Silver Sands Marine Sanctuary
Donation protected
Greetings,
We write this letter to let you know that we are testing the waters to see if a fish sanctuary is possible in the waters off Silver Sands, following the reef, from Harmony Hall to Duncan's Bay. We have been researching what is involved and the costs of such a venture.
We are in contact with Dr Dayne Buddo who used to head up the Discovery Bay Marine Research Center but now oversees all of the fish sanctuaries in Jamaica and he is based out of Port Antonio.
He has stated that it is necessary to define our intended boundaries and he and his staff of four will come and do a complete survey of our waters in order to submit the findings to the Jamaican Gov't through its fisheries department. If our proposal is accepted by the government, we can proceed to initiate a plan of action.
Some of the fishermen have been taken to Oracabessa so that they could see first hand the successes of the Oracabessa fish sanctuary. They were very impressed with the numbers of fish in the bay there and are ready to take this project on. The folks at Oracabessa stressed that the fishermen, who will be very instrumental in determining the boundaries, will become wardens of the waters outlined, and their livelihood will change from fishing to acting as wardens, although fishing can continue as usual beyond the reef. Our thinking is that the outside of the reef would become the northern most boundary, possibly up to Harmony Hall to the east, our shoreline to the south, with the western end of Duncans beach being the western boundary.
The fee for this initial marine survey, submission to the government and assistance in obtaining grant money is over $5,000 (after GoFundMe fees). Two of us, Trudie Webster and Mary Kelly have agreed to put the survey team up at our homes for the survey and we were hoping that this could occur sometime in the near future (when we have obtained the needed funds).
We are asking for your help in getting this project initiated and after we get our findings submitted, we can start looking for grants to get this project up and running. In Oracabessa and White River, they have started replanting coral, have been successful and this would be another aspect of the fish sanctuary. The long term costs of the sanctuary are great. We will seek corporate and other funding and will likely be back to brainstorm funding if the sanctuary is considered feasible after the survey.
Right now, if we can all pitch in and donate anywhere from $250 to $500, it would be greatly appreciated. With a strong enough response we could have the marine survey done in early December if we can obtain the needed funds for Dr Buddo during November. Note that as we are not a non-profit yet, the donation will not be tax deductible.
If we go forward, we will eventually need to open an account and initiate a non-profit in addition to forming a board of directors which will be comprised of fishermen and homeowners, with fishermen in the majority. If there are any folks out there who can assist in forming a non-profit in Jamaica, that would be a very useful tool.
Also, we do not have access to all emails in Silver Sands, so if you know of anyone either owners or long term renters who would want to receive this GoFundMe, kindly forward it on, post it on Facebook or any other medium.
We eagerly await your response as time is of the essence, any suggestions on naming our fish sanctuary and possible corporate sponsors would be helpful also. The official name of the sanctuary may be Silver Sands Marine Sanctuary, so that it is easy to find for government purposes, but an early suggestion is that it be know locally as the John Wesley Sanctuary.
All the best!
Trudie Webster and Mary Kelly
We write this letter to let you know that we are testing the waters to see if a fish sanctuary is possible in the waters off Silver Sands, following the reef, from Harmony Hall to Duncan's Bay. We have been researching what is involved and the costs of such a venture.
We are in contact with Dr Dayne Buddo who used to head up the Discovery Bay Marine Research Center but now oversees all of the fish sanctuaries in Jamaica and he is based out of Port Antonio.
He has stated that it is necessary to define our intended boundaries and he and his staff of four will come and do a complete survey of our waters in order to submit the findings to the Jamaican Gov't through its fisheries department. If our proposal is accepted by the government, we can proceed to initiate a plan of action.
Some of the fishermen have been taken to Oracabessa so that they could see first hand the successes of the Oracabessa fish sanctuary. They were very impressed with the numbers of fish in the bay there and are ready to take this project on. The folks at Oracabessa stressed that the fishermen, who will be very instrumental in determining the boundaries, will become wardens of the waters outlined, and their livelihood will change from fishing to acting as wardens, although fishing can continue as usual beyond the reef. Our thinking is that the outside of the reef would become the northern most boundary, possibly up to Harmony Hall to the east, our shoreline to the south, with the western end of Duncans beach being the western boundary.
The fee for this initial marine survey, submission to the government and assistance in obtaining grant money is over $5,000 (after GoFundMe fees). Two of us, Trudie Webster and Mary Kelly have agreed to put the survey team up at our homes for the survey and we were hoping that this could occur sometime in the near future (when we have obtained the needed funds).
We are asking for your help in getting this project initiated and after we get our findings submitted, we can start looking for grants to get this project up and running. In Oracabessa and White River, they have started replanting coral, have been successful and this would be another aspect of the fish sanctuary. The long term costs of the sanctuary are great. We will seek corporate and other funding and will likely be back to brainstorm funding if the sanctuary is considered feasible after the survey.
Right now, if we can all pitch in and donate anywhere from $250 to $500, it would be greatly appreciated. With a strong enough response we could have the marine survey done in early December if we can obtain the needed funds for Dr Buddo during November. Note that as we are not a non-profit yet, the donation will not be tax deductible.
If we go forward, we will eventually need to open an account and initiate a non-profit in addition to forming a board of directors which will be comprised of fishermen and homeowners, with fishermen in the majority. If there are any folks out there who can assist in forming a non-profit in Jamaica, that would be a very useful tool.
Also, we do not have access to all emails in Silver Sands, so if you know of anyone either owners or long term renters who would want to receive this GoFundMe, kindly forward it on, post it on Facebook or any other medium.
We eagerly await your response as time is of the essence, any suggestions on naming our fish sanctuary and possible corporate sponsors would be helpful also. The official name of the sanctuary may be Silver Sands Marine Sanctuary, so that it is easy to find for government purposes, but an early suggestion is that it be know locally as the John Wesley Sanctuary.
All the best!
Trudie Webster and Mary Kelly
Co-organizers (1)
Tallawah Villa
Organizer
Denver, CO
Andrew Wildish
Co-organizer