Safety in Tobago's Tourism Product

By wildgirl -

Dr Anjani Ganase, marine scientist, discusses core elements for Tobago’s tourism product

Buccoo beach is a beautiful stretch of coast - unmarred by concrete buildings - on the edge of Tobago’s 50-year designated marine park.  The beach begins west of the Buccoo Fishing Facility and is buttressed by a mangrove forest that protects the shore and provides shelter. The path parallel to the beach offers picturesque views of the wild mangroves on one side and beach and ocean on the other. Moving west along Buccoo Bay, you will arrive in the Marine Park, protected under national legislation. Indeed, all of the mangrove wetland is a Ramsar site, designated for their significant biodiversity, ecology and ecosystem services. Local obligations for Ramsar sites are management, monitoring for wise use.

 

Competing interests: horses, boats and beach bathers in the same space at Buccoo Bay. Photo by Anjani Ganase

Beach Day at Buccoo

A family heads to Buccoo Bay for a day at the beach, which attracts more local visitors during the summer vacation. You arrive to cars parked among the back beach vegetation, but also tucked under the trees are vendors. It’s a shared space that gets pretty tight on the weekends and holidays with one way in and one way out. Cars compete with pedestrians and on occasion horses. You can stroll along a foot path that leads to a lookout area at the end of the beach, but speeding ATVs force walkers to jump out of the way.

The family finds a cool spot on the beach, with chair rentals to “plonk down” within the bathing area which is cordoned off by a buoy line. Within the swimming area is a floating water park and boats randomly moored or picking up passengers, and speeding jet skis. The buoy line should be a clear demarcation of safe areas for the beach bathers. But it seems that bathers still have to look out for boats. Safe boat practices are not evident, including operating at “no wake” speeds to avoid collisions or to minimise impacts to swimmers, shorelines and environmentally sensitive areas. 

A few feet away from the floating water park and the buoy line, boats and jet skis zoom around the edge at top speeds. The wake destabilises the inflatable park, pushing participants into the water, children get pushed under the inflatable devices if not for observant parents and attendants.

Moving fishing boat creates a wake close to the water park. Photo by Anjani Ganase

 

Here come the horses!

The charity that rescues horses and promotes therapeutic interactions with people brings riders on horseback to the beach. They enter the water among the bathers. This is intended to bring people and animals closer. But to no one’s surprise the horses relieve themselves in the water as they walk among the bathers. This is too much for the visiting family, with risks ranging from ear infections to collision by boat or ATVs. They pack up and leave. 

Many of these “at your own risk” experiences in Buccoo Bay can also be experienced at Pigeon Point, Store Bay, and many beaches around Tobago and Trinidad. Pigeon Point is also in the heart of the marine park with a designated bathing area cordoned off by floating buoys. Again, there is no recommended idling speed for the passage of boats through the natural channel that runs close to the bathing area. Beach goers contend with the wake of the boats and jet skis that frequent the channel, with children and toddlers swimming in the shallows. In the typical Trini style, we say we are tolerant … until something bad happens. However, Pigeon Point, Buccoo Bay, Charlotteville, Down De Islands have had tragic incidents of boat strikes and drownings. In 2023, and 2018 jet ski accidents where the skis hit the reef in Buccoo led to deaths. Between 2011 and 2022, four people drowned in the area, and two people were hit by a boat in Pigeon Point in 2007.

I witnessed first hand, fishing boats moving at high speed on nearshore reefs of Charlotteville, where snorkellers commonly explore. One boat in Charlotteville zoomed by two children kayaking close to shore, causing them to topple over. They didn’t have life jackets, but thankfully they could swim. The statistics of near misses and close calls for boat collisions, I’m sure is much higher, but not reported.

All the activities provided at Buccoo Bay and Pigeon Point in the Marine Park are aimed to serve the tourism industry, but each activity conflicts with others, and put visitors’ safety and the environment at risk. There must be coordination. An easy solution would be to plan activities in different areas and to create buffer zones. Safety of all users should be paramount, and should indicate no wake zones for boats, and slow speeds on ATVs when in shared spaces. A floating buoy line without clear safety regulations is not an effective solution. Boat drivers must be responsible for the safety of those around them, including swimmers, kayakers, stand up paddlers operating in the shared space without a powered vessel. Furthermore, natural spaces need to be fully protected and restricted to all direct and indirect human activities in order for us to benefit.

The mangrove forest at Buccoo provides coastline protection. Photo by Anjani Ganase

 

Tobago’s Foremost Marine Protected Area

Buccoo Reef Marine Park may be a multi-use recreational space but it is first and foremost a marine protected area with environmental goals and implications. I choose Buccoo Reef Marine Park as the example, since it is supposed to be the best regulated marine area, protected by law, and should serve as the model for other protected areas in Trinidad and Tobago. While the bill for the current management plan is yet to be passed, the current law dictates that all activities in the MPA can be regulated. This is the responsibility of the Tobago House of Assembly. Management of marine protected areas, especially for tourism use must include vessel safety requirements, licences for operation, permits to access park areas, waste disposal, operational park hours, environmental protection, prohibited activities among other sustainable practices. Safe practices must be shared with communities and supervised; there are many employment opportunities in well-managed park practices. Sustainable planning for marine areas must include the human resources required.

Areas that have multiple uses must be managed for the most vulnerable, this includes sensitive marine life and beach bathers. Simple marine spatial planning can regulate such activities for the safety of both humans and the environment. If we promote Tobago as a tourism destination, we must invest in the duty of care for all visitors. Attracting visitors is not only about offering vacation experiences, it is about ensuring that safety and security are bedrock to all experiences. Safety is the invisible but essential component in tourism, whether for international or local visitors.

Pulling seine is an important beach activity that needs coordination with bathers and snorkellers.Photo by Anjani Ganase


 

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