My Research progress....so far

Positive future for the ecosystem:

I have found through multiple sources that pollution control or waste management is not at the one of the main concerns for Sint Maarten though its northern counterpart St. Martin, does have waste management methods in place. Of course the government will prioritize other issues such as hurricane relief first since the island is still recovering from Irma last year. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the people of the island have no regard for pollution. Sint Maarten has recently decided to put more waste management methods in place like their French counterpart. Though measures are being made more issue that have been swept aside are being brought to light.

The main areas affected:

The beaches on the island are suffering as well as the Coral reefs. The coral reefs that surround the island are homes to hundreds of different marine life. Fewer Coral reefs means that there are less fish in ocean. Hurricane Irma alone destroyed around 70% of the coral reefs and if more are dying off there will be no fish at all in the waters around Sint Maarten / St. Martin.

Difficulties with finding research material:

One of the main difficulties I had while researching the increasing pollution issues on the Island of Sint Maarten/ St. Martin is that I had to narrow my search. Sites and articles for other islands would pop up in my results making the process slower as I had to cycle through unrelated content. Luckily using advanced search options and different online databases, I was able to find what I needed and narrow down my results to the pollution issue of St. Martin and not the entire Caribbean as a whole.

What’s Next?

I have found hard numbers and statistics relating to the increased pollution of the island but the sources that I found do not state a probable or finite cause to the increasing amount of pollution in the oceans and beaches. I will need to research causes to the pollution and what potential outcomes there are for the island if the problem is not solved soon. In addition to causes, I also need to research the economy. Through researching the economy I might be able to link certain industries to the increasing damage to the ecosystem.