Click to view full size

The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) has tak­en ac­tion to stop the planned “Ca­roni Krab Dash – Flat Bot­tom and Small Boat Race” fol­low­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to its po­ten­tial en­vi­ron­men­tal im­pact on the Ca­roni Swamp.

The event, orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for 25 Oc­to­ber 2025, prompt­ed sev­er­al com­plaints from the pub­lic about risks to bio­di­ver­si­ty in the area. In re­sponse, the EMA met with or­gan­is­ers, D Krab House Barge, to as­sess pos­si­ble threats. Of­fi­cers from the EMA’s En­vi­ron­men­tal Po­lice Unit, along with game war­dens and Prae­di­al Lar­ce­ny of­fi­cers from the Forestry Di­vi­sion, con­duct­ed a site as­sess­ment of the pro­posed race­course from the Mar­itime Drain to the El So­cor­ro Ext. Rd #1 Drain.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion ex­am­ined pos­si­ble ef­fects on the Ca­roni Riv­er and its drainage sys­tem, which form part of the Ca­roni Swamp, a Wet­land of In­ter­na­tion­al Im­por­tance (Ram­sar site). The swamp is one of the few known breed­ing habi­tats of the Scar­let Ibis, an En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Species (ESS). The main con­cern iden­ti­fied was the noise the race would gen­er­ate and its po­ten­tial dis­tur­bance to the Scar­let Ibis.