El Caribe newspaper focuses today on the struggle of the Centro de Investigacion del Nordeste (Ciden) regarding the installation of a private shipyard named Megayacht Marina, to repair ships in the Punta Presidente area of Manzanillo Bay (province of Monte Cristi on the country?s Northwestern Coast). Guarionex Luperon, the executive director of Ciden, has requested that Environment Minister Frank Moya Pons put a stop to the efforts of Monte Cristi?s local authorities, who seem game to the idea of excluding the second most important mangrove area of the country from the National Parks system. The mangroves would be left without protected status by a bill currently being reviewed in Congress in order to favor the shipyard installation. US investors are reportedly behind the project. Luperon said that to build the shipyard, they will have to build a highway that would eliminate 20 kilometers of mangroves.
Luperon recounted how the first ship arrived for repairs despite the shipyard?s illegal status until the bill is passed in Congress. El Caribe describes the first vessel as a US registry cruise ship. ?Thousands of fish will die when they begin to dump the wastes of the oils, resins, paints and other toxic materials to the ocean, owing to the work the shipyard will generate,? he alerted.