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Container Port for Anegada?

A rainbow ends on one of Anegada’s pristine, white-sand beaches — an appropriate metaphor for one man’s estimation of the island’s financial potential.

© 2016 Peter Whitney

According to British Virgin Islands tourism stats, visits by West Coast sailors contribute mightily to that British Overseas Territory’s annual income. We suspect that many of those sailors will be shocked to learn that Legislative Representative Dr. Hubert O’Neal has proposed that a world-class container port be installed on remote Anegada Island. Fringed by coral reefs on three sides, that eight-and-a-half-mile-long island is not only the least-developed major isle in the British Virgins, but its underwater ecosystems are currently the most unspoiled.

According to a July 27 article in The Virgin Islands Platinum News, the proposal was offered as a remedy for the shrinking revenue from the BVI’s once-booming offshore banking industry. Dr. O’Neal estimates that within 10 years after construction, the new port could add $200 million annually to the local economy, roughly the same as the waning financial-services industry generates today. 

Dr. O’Neal envisions the BVI facility as a transshipment hub for goods from all over the world, as Singapore is today, with "upwards of a million containers a year" passing through Anegada. 

At a recent meeting with island residents, some voiced concerns about potential environmental impacts of the project. Dr. O’Neal was quoted in the Platinum Press as saying, "We will ensure Anegada remain[s] pristine." Indeed. What could possibly go wrong? If you have thoughts on the plan, we’d love to hear them.

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Led by victor LMAX Exchange, skippered by Frenchman Olivier Cardin, the Clipper Race fleet parades under the Tower Bridge to arrive home in London after completing its circuitous loop of the planet.