The crystalline saltwater flats around the island of Andros, The Bahamas, are filled with lightning-quick bonefish that beguile sport fishers. Vast nurseries of knotty mangroves and seagrass beds shelter baby spiny lobster, snapper and other juvenile fish. Its barrier reef, the world’s third largest, is home to more than 164 species of coral and fish. And the island’s pine forest supports rare birds, including the critically endangered Bahama oriole.
“I can reach outside right now and pluck an avocado,” says Prescott Smith, one of about 8,000 Andros residents. “This place is really a paradise.”
Andros is also where the Bahamas Materials Company has proposed a 5,000 acre limestone mine that could put this precious ecosystem at risk.
Smith, a fly fishing guide and local conservation leader, is one of several Bahamian environmentalists who have been speaking out against the mine. “This will be devastating to fishing,” he says.
Mining for limestone, which is widely used in construction, is a multibillion dollar industry. It has been associated with water contamination and scarcity, soil degradation, air pollution and sinkhole collapses.
In a June 2022 letter to the prime minister, several conservation groups, including Bahamas Sportfishing Conservation Association, Environmental Defense Fund and others detailed their concerns about the potential impacts of the mine on the environment and the 500-plus local jobs that depend on healthy land and seas.
In August, these efforts seemed to pay off. The Bahamas Investment Authority rejected the proposal — a surprising move for an agency created to smooth the way for investors.
But celebrations of the victory could be short-lived. The company has said it will continue to pursue the project, which has other avenues for approval.