Olivier Masson
6 August 2007
Port Louis — The local fishing community and environmentalists are expressing their fears about the impact new projects may have on the coastal village and its inhabitants.
Flic-en-Flac beach regulars are hostile to an aquaculture plan that may lead to the excision of the public beach.
The Kalypso platform organised yesterday a meeting on Flic-en-Flac public beach on the Aquatic Bill and aquaculture projects in the village to denounce what its leader, Vassen Kuppaymootoo, considers as a threat to the environment, an expropriation of the public domain and the undiscerning sale of Mauritian property to foreigners. Tomorrow, representatives of the platform are meeting the president of the Republic, who has a significant part to play in the issue since he is the authority who signs or not the bill.
"I don't want to remain idle before that ugly deal as I feel responsible towards later generations of what we are leaving of our nature to them." This is why Vassen Kuppaymootoo, an engineer in environmental sciences, has mobilised people hostile to the projects in Flic-en-Flac. "There are at least two zones that would host three different projects in the locality: one in Morcellement Anna with molluscs, the second in front of the football playground with a desalination plant, the third in front of the public beach with a fish farm." Among other projects mentioned, there are marinas in front of hotels. Moreover, the new legal framework would allow government to requisition any portion of the sea and coastal land for such a project: "This leads the way to anybody wealthy, and especially hotels, to have exclusive property of the beach and the lagoon."
"This is already the case in Albion", says P. S. a professional diver, whose activity is threa-tened. "Not only the turbid waters created by feeding farm fish will damage places where the richness of our ecosystem can be admired, but they will attract predators like sharks. Moreover picking small tuna from the open sea to be bred in cages will endanger the natural reproduction cycle." For Vassen, allowing projects in front of the public beach is unacceptable as "it deals with public property, which is not owned by any temporary authority as state lands, but which belongs to all the Mauritian people". The question remains: are the people sufficiently aware of the issues?
If Vassen Kuppaymootoo can be regarded as a hard line ecologist by those who disapprove his views and advocate government projects, the same can't be said of a few people present on the beach on Saturday. R.B., who works for the ministry of Environment, witnessed the first experiences of aquaculture some 30 years ago: "This is a very good thing as long as it is done with local species and in remote places, (barachois) with relatively small fish cages." But P. S., the diver, objects: "Barachois have never worked properly. And fish farms are already not productive enough."
Michael Kenny, a tourist from Ireland, speaks of what has been already been carried out in the western part of his country. He shares mitigated feelings: "It depends on the size of such projects. Though salmon breeding could be justified in Ireland because of lower costs realized, it did only profit the farmers and the job creation. Mauritius is a small island. I am not sure the country can host such an industry, which relies heavily on feeding stuff that smell and chemicals that harm the environment, and at the same time sustainable tourism."
Imteaz Thoophany, from Phoenix, comes every week-end to Flic-en-Flac with his family. "For me this has been number one beach since my childhood. Economic arguments may be good but we don't really see that concretely in our lives. Whereas this place is a sacred one for almost everyone after a hard week's labour to relax. We should not scarify one inch of it.I don't want to remain idle before that ugly deal as I feel responsible towards later generations of what we are leaving of our nature to them."
Meanwhile, in Morcellement Anna, rumours of a project of "shellfish" farm are received with perplexity by residents in its vicinity. Maxime Ducray, who has lived there for some 40 years, doubts the real capacity of the authorities to implement that project and of its practicability, "with so many people who have bought their property in Souffleur Road". He adds that it is not the first attempt to implement such a project there and that the Anna cliff has been the object of unachieved plans.
It should be noted that Imteaz, like most people questioned, has no real idea of the actual projects. "The map released by the authorities show two big zones in the Flic-en-Flac area: "Whatever form it takes, we are preoccupied," says Ben Romaldawon from Flic-en-Flac Forces Vives. "Any project here will represent obstacles in the way of fishermen and all those who earn a living with glassbottom boats." Some just deplore that the projects have been drawn too quickly. Some argue that development may be good at creating jobs but that the coast is already too restricted for locals to be parcelled again. Others, like this lady born in Flic-en-Flac, are frankly hostile to aquaculture. "We should know and cherish the wonders from the sea instead of privatising it." She adds that advice should also be sought from those who earn a living from the sea, namely traditional fishermen.
Clifford Lamarque and Jean Judex Chelvan are both using traditional methods. The latter cannot understand why his activity is jeopardized: "The argument that the sea has been depleted from fish and that farms are the only alternative does not stand." For Jean Judex, who is the president of the fishing community in Grande-Rivière-Noire, natural ways of fishing can still earn a living. "But it is absurd to allow at the same time foreign companies to exploit industrially our fishing zone. Some do that by night, without respecting the law, which asks for a minimum of 12,000 nautical miles from the coast for such operators: it is them that are threatening the population of pelagic fishes." "A more useful measure would be to abolish the far too damaging seine fishing," adds Clifford Lamarque, who has been using pots for 18 years.
Vassen Kuppaymootoo is also conscious of the economic implications behind fish farms: "A whole tuna bred in captivity is worth 10,000 US dollars in Japan. For some, the fishermen's arguments may not weigh much in that case." "In Flic-en-Flac, he explains, Hugues Maigrot and an Australian associate are behind one of the projects." The Australian associate was present in June and, under the hostile pressure from Kalypso and some opposition MPs, he has seemingly decided to play a very low profile. The different projects falling under the Aquatic Bill are being pushed forth by the authorities with the logistic help of the Greek go-vernment. Meanwhile, a few weeks back, in Greece, a priest succeeded in convincing the go-vernment to abandon the implementation of an aquaculture plant after a hunger strike...
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