Beach maintenance a must: Bayley

Head of one of the island’s main taxi associations says with a growing number of tourists visiting our beaches on a daily basis, there is need to ensure that these areas are in pristine condition.

Adrian Bayley, President of the Bridgetown Port Taxi Co-op Society Limited, made the point to the media yesterday morning on the sidelines of a beach clean-up being conducted by around 40 taxi operators at the beach located behind the Holetown Police Station. His comments came too as he said that there are business opportunities to be had in close proximity to the beaches, but he maintained that beaches must be inviting. He made the remarks while pointing to the growing number of beach bars on the South Coast, for example.

“These guys down here who would have created their own niches with swimming with the turtles, even before the conglomerates would have gotten involved in it; these guys with these glass bottom boats were the persons who started it… For these guys to survive, business has to come down here and for business to come down here, it is quite rustic with the foliage, but at the end of the day, being rustic and it is filthy, it makes no sense persons coming to Barbados and coming to a filthy beach,” he said.

While commending the National Conservation Commission for the work it has been doing, he said they cannot do it alone and pledged the Co-op’s willingness to assist where it can. He made the point while issuing a call for other associations or companies to also lend a hand to maintain the upkeep of the beaches.

“I would hope that some other organisation can recognise the uses of beaches in Barbados; they can come two weeks after us and put in the same effort… Our next intervention would be to do a marine clean-up. Clearly on the landside it is prevalent, in front your eyes, but if you are one who goes into the ocean and do any snorkelling or diving in the ocean, clearly when you get into the bottom of the ocean, there is so much [more] garbage inside the ocean than on the land,” he said.

Bayley said he hopes to speak with Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey, about undertaking such an initiative, but could not say which beach they would target at that time.