Save paradise reef!

[Augustus]

Julian Miranda/SIPSE
COZUMEL, Q. Roo.- Con 20 millones de pesos la naviera Carnival Cruise Lines, poseedora de alrededor de 60% de los hoteles flotantes que llegan a Cozumel, planea ampliar la infraestructura del muelle Puerta Maya. La noticia fue revelada ayer por el gobernador de Quintana Roo, Roberto Borge Angulo.
El mandatario estatal anunció que el muelle de cruceros Puerta Maya, localizado en el kilómetro 4.5 de la costera sur de la isla, será ampliado en los próximos días y que el gobierno estatal ha apoyado a la empresa con los trámites de los permisos de la obra.
Trascendió que el nuevo brazo de atraque del actual muelle estará hacia al sur y tendrá capacidad para recibir otros dos cruceros, el doble de los que actualmente puede recibir el recinto portuario

What this is saying is that carnival is investing 20 million pesos to enlarge the pier at Puerta Maya. This was announced yesterday by the governor of Q. Roo. The work will be done in the next few days an all permits etc have been issued. It seems they are going to extend the current pier to the south so that it can receive two more boats. Offhand nowhere for that to go except over north end of paradise.

 

[Christi]

WOW - hadn't heard a word of this - apparently Dave hadn't either. If work has already commenced and permits have been issued - not a whole lot that can be done - how was this kept so quiet - and how were they able to get past all of the environmental issues so quietly and apparently quickly? Oh - it's Carnival Cruise lines - money talks I guess - because we so need MORE cruise ships - we just don't have enough!

 

[JFS]

I saw that this was approved already for Carnival. With the Punta Langosta pier not always being used to capacity its a shame that they didnt just divert ships to their instead. You do realize now that Paradise reef will be very small for divers. Right now there is a marker underwater at the last section that divers are not supposed to pass as it is a buffer zone for the cruise ships. If the new pier is going to be at the last section of paradise, where will that buffer zone line be? near to the entrance of the caletta?

 

[Christi]

I have not personally checked this out myself, but I'd consider my source reliable - at least in what he can see with his own eyes I asked Pedro about this today when he came in form the trip - asked if he knows or had had heard anything. He said, yes, he had heard that they were expanding the pier - BUT it is being expanded between the international pier and the current Puerta Maya pier - which actually DOES make more sense. He said that is where the drudging has been going on and where they have installed some "pillars"

This makes much more sense - because if they were actually going to be destroying/eliminating part of the reef system - thre would be numerous agencies involved, major protesting and permits would be much tougher to get by - the government may be into accepting money to get things done, but environmental activists and agencies aren't as easy to buy or keep quiet when it comes to these tpes of things. So I am hoping this is actually the case.

 

[Ron Lee]

Carnival already uses the International Pier and Punta Langosta when their two spaces at Puerta Maya are occupied.

 

[mstevens]

Is it operational?

It doesn't matter in this context - it's most definitely been built.

 

[Ron Lee]

Don't these type announcements usually have a photo/diagram/artists rendition of the project?

 

[Sideways]

Didn't read the article provided in the thread, but we talked about it almost everyday the last 2 weeks as we motored past all the equipment and supplies staged in place on our way to and from diving. We speculated that the only thing they could be for is a new ferry pier. What a shame.

 

[sharky60]

a large barge with pier construction materials showed up a little over a week ago...I smelled a rat at that point.

The entire trip I had this itch to dive Paradise...weird.

So is this thing going up where that big read sculpture-ish thing is? Or is that a completely different construction project?

 

[cvchief]

Dove Paraiso Thursday. Sad if they f it up. It is sort of the Missus favorite reef.