Residents renew call for policing of beaches
The call has been dominant from residents of Virgin Gorda, Cane Garden Bay, Norman Island and Jost Van Dyke. “We seem to have persons only care about having their fun and not paying any attention to the laws as it relates to the docking of vessels,” complained Mr David O. Frett of Jost Van Dyke.
He said very often he and other community minded persons face verbal and other forms of abuse from captains, especially some coming from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (USVI). “We go out there to them when we see them dropping their anchor in the wrong places damaging the reef… they would cuss us out, throw missiles at us and these things. You call marine police attention to these things over and over and it’s the same thing,” complained the man.
“I was over at Norman Island just yesterday (Wednesday) and my heart bleed. I even enquired from one of the boss men there and he was like he don’t know what more to do. It’s the same thing every time the Puerto Ricans come.”
FB post supports claims
Mr Frett’s complaints were further supported by a very recent Facebook post by Mr Panda David Peterson, who gave a very detailed description of Puerto Ricans disregarding the laws of local beaches.
In his post, Mr Peterson said he was at The Baths, yesterday July 28, 2016 and after 5 pm, and in the space of 15 minutes, three boats drove through the “buoy fence” that designates the swim area to pick up people on Devil's Bay beach. The first two were dingys. The third was a 25' Grady White boat, which rapped it's prop in the fence line and then still proceeded to drive through the swim area to pick up people.”
From his observations, Mr Peterson said the engine of the last boat appeared to have been damaged in the process. “It took a while for the guy to unwrap it and it smoked afterward. WTF does it take for people to pay attention to clearly marked non-boat areas?! Sure these people spoke Spanish, but after some questioning they clearly understood that they were not supposed to drive their 25' boat over a buoy fence,” explained Mr Peterson.
The concerned man recorded one of the boats name “Lady Marilin” and also posted photos of the boat crossing the buoy fence.
“At least the guy turned off his engine when going over the line on the way out.”
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