![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
(Photos by Jadira Veen)
Fish are being found dead at the shores of our "beautiful" heavily polluted salt pond. Honestly I am surprised anything can live in there anyway.
But here's the story as taken from The Daily Herald newspaper.
Dead fish along
Salt Pond shore
PHILIPSBURG--The shoreline of the Great Salt Pond was lined with dead fish every other metre on Thursday. The water has turned a pink-reddish colour, indicating a large amount of algae in the pond, probably due to a high level of salinity (saltiness). Marine expert Tadzio Bervoets in St. Eustatius said a low oxygen level in the water probably caused so many fish to go belly up. “Because of certain factors, an explosion of algae growth could have occurred, causing the oxygen level to drop and kill the fish,” he said. “It could be the recent heat, or also some form of pollution, but to be sure the water should be tested.”
Public Works head Claudius “Toontje” Buncamper said his department is going to let water into the pond by opening the flood gates, possibly today, Friday. They believe the fish are dying because the pond is “drying up.” He also suggested that algae are the problem. “The Health Department will draw up a report and the water will be tested. We will be asked to clean up the dead fish along the shoreline,” said Buncamper.
Hygiene Department head Maria van Heyningen said they were aware of the problem, but did not know anything of a report to be drawn up. “We have yet to determine who has authority over the Salt Pond and who will have to tackle the problem. “The water should be tested for pollution, or what else it could be contaminated with, but we do not have such facilities on the island. We need to come together with Public Works and other involved parties to discuss how to resolve this matter,” she said.
It worried marine expert Bervoets that Public Works is going to open the flood gates. “Although it will surely help to oxygenate the water in the pond, it also means Salt Pond water will seep into the ocean. It is known the Pond water is polluted, so if [it] gets into the sea, it might damage nearby reefs and may also cause problems for swimmers at Great Bay beach,” he said.
Both St. Maarten Pride Foundation and the Nature Foundation are said to be looking into the matter and will assist in the environmental aspect where necessary.
Copyright ©2008 The Daily Herald St. Maarten E-mail Webmaster 37 |  |
Another environmental issue for SXM. It never stops! We have messed up and are continuing to mess up our environment and it's a damn shame.
Now some of you might be asking..like me.. what kind of fish are those.
Apparently some people think they are tilapia. Tilapia!
How did Tilapia get there? If they are tilapia, then they were put in there on purpose.
and the next question would be why?
I and many others have our suspiscions.
One restaurnt already was accused by officials about buying fish caught in the lagoon.
Yuck! I can't imagine. And then they serve it on the menu?
Well, how about this? I think they "stock" the salt pond with Tilapia, and then they catch them, cook them and serve them in their restaurants.
Disgusting!
On another unrelated story, except that it is about fish dying in another way, there is a move on to take Blue Marlin off restaurant menus.
http://www.takemarlinoffthemenu.org/hom
Most charter boats on Saint Martin/Sint Maarten do release all Blue Marlins . A few captains are still killing these beautiful fish to sell to some restaurants. Billfish populations are in serious decline and they also can contain very high levels of mercury, making them unsafe to eat. The food value is next to zero. So we don't need to be eating them.
This article was recently in the news, from our neighboring island of Anguilla.
An 800 pound Blue Marlin was caught by Anguillan fishermen. The fish was cut up and sold to CuisinArt Resort and was also sold to other individuals.
Here is a link to an online article explaining the catch and actually bragging about it.
http://www.anguillian.com/article/artic
This is not a good thing.
I say:
Let's stop killing the fish we don't need to kill!
- Mood:
distressed
....where the sun is shining, the ocean is a beautiful blue, and our local electricity company ( GEBE) has shutt off the power already this morning..
Is today going to be like yesterday when the power went off not once but three times?
I will try to think positive.
Look what I found hanging out in one of our trees this morning.
We are seeing quite a few of them in our yard these days.
I guess he doesn't care whether or not there is electricity.
- Mood:
sleepy
Do you hear the voices shouting? well, read on!
It is so hot, I prefer to sit in my house half naked (when no one is around), in air conditioning, and the traffic going to Simpson Bay is horrendous, so I am not going over the hill.
Yesterday though I had to do some banking business in Philipsburg.
There was no cruise ship in so I assumed the traffic would be light and I could easily get there and come back quickly to my air conditioning.
Wrong! Oh was I wrong!
The traffic going down the Pondfill road was horrendous.
When I finally got in front of GEBE, I see a large gathering ,some damaged cars, people shouting, and lots of police.
Everyone is passing, slowing down, and checking out the action. Slows traffic even more of course.
So I assume there was a bad traffic accident.
Well, apparently it was much more than that.
Check out this news story.
http://sxmislandtime.com/index.php?opti
And someone uploaded a video of the action. Thanks Mark! This is priceless!
Lovely isn't it? The traffic is bad enough.And then we got stupid people like this.
and it's too hot!
I am telling you there is a reason why I stay in my house in my air conditioning half naked.
Lawd!
- Mood:
drained
Duke!
Why does he do this? Doesn't he know he's in the way?
Do you think he would move?
Nah, he likes us to have to climb over him every time we need to go in or out of the kitchen.
Darn dog doesn't even blink!
- Mood:
hot
I blogged about Angel back in May when she was brutally thrown out of a car and luckily rescued by a volunteer from I love My Island Dog Association.
http://www.ilovemyislanddog.org
http://barcann.livejournal.com/tag/ange
Everyone was trying to find a good home for her.
I am happy to report that Angel is now Ella and is happily living with her new family in the States.
Bruce and Kim came down to St. Maarten and picked her up.
She sure looks like she is adjusting well, doesn't she?
Some stories do have a happy ending!
Have a happy life, Ella!
- Mood:
happy
I can't believe Michael Jackson is dead!
Like everyone else yesterday, I was shocked beyond belief.
This is like Elvis dying for my generation..
My daughter's generation grew up with Michael Jackson music.
She is devastated.
Our house was filled with his music in the early 80's.
So many memories.
What a sad life.
Some criticize and condemn him but I prefer to remember him as that adorable little boy with that tremendous talent who brought us all such joy with his music.
Last night on Facebook, the young people were posting comments filled with shock and sadness.
I remember when Erika ( my daughter) was six. She had this wonderful birthday party and one of her friends did a MJ imitation which was the hit of the party.
Go,Arun. go!
And then Erika found this picture of herself in what she calls her "Beat It" outfit.
Those kids were so cute and innocent, much likeMichael himself was then.
It's sad that it all came to an end.
His music and his songs will live on forever!
- Mood:
sad
So the Catholic priest said to the congregation "Don't leave your husband because of a little slap!"
http://sxmislandtime.com/index.php?opti
Read this article and then read the comments below.
Simply amazing!
Is this priest for real?
Man, this is the buzz of the island.
How could that man say this?
Well, I can make a few guesses.
First of all, he is Hispanic. I do not want to sound prejudiced here, but it is true in general of the Hispanic culture that machismo is very strong. He stated himself apparently that his father used to beat his mother, but she stuck it out.
So he is a product of his culture and his upbringing.
But more importantly, the Catholic Church firmly believes in NO DIVORCE!
No matter what!
In my opinion, this is an antiquated view.
Most certainly, if a man slaps a woman, she should not stay around and take it. This is often how more serious domestic abuse can start.
The Women's groups on the island are up in arms. Apparently, at least one young woman walked out of the church.
A prominent woman on the island wrote a letter to the newspaper today and stated that as a Roman Catholic, she was taught that priests were the holiest men after the Pope, and she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
She was hoping to hear a Father's Day homily on fathers neglecting their children and not supporting them.
This is a big problem on the island.
She says she was too stunned to walk out. She ends her letter by saying she is glad that this priest did become a preist, so that no wife of his will have to be slapped by him.
The Daily Herld in its editotrial stated that the priest's statement was "ill-advised."
http://www.thedailyherald.com/news/dail
Ill-advised? Ya think?
That's putting it mildly.
This priest owes an apology to all women and should do some community service in the women's shelter.
Maybe then he would understand what one slap can lead to.
- Mood:
angry
Look what the gardener brought me from the garden.
But he only brought me one. One? How could he only bring me one?
I can't eat just one.
The feeding frenzy would be over in a millisecond.
He swears it's the only one on the tree.
How could that be?
I would go check for myself, if I knew where the tree is, but I don't.
That's how much I know about the gardener's garden.
It's a shame, isn't it?
Who knows what this is, by the way?
- Mood: hot
A friend of mine sent me this in an email:
"The implement in question is an actual stick. It is snapped off a tree native to the Caribbean. Botanists call it Quararibea turbinata, but it is known to locals as the swizzle stick tree. The sticks are about six inches, with small prongs sticking out at the end, like the spokes of a wheel without the rim, and they are used as a kind of natural, manually operated Mixmaster."
The above is taken from a NY Times article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/dinin
Now this made me very curious. I have never heard of Caribbean swizzle sticks
I never knew a swizzle stick had anything to do with the Caribbean or that there was a swizzle stick tree.
Who knew? Did you?
I don't think there are any swizzle stick trees here. I think all we have are plastic swizzle sticks.
Of course we would. . Everything we use here is plastic.
So what is a swizzle stick tree?
I had to look this one up.
This is what Wikipedia says:
Quararibea turbinata, also known as the Swizzlestick Tree, is an aromatic plant native to such Caribbean locales as Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Hispaniola, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Virgin Islands.[1] It is generally described as a perennial tree or shrub[2] and its common name comes from its use as a swizzle stick and its association with cocktails such as the Rum Swizzle.[3][4]
OK, so now that we know what it is, what does it look like?
I had a hard time finding pictures, but I did find these.
The pictures aren't so great.
I don't know. Does it look like any plant you know or have seen?
If you know where I can find one, let me know.
I certainly would rather have a nice aromatic wooden swizzle stick from a swizzle stick tree than a stupid plastic one that pollutes the environment.
- Mood: surprised
Isn't he/she cute? Dee sees it in the yard all the time.
I don't know if he/she belongs to a neighbor or not. He/she looks well fed and healthy though.
I am just praying Duke doesn't see he/she.
It would be great fun for Duke to hunt her/him down.
I hope that the cat is faster than Duke though.
I also know the cat is much smarter than Duke. That's for sure.
These guys have adopted us too.
Beautiful, isn't it? ha!
They make the most God-awful noise at night.
They sound disgusting.
It's not a pretty sound like the tree frogs.
- Mood:
relaxed
I started off my celebration of Father's Day by having the gardener make me breakfast.
I am terrible, aren't I?
I did have good intentions.
I was going to get up and make him breakfast and serve it to him in bed.
There is or was only one problem. I sleep later than he does.
Too bad.
He said if he waited for me to make him breakfast he would starve.
That's probably true.
Pretty good guy, isn't he? I think he is a keeper!
I wonder if he will make me dinner too?
Hey, I think I like Father's Day!
Do you know the history of Father's Day?
Father's Day, contrary to popular misconception, was not established as a holiday in order to help greeting card manufacturers sell more cards. Although i do have nagging suspicion that is one of the reasons why we still celebrate it.
Hallmark loves Father's Day.
Mrs. John B. Dodd, of Washington, first proposed the idea of a "father's day" in 1909. Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. William Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife (Mrs. Dodd's mother) died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent.
The first Father's Day was observed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane Washington.
However you spend your day, enjoy it.
If you have a father or know a father, give him a special hug today.
- Mood:
grateful
I am sure that any of you living in the Caribbean know what this is, but I bet that most of you living elsewhere have no idea what it is.
I am tempted to make this a quiz and see who knows, but I want to tell you about this structure too.
So here goes!
This is an old cistern on Front Street in Philipsburg.
This was probably built over 100 years ago.
In those days there was no cement, so they were built from limestone, bricks and coral.
They were not attached to the house like the modern day cisterns, but were separate structures with a pipe attached to the spouting of the house.
The steps were so people could go up with a bucket and draw the water out. There were of course no electrical pumps or running water in people's houses at that time.
There are not too many of these old cisterns left but you can see them here and there throughout the Caribbean.
Life was not easy here in those days. You had to do all the work yourself. Now we turn on a tap and water magically comes out.
On St. Maarten, which is a dry island with no rivers or streams, people had to rely entirely on rain to fill the cisterns and give them water.
When it didn't rain, you were in trouble.
If your cistern ran dry, you had to buy water from your neighbors who still had. The gardener remembers his mother buying a bucket at a time.
In order to take showers, they built towers with 55 gallon drums on top. A hand pump was used to pump the water up from the cistern to the drums.
The drums had a pipe with a valve you could open to release the water and bathe.
So when you yearn for the good old days, as we often do, remember that in the good old days people really had to do things the hard way.
- Mood: tired
You all know what CRS is, right?
Well, wait a minute.
CRS can mean many things:
Congenital rubella syndrome
Catholic Relief Services
Or it can mean what you all probably thought of in the first place.
Can't Remember Stuff.
Or
Can't Remember Shit......which I think says it better.
I don't have congenital rubella syndrome and I don't have cranial rectal syndrome, whatever they are.
But I do have Can't Remember Shit syndrome.
It is unknown if there is a cure or even a remedy for this disease.
I am afraid it is chronic and only gets worse with time.
It's scary.
As an example, take a look at this: remember to click on it to make it larger.
Look at it carefully. This is a check to Cable TV for 2 months of service, which I wrote out two weeks ago.. 2 weeks ago, NOT 2 years ago.
See the date?
What was I thinking? This is CRS at it's worst.
So Cable TV called me because of course the check came back to them.
Now I have to make out a new check with a new date and I have to pay a $15.00 returned check charge too.
So CRS is not only scary, it is costly too!
By the way, what century are we in????
Is this planet earth?????
- Mood:
confused
Last week the issue of kissing came up. I don't remember when or where, but it was before I got the flu.
I have not been out of my house for a week ,except to see the doctor, so I have not been anywhere to kiss anyone.
Certainly I did not kiss my doctor, and the gardener has kept me at arm's length because he does not want the flu.
Maybe that's why I am thinking about kissing...because I haven 't been kissed in over a week.
I feel deprived!
Kissing on this island is a complicated matter. Complicated because we have so many cultures here and each culture has its own kissing rituals.
Basically the issue is do you kiss once, twice, or three times?
Well, that depends on who you are kissing.
As an American, I obviously grew up with one kiss.
When I moved here, I became accustomed to kissing twice when on the French side. Everyone knows the French people kiss each cheek. French men even kiss other French men, which truly amazes most Americans.
But what I wasn't prepared for was kissing three times. Who in the world kisses three times?
The Dutch, that's who!
So living on a Dutch island, I have learned to kiss people 3 times when greeting them.
That's if they are Dutch, of coruse.
I am not sure which cheek you start with but I know I frequently bump noses with people.
I assume I have started with the wrong cheek.
Sometimes I forget it is 3 times,and after 2 cheek kisses, I pull back and start talking while the other person is stopped in mid air with his or her lips together for that third cheek kiss.
On the other hand, sometimes I kiss 3 times when the other person is not Dutch and that person looks at me in amazement wondering what I am doing. Oh right, I'm on the French side and you are French, so you only get 2 kisses. Or you are an American and you only get one kiss.
Now the locals may kiss either twice or three times, depending on how they were raised, or if they went to school in Holland.
You never know which they do until you start.
It's hard to get it straight.
And when I go to the States. Oh boy!
I always kiss at least twice and sometimes that third kiss too. You have never seen such bewildered faces as when I try to pull that off in America.
Living in a multi-cultural society is wonderful but it's confusing sometimes.
Maybe it's all that kissing that gave me the flu.
Thanks, by the way, to all of you who sent kind wishes for my good health.
I believe I shall live to blog another day!
- Mood:
sick
Yea, right. How do you blog in a fog?
I am definitely in a fog.
I have the flu.
I am fogged in with it.
I don't know what makes me feel worse..the flu, or the darn medicine you take when you have the flu.
All I know is that when I am upright, I feel like my head is a balloon bobbing in the fog.
What's going on out there anyway?
I am feeling better though. At least I am upright.
For a few days I was lying prone and couldn't lift my head off the pillow.
There was no blogging and no Facebook.
That's when my friends knew I was really sick.
Someone asked me if I had the swine flu.
How do I know?
To me,the flu is the flu.
Everyone is freaked out about the swine flu though.
I think it is not such a problem unless you have underlying medical conditions which could complicate things.
Hell, at my age, how could I not have some underlying conditions? Maybe I should be worried?
Anyway, as Maxine says:
The one good thing about having the flu?
I get to eat as much ice cream as I want without feeling guilty!
- Mood: sick
I went to a very interesting lecture yesterday hosted by SXM Pride in their celebration of World Environment Day and World Ocean Day.
Ocean Conservancy's Jessica Koelsch made a presentation on marine trash and marine entanglement issues.
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/
Tadzio Bervoets who heads the St.Eustatius Marine Park made a presentation on their work in Statia.
http://www.statiapark.org/
Then the movie SHARKWATER was played after the presentations.
http://www.sharkwater.com/
The movie was incredible. It was so well done. If you haven't seen it, you must.
The shark fin industry has big money, power and influence, and kills millions of sharks, just for their fins.
No one realizes it but several species of sharks are threatened and there are no regulations anywhere in the world protecting them.
Jesica's presentation of the work they are doing in Florida on fishing lines and the many deaths they cause to fish in the sea was most interesting.
She also spoke about the international coastal clean up they do every year.
I loved this graphic she presented. It shows what one plastic bag can do here.
(click on the image to make it larger)
The lionfish though.
Man,what a species and they are coming to the Caribbean. In fact they are here.
They have been spotted in St. Kitts which is not too far from us.
This graphic shows their progress so far.
The lionfish is native to the tropical Indo-Pacific region of the world. Due to a recent introduction, the lionfish has recently been spotted in the warmer coral regions of the Eastern Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea.
This introduction was most likely caused when a hurricane (Andrew) destroyed an aquarium in southern Florida.
DNA from captured lionfish in this region shows that they all originated from the same six or seven fish.
Now that blew my mind when I heard it. Imagine!
The lionfish is one of the most venomous fish on the ocean floor. Their venom is not lethal though.
Lionfish are voracious predators. They rapidly reproduce.
Their rapid reproduction potential means they have the ability to seriously depopulate coral reef ecosystems of other fish. A major, invasive predator such as lionfish could disrupt the entire system.
In other words, this means big trouble!
and the Lion Fish has no natural predators in the Caribbean.
Nice, huh?
For more details, you can read this article.
The turnout for the lecture and the movie was small and that is sad.
Unfortunately not enough people are really interested in saving our environment.
After last night, I am more aware than ever how precarious our little planet and our waters are.
We can't take it for granted any more
We all need to do what we can because our children and grandchildren won't have anything left if we don't begin to act.
- Mood: sad
OH yea, we are getting a new cruise ship pier. It is almost finished.
I saw it yesterday as we were on the Freedom of the Seas.
I think when this is done, St. Maaarten will be one of the largest cruise ports in the Caribbean.
I can see town (Philipsburg) now. 6 ships in! maybe 7 or 8! People! Lots and lots of people!
We will be over run.
Since we own a store in town, I just hope it will be good for business.
Of course, we are building bigger and better ports for the cruise ships, but this is still the view they have from the ships.
What's wrong with this picture?
Do you see what I see?
My favorite part of town? The place that's always on fire?
So on one hand we build and modernize and improve, and on the other hand, things stay the same.
Go figure!
- Mood: sleepy
........what a rare mood I'm in. it's almost like being.....
on a cruise ship!
Wait, it's not almost, it's just like being on a cruise ship.
I was on a cruise ship..a huge cruise ship.
This is the Freedom of the Seas. It can accommodate 4400 passengers!
SXM Pride took Learning Unlimited 5th grade students aboard the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship to learn about recycling.
The kids learned about recycling and then we toured the ship.
This tour is part of SXM Pride's World Environment/World Ocean Day activities.
I think the students learned something about how the big ship recycles and how it tries to be environmentally conscious, but then they had some real fun touring the rest of the ship.
So did I!
I have been on cruise ships before but nothing this big.
It has 15 decks!
It has a miniature golf course
It has an ice skating rink.
It has a rock climbing wall!
It has pools. Oh does it have pools!
There is a dedicated sports pool located in the main pool area.
Then there is a H2O Zone, or the “sprayground” which has colorful fiberglass sculptures shooting jets of water, geysers shooting from the ground and water cannons. There’s even a lazy river and waterfall inside!
It also has a huge shopping promenade! The Royal Promenade is a 445-foot-long shopping, dining and entertainment boulevard.
It's quite a ship. They say if you stood it on it's bow, it would be taller than NYC's Chrysler building!
And if that's not large enough for you, Royal Caribbean is building another cruise ship named Oasis of the Seas to launch in November or December.
It will be 1/3 larger than Freedom of The Seas and will have 17 decks instead of only 15!
Now would you want to be on a ship like this?
It is sort of a floating Las Vegas and a Disney World all rolled into one!
It's too big for me but it certainly was impressive and fun to see!
Don't forget to double click on the pictures to see them better!
- Mood: tired
It's June 3rd and it has taken me 3 days to mention Hurricane Season.
It's called denial.
If I don't mention it or think about it, it really won't be that time of the year, will it? Or will it?
OK.OK.
I have to deal with it , I know.
I truly hate this time of year though.
June is not so bad, July gets worse, August and September are dreaded months, and these days we even have to worry about October and November.
It's ridiculous really.
But here we go! My favorite weather sites.
First of all, Storm2k.
One of the best.
I follow the Talkin' Tropics forum and messges are all so interesting and informative..
http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/index.p
They have a page too that takes you to a whole analysis , satellite view, storm info and NHC information in one spot.
Easy to access and you got the whole story at your fingertips.
http://www.storm2k.org/weather/hw3.p
Then we have StormPulse.
It is also a great site with information and satellite views right at your finger tips.
http://www.stormpulse.com/
I have 2 pieces of software that I always used to use to follow storms and chart them, but with these web sites I don't need to use the software.
Then there is Stormcarib.com with weather correspondents from all over the Caribbean.
http://stormcarib.com/
Rich Johnson just sent me his weather page and asked me to link it on my blog.
Glad to do so, Rich. The more the merrier. We can use as many weather sites as possible.
Rich used to be a meteorologist on the Weather Channel so he is a pro and knows what he is doing.
http://tropicalweather.net/
It has a lot of nice features too.
So enjoy. Or if you aren't enjoying, you will at least be aware and informed.
- Mood: anxious
For the past month our hummingbird feeders (which are frequented by the sugar birds or bananaquits) have not been used much.
We fill them in the morning and within 2 hours they are usually empty.
But the past month or so, only a few birds would come. The sugar water in the feeders would last for 2 days.
All of a sudden,. the birds are back and greedily drinking and eating sugar.
The feeding frenzy has begun once more.
We could not figure out where all the birds had gone. Then we came to the conclusion that because it was May, they were all sitting on their eggs and raising babies. Isn't it April - May that birds do that?
- Mood:
pensive
