The beaching of whales and dolphins which has occurred in recent months may soon be prevented if Ambassador for the Environment Keod Smith gets his way.
At a press conference this morning in his offices at the Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield Building, Cable Beach Mr. Smith announced that he will recommend that The Bahamas become a signatory to the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CBTBT).
The Environment Ambassador’s reasoning for taking this stance, he told journalists was to ensure that The Bahamas benefited from an existing global monitoring system of stations set-up or to be set up in accordance with the Treaty.
The monitoring system allows the detection of nuclear activity in an environment using four methods of verification: seismological, hydro-acoustic and infrasound monitoring and radionuclide air samplers.
Mr. Smith said he felt that The Bahamas would particularly benefit from the global hydro-acoustic monitoring system.
The system detects acoustic waves produced by natural and man-made phenomena in the ocean by utilizing hydrophones (underwater microphones) and T-phase (seismic) mechanisms.
Mr. Smith said with The Bahamas being an archipelagic nation, the monitoring system would cover the entire country’s marine environment. “It would not only be efficient but also cost-productive in our national environment protection and conservation efforts,” he said.
Mr. Smith also said that the system could pinpoint unscrupulous fishermen detonating explosives in Bahamian waters or could identify sustained unlawful dredging or underwater mining.
Ambassador Smith also said that by singing the Treaty The Bahamas would benefit from greater opportunities for the local scientists and technicians, allowing them to learn how to analyse data collected by the monitoring system.
The Bahamas in 1967, Mr. Smith said, signed The Treaty of Tlateloco the intention of which was to discourage the creation and development of nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Tlateloco Treaty resulted in the creation of an intergovernmental agency called the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL).
The Bahamas along with the 32 other member states of OPANAL signed an agreement on September 18, 2002 with the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
The objective of the agreement is to promote the signature and ratification of the CTBT as well as matters such as consultations, reciprocal representation and the exchange of relevant information and documentation.
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
