Government officials have robustly defended the ongoing dredging at Crabbs, despite concerns raised by Barbuda MP Trevor Walker about its potential environmental impact. The dredging project, aimed at deepening the harbour channel to accommodate larger vessels, is vital for the construction of Antigua and Barbuda’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, a key component of the nation’s strategy to transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources.

While Walker expressed support for the shift toward cleaner energy, he raised alarms about the dredging’s potential damage to vital marine ecosystems.

“It’s not a situation that should be only spoken about on the international stage, but it must be a practical demonstration at home,” Walker remarked. “All I’m saying is that you cannot tell the world a small island like Antigua and Barbuda in a small country that has limited seabed, that we have lost almost all the corals around these islands, all from global warming and otherwise but the dredging they’re doing at North Sound is destroying the seabed and is also affecting our sustainability of the small island. I’m not saying that you should not be bringing LNG to clean up the energy situation in Antigua and Barbuda, but I’m saying at what cost.”

In response, Utilities Minister Melford Nicholas firmly rejected the claims of seabed destruction, asserting that they were baseless. He stressed that deepening the channel was necessary to ensure maritime safety and support the country’s economic development. “Nothing could be further from the truth. This is entirely a fabrication. It is entirely conflating the issues.”

Nicholas claims that the government is being fully transparent about the activities and invited any person with a boat or access to it to visit the environment where the dredging is taking place, to “speak with the people from Blue Ocean, speak with the people on the dredging barges” and come to their own conclusion.

 Prime Minister Gaston Browne also came to the project’s defence suggesting that the environmental impact is being managed since the material being dredged primarily consists of bedrock and stones, not fragile marine ecosystems like seagrass. “That channel existed for decades. It was dredged before, the Americans dredged it and created Maiden Island.” “You’ll see all the stones and the sand. There is no seagrass whatsoever. So your assertion is false.”

Photos posted on prime minister Gaston Browne’s Facebook page following the debate in parliament over the environmental impact of the dredging work at Crabbs Photos posted on prime minister Gaston Browne’s Facebook page following the debate in parliament over the environmental impact of the dredging work at Crabbs

This debate coincided with discussions in the House of Representatives over a resolution to ratify a multinational treaty known as the Agreement on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ). Signed by Antigua and Barbuda in September 2023, the treaty is now set for formal ratification, providing the country with legal means to hold polluting nations and corporations accountable for environmental damage.

“This particular Convention is very important for us to be part of the overall UN Convention for the Law of the Sea, so that we can get the necessary protections, and ensure that entities, countries, and companies involved in fossil fuels and other environmentally degrading actions can be held responsible under the law,” the prime Minister explained.

The BBNJ Agreement, adopted on June 19, 2023, is the third implementing agreement to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It addresses key issues such as marine genetic resources and equitable benefit-sharing, area-based management tools (including marine protected areas), environmental impact assessments, and capacity-building/transfer of marine technology. The agreement also covers cross-cutting issues, establishes a funding mechanism, and creates institutional bodies like a Conference of the Parties, a Clearing-House Mechanism, and a secretariat.

In addition to environmental concerns, questions were raised about the financing of the dredging project. The Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA), responsible for paying the dredging contractors Blue Ocean and Dutch Dredging, justified the expenditure as part of a broader plan to support cleaner energy. Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, Lionel Hurst, explained that APUA’s involvement allows it to use its reserves for critical infrastructure upgrades that will ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity production in Antigua.