NOT HERE Egg Island residents scramble Disney plans
About The Bahamas
NOT HERE Egg Island residents scramble Disney plans
Egg Island is a cay on an uninhabited Bahamas island and the intended site for a private resort for Disney Cruise Line. Just 12 acres, the island is a beach party destination for local residents, who reacted swiftly when they learned that the cruise line wanted to build a cruise ship port on its undisturbed shores.
Egg Island is the nesting ground for turtles and is surrounded by a reef just off the beach. The land had been leased to a family who recently gave it up.
When residents learned that Disney Cruise Line was considering using the land for a private resort they signed a petition with 3,000 signatures calling for the deal with Disney to be blocked by Prime Minister Perry Christie.
Attorney Holly Peel, whose grandfather Leo Pinder helped pioneer the island is said to have worked with a group, collecting the signatures as well as providing an environmental study of the area. She also suggested that the island might have been Christopher Columbus’s first stop in the New World.
Deputy district councilor Robert Roberts sent a letter of support for Pinder on behalf of the Spanish Wells district council.
Disney Line spokesperson Kim Prunty announced in a statement that they would not be going forward on plans to develop the cay.
"We recently completed a careful and thorough review of a project at Egg Island and determined that the environmental impact of our intended development would be too significant."
Miami Herald reports that Peel and Roberts have advised that residents hope to eventually have the island designated as a sanctuary, open to fishing, diving and other recreational activities but protected from development.