By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 29th March 2019)-It took over fifteen (15) minutes of on-the-spot snorkelling lessons but that was part of the plan as a group of eco-friendly enthusiasts assembled at Timothy Beach in Frigate Bay over the past weekend as part of an ongoing Environmental Sustainability and Conservation Leadership Training experience being conducted in St. Kitts-Nevis.
For over an hour, the group which consisted of over 10 individuals including Environmental Science students from the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) and marine conservation officers explored the water world.
This reporter was part of the outing also.
Fishes and other sea creatures spotted included damsel, grunt, parrot fish, butterfly and sea urchins as well as corals like the brain and finger as well as the fire coral which snorkellers were advised to stay away from since it gives a harmful sting.
Watersports company, Beach Addiction St.Kitts-Nevis, provided snorkelling gear that day.
Lead facilitator of the Leadership Training Luis Cruz, a Ross University professor and Researcher of Human Behaviour in positive ways concerning conservation and environmental sustainability, informed this reporter that during a second workshop by way of a round table discussion held on Wednesday 6th March, while sharing experiences, it was discovered that when it comes to swimming and snorkelling “the majority (of panelists) have never done it.”
As a result, the snorkelling outing was put together.
“Experience is what shapes our decisions later on. What we experience especially emotional and very positive, it gets engrained in the nervous system and that can help us to make better decisions along the way so this is how this all came about,” Cruz commented.
He continued: “I think today went outstanding. I saw so many smiles after the beginning when people were a little apprehensive and somewhat scared. The water was a little cold at first but just the sun and the feel of the water and looking underneath [the sea), it’s a whole new world, and once we open our minds to that world, it’s like ‘I’m ready to go for it’.”
A stakeholders engagement session, scheduled for Thursday 11th April, is expected to see a tour of The Narrows with a snorkelling stop at Shitten’s Bay which Cruz said will be an “appreciative inquiry” type of activity.
“We are engaging a lot of stakeholders throughout the island from hotels to businesses, developers, people from the government, and what they are going to be doing is asking questions…,” he said.
As gathered, conservation likes and dislikes relative to St. Kitts-Nevis will also be discussed.
“The idea is to keep a very positive environment to figure out what it is that we all value because when we find common goals and common values, it is really easy to set up programmes and planning for other projects to tackle those things we have in common,,” Cruz added.
Here is what others had to say about last weekend’s snorkelling activity.
Marine Conservation Officer Locksley Edwards
“It was a learning experience for them (first time snorkellers) and a good opportunity for me to be in the water and teach them as well so all in all I think it was a success; today ended pretty well. I think this adds to the green (environment) awareness because most of the team members are youths who didn’t know that so much stuff existed so it adds to the awareness that they can now move out into the community and be more aware of the fact that what we do on land because once you do a lot of pollution –like garbage- whether the hotels and restaurants etc; whatever we do on land always ends up in the ocean so now we have more ecofriendly people and awareness within our youth especially to move forward in life as we go about dealing with climate changes . Once, the youths are more into green awareness, ecofriendly way of thinking then we can have a better community, better country and better world overall.”
Project Coordinator- Conservation and Environmental Sustainability (Contractor) at Ross University – Sheryl Bass
“This was my first go at snorkelling; I’ve tried swimming but snorkelling was the first time. I thought it was awesome. It look a little getting used to the breathing rhythm but with the help of really, really good support such as Locksley and Luis and Catalina (Luis’ wife), it became a breeze. I truly enjoyed the experience, and this is something that I’d like to do many times. It is a relaxing experience and more of us as Kittitians need to try the water much more and enjoy what we have right around us.”
Owner and Senior National Instructor of Beach Addiction St.Kitts-Nevis Nicholas Dupre
“It was great. You could see for a lot of people it was their first time but hopefully this experience has opened up a world for them so that they could come and explore and see what else is out there. The ocean is our playground and is right at our doorsteps so we should all…..explore it. I think it’s really important [to have these outings] because when you’re snorkelling and you see all the plastic and other stuff also when we’re sailing in the water, we see plastic that are blowing off of the Strip and into the water and it has an effect on the sea life so it’s good to know what we’re trying to protect.”