Abstract

Coastal development is proceeding at a rapid and often unregulated pace throughout the wider Caribbean, but most especially in The Bahamas where the Family Islands of the archipelago are targeted for anchor tourism developments. Often sites selected for development already have some environmental concerns ranging from habitat destruction due to past dredge-and-fill activities to coastal erosion accelerated by invasive coastal plant species. The establishment of baseline studies of the habitats, flora and fauna throughout the major island groups is critical to building the case for mitigation and coastal protection as part of the cost of new tourism developments. A case study from Savannah Sound, Eleuthera, The Bahamas is presented as one location where impacted and disturbed mangrove lagoon sites were studied over an 18-month period to establish differences in fish species assemblages and abundance as a bench-mark for restoration planning.

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