of Mr. Whorms,  “We’re the ones who did this and we’re the ones who must clear it up,” if we’re going to be honest to this environmental principle, we’re going to have to go close those man-made drains on the Westerly Ponds and allow those apartments’ lands to be partially flooded every rainy season.  Similarly, the picnic table that’s on the landfill that was dumped where there used to be mangrove:  its got to go too – – its time to give the environment back its land.

    Now I know that some folks will protest that the drains shouldn’t be completely closed.  Fair enough:  most of the problem here could be solved simply by better management of the existing drains, by not letting them drain down, so as to hold in more water as the rainy season ends so that there’s more water to make it through the dry season. 

    In any event, since the Westerly Ponds haven’t been effectively connected to the Salt Water Pond behind Coral Isle, the environmental situation at Salt Pond hasn’t  really changed over the past 20+ years that I can recall:  what has changed is the business and politics of development: 

    Nothing against Dilbert and his hotel, but is is plain to see that the annual dry season’s smell isn’t an appealing feature.   Thus, we’ve all hear various proposals to change the Salt Pond environment, up to and including dynamiting it open to the sea to make it into a navigable protected anchorage, and re-routing the southside road to run along the back. 

    Personally, I would have recommended keeping the road in place and putting in a drawbridge – it would have more "Tourist Appeal". 

    We can debate the pros/cons of the environmental impact of such an action, but what I do not appreciate is being told that the first steps towards exactly this are being done supposedly as a conservation effort.

    As such, my recommendation would be to shut the pump off – – not because its not a good idea to terraform the Salt Pond into something more business-friendly, but for the simple reason that we’re unable to admit that this is really part of a business plan and Nature simply is in our way. 

    After the proponents are honest enough to admit that this is for business development, not the enviroment … then we can decide if this change to the environment is acceptable, yes or no. 

     

    D.T.

  11. Bracker says:

    I don’t know about this being politically motivated.  He’s not running for office.

    However, The Alexander Hotel was suposed to do this anyway.  At least that’s what I heard from the time that they started building.

    As for the wires, he’s doing a great job.  Percy has his faults but do we need to criticize people for everything?  After all we can count on her one hand how mant people really do anything to help.

    AS for PWD, why should they get paid at all.  Most take their 3:00pm break and never go back to work.  Go to the liqour store and be drinking on the job or are already drunk when they get to work and/or have a hangover from the night before.

    If you want a list, I would watch them a few days but you see I actually have to work so I don’t have the time to do that.  The Grand Cayman PWD came to the Brac and did a job in three hours that the Brac PWD would take two days. 

    The supervisors, I must agree need to make some changes.  Jobs need to be completed in a certain time frame before pulling them away to start another job.  I could gop onm but I would say better communication would help and maybe motivate the men.  They need to see the big picture.

  12. Anonymous says:

    I don’t think this is politically motivated but I do know that Alexander Hotel had planned on digging under the road and allowing the water to go through from the sea.  "It was to be kept at a certain level to keep down the stink."  Therefore I am a little confused about Percy’s part in this.

    However, he is doing a great job picking up the wires around the island.  It is not thrown all over the place like another poster said.  I saw it in coils.  It looked neat not orderly.

  13. Anonymous says:

    After Election,

    Let’s see how long after election this issue stays alive – probably just long enough to get the water fountain for the new hotel.  The money spent on this project would be much better spent on the young people of Cayman Brac – especially those who are graduating and due to PPM’s wreckless fiscal policies find themselves with little prospects of any sort of jobs. 

    Recycling – wouldn’t some of the wiring need to have the protective casing removed prior to shipping away for recycling?  Did Cabinet get this machine yet for Mr. Percy?  Find it hard to believe that  a profit can be made from this project- when just a few short years ago I remember seeing a story that recycling in the Cayman Islands costs 13 times more than the product itself. All you experts can do the research – prove me wrong.

    Hey CNS how about some real stories that affect us all:

    Piped water/Paving of Main Road/Audit of PPM Government Financial Records/Creation of jobs for young Caymanians/training-internships for young Caymanians/Why PWD from Grand Cayman who are here get put up in a hotel/have rental vehicles and get paid overtime, yet District Administration refuses to pay PWD workers from Cayman Brac for overtime  instead they are offered time back (talk about a morale booster!!!)/the need for a second garbage truck and more staff at DEH (do your research ask the gentleman in charge of DEH here how much overtime$ has been put out since Paloma)/

    Sign me,

    Hey UDP, PPM and IND talk about the issues and explain where all the funding is coming from. It is nice that you are having community get togethers, but talk about the issues, distribute your manifestos and I challenge you to conduct a campaign without mudslinging (don’t tell me why the other candidate is so bad, tell me why you are so good – cause if we all dig a little deeper we can find plenty of stuff from your past that God would not be proud of)

     

  14. Anonymous says:

    Blah Blah Blah.  Percy is doing a great job.  Let us, as an island, continue to promote our own in making our island the product it should be.  I commend Percy on his efforts and would like to think that this is only the first of many of these projects that will help us set up an environment that is condusive to tourism growth and nature preservation.

    Way to go!!!!

    Anyone who doesn’t support it should go and see the difference it has made. 

  15. Percy's sister says:

    I would just like to ask "Sick of Politically motivated stories", would you have the courage to show the people of the Cayman Islands, and indeed the people of Cayman Brac, what you are doing to preserve the nature of the Cayman Islands, and its people who are natural fishers of men? Soon we will begin to save our minds and intelligence! What will you say about our spirituality in that? Well done my brother! Well done indeed! It is common knowledge that you concieved and started this some time ago, after Paloma, and out of your own funds Now here’s another Whorms thought/suggestion. If the people gave you all their pennies in treasury for this project…..how would XXXXXXXXXXX pay his next parking fine? Pennies=dimes=quarters=dollars= aha= lookCI$ pennies from heaven! Now is that political motivation or just plain genius? What did you say the account number is?

    • Kurt's cousin says:

      The mind is like a garden.  You can either cultivate and grow beautiful roses, or …….you can grow weeds?  What are YOU growing?

  16. Anonymous says:

    Ignore those who critisize you Mr. Percy. Perhaps they would prefer to see the old wire strewn all over the island rather than in a pile awaiting recycling.

    Your brother recycled the wiring from Hurricane Ivan on Grand Cayman. That left Grand Cayman clean.

    You are simply doing the same for the Brac.

  17. Anonymous says:

    The Cayman Brac Northside Landfill is a Recycling effort by Mr. Percy encouraged by his older brother who recycled most of the old wiring from Hurricane Ivan on Grand Cayman.

    To those who criticise: Did the wiring look better strewn all over the island or in a pile awaiting final cleanup and recycling. Your time could better be served by lending a hand to clean up the wiring instead of critisizing. Or do your  critisizim have a Political motive.

    Ignore theose naysayers and jokers and keep up the good work Mr. Percy.

  18. Anonymous says:

     I am a bit confused by the problem here. If the tarpon are dying in the Westerly Ponds across from Divi Tiara then why is the water being pumped into Salt Water Pond, which does not seem to be drying up and does not have dead fish? If the pumping is to save fish then why not put the pump where the fish are dying? Or is this really a case of pumping to create an amenity for the new hotel and not really a conservation effort?

  19. Anonymous says:

    Great article. Gives us all hope to know that there are still people out there willing to act alone for what is right. Would appreciate if the a/c# for donations was provided so that this very important work can continue.

  20. Anonymous says:

    Good job Percy! We all appreciate your efforts and hopefully the Gov’t will see that the people want to see a difference!!

  21. Anonymous says:

    It has been a long time coming.  Thank God someone did something about it.

    Mr. Whorms is an excellent source for inovative and creative ideas and workmanship.

    WELL DONE!

  22. Anonymous says:

    When will they ever learn?

    When will they ever learn?

    An old but forever true line.

    Here we go again, as Ms. Ebanks-Petrie said "In the absence of any legislation requiring the impact of development on protected areas to be considered in the planning process this type of situation will continue,"

    Percy, the best thing you can do for all things natural is to convince the people of Cayman Brac to take the lead to demand a strong National Conservation Law and the drafting of the first Cayman Islands Development Plan. 

    It is also important that you ensure that the Cayman Brac powers controlling development are not allowed to keep Cayman Brac exempt from these laws, so that they can continue to destroy your beautiful Cayman Brac and Little Cayman for $$$ for the few.

    Let the "Sisters" lead the big stubborn nature destroying bulling "Big Brother" Grand Cayman in protecting the Cayman Islands into the necessary nature protection path, so needed to protect our economy and lifestyle.

    One person can make a difference, that is the way it has always been, all it takes is one with the vision and determination to do good.

    Good work Percy – you are the ONE!

     

    • Merle McGann (nee Whorms) says:

      The "sisters" have led!  Who can deny the progress; the development of the Cayman Islands, indeed "big", " bullying", " brother", by the ‘sisters’?  Nobody!  Whether "sisters" is defined as the Caymanian female, or the Sister Islands;  there IS no denial!  As one family, brothers and sisters, the people of the Cayman Islands have overcome just about all obstacles put in our way. We still remember when…….we come together.

      The one obstacle we haven’t overcome is OURSELVES !  Now we are exhausted, and the world says we are a very resiliant people. "Academic but  not business oriented", when we don’t know how to do it ourselves, we find those who do know!  Unfortunately these days we have internalized the help we decided on, to silence ourselves!  

      Power lies only in decision!  And, obstacles are what we see when we take your eyes off our goal!  Hold strong, as always, to that which is RIGHT!  Don’t just suggest, place the application before yourself!  Interview yourself, and decide if you are qualified, and the best man for the job.   

      Yes, "You are the ONE" !  Only YOU can make the difference!

      Which one of the most worthy things can you do today?   And when would NOW be a good time to start?

       

       

  23. annony says:

    So let me get this straight, Its ok to watch the fish and other animals die, and its against to law to help?  I thought the DOE was to help protectwildlife and environment. Not kick against someone that is trying to help. Especially if humans are the cause of the problem in the first place. I agree put a waterfall or a pond pump they have the solar ones that are not that expensive.

    Unbelievable from the DOE.

  24. Richard Large says:

    Vote for Percy!

  25. Anonymous says:

    What a coincedence,

    Amazing timing on the Pond story.  PPM just one month prior to election is allowing one of Moses’ committee members to do something environmentally friendly.  Guess it is just another coincedence that this is adjacent to the new hotel.  Please CNS do another story on how Mr. Percy is collecting up all the old wiring on Cayman Brac for recycling!  PPM cleaned up Mr. Percy’s land some time back and now it is back as the north side garbage dump – not quite as bad as Western Auto (Troy’s garage) but close.

    Signed,

    Sick of Politically motivated stories!

     

  26. Anonymous says:

    "It is the Department’s position that adding water to the pond in order to facilitate development or promote human comfort in the vicinity does not satisfy the listed criteria for an exemption".

    So, does that mean the Government broke the Animals Law? 

    Who is responsible for making sure that the Government obeys the Law?

  27. A YOUNG CAYMANIAN!! says:

     

    GOOD WORK MR WHORMS!!!!  I APPLAUD YOU!
  28. Anonymous says:

    Way to go Percy!

    Certainly an amicable effort for the Islands!

    I am sure we can all learn the lesson that you can make a real difference!

    Thank you!