Turtlegrass Resort & Island Club

22/10/2026

The reefs in the North Bay of Sampson Cay remain relatively healthy and have high conservation value, with very low amounts of any coral disease. There’s one area of coral in particular that showed no disease at all. This same area holds the highest density of long-spined sea urchins found anywhere in the bay, a grazer still recovering from a region-wide die-off, which keeps reefs clear of algae so young a can settle. He also recorded large numbers of young corals there, a sign the reef is actively regenerating. It is exactly where Yntegra would dredge for its service dock for its proposed Rosewood Exuma Resort.

Read the full report at the link in our bio.

14/10/2026

There is no version of Yntegra’s dredging plan for its Rosewood Exuma resort that spares the most productive and healthy reef in the North Bay and the overall impact of proposed dredging and marine works in the area is “moderate to high”.

This was a key finding in the latest of the series of expert reports we are releasing to highlight the damaging impact of Yntegra’s dredging and marine works as part of their proposed Rosewood Exuma project.

Dr Craig Dahlgren, Executive Director of the Perry Institute for Marine Science and the Bahamas Undersea Research Foundation was asked to assess the current state of the marine habitats in the North Bay at Big Sampson Cay, and the likely impact on them of Yntegra’s proposed service dock, dredged access channel, breakwater, jetty and marina.

Read the full report at the link in our bio.

13/10/2026

The North Bay of Sampson Cay and its biodiversity is getting international attention. Inside Climate News has published an in-depth look at the queen conch nursery near Sampson Cay, where Shedd Aquarium researchers recorded one of the highest densities of juvenile conch in the Exumas, and at what the proposed dredging could mean for it.

Turtlegrass stands firm in defending this pristine marine paradise from Yntegra's destructive plans for its Rosewood Exuma resort.

Scientists who study conch say the species’ habitat needs are more important than the needs of either property.

08/10/2026

Gash's report is the second in a series of expert reports on Yntegra’s Rosewood Exuma project that we are releasing over the coming weeks.

Mark Gash, Director of Turnstone Ecology Limited and a Full Member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, was instructed to provide an independent review of the two documents at the centre of Yntegra's approvals: the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which is required by the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) to explain how a project will affect the environment, and the Environmental Management Plan (EMP), which is meant to set out how those impacts will be minimised. He examined the adequacy of the ecological assessment as a whole, with particular focus on the bird surveys, and measured it against two internationally recognised benchmark

Gash found that Yntegra’s EIA submitted in support of its Rosewood Exuma project and the survey programme behind it, he writes, are "wholly inadequate for a site of this ecological sensitivity” and he expressed concern that “major adverse impacts that cannot be mitigated or offset" if Yntegra were to go ahead with the project as planned.

Among other issues, he found that the site, on the available evidence, is "highly likely to qualify as Critical Habitat under multiple IFC PS6 and ESS6 criteria yet no Critical Habitat assessment was carried out at all” before or after approvals were given.

You can read a summary of the report and the full report on our website at the following link: https://www.turtlegrassresort.com/blog/an-expert-found-yntegras-environmental-case-for-sampson-cay-wholly-inadequate

06/10/2026

Turtlegrass attorneys told The Bahamas Supreme Court that the Director of Environmental Planning and Protection twice revived an expired environmental clearance for Yntegra's East Sampson Cay works, in secret and without the legal power to do so.

The court heard that after the certificate expired, the developer bulldozed and cleared land on the cay, then relied on the extension in court to argue the works should continue. Fred Smith, KC, said the lawful course was a fresh application.

"An expired CEC cannot be revived by administrative letter," he told the court.

Read the full article on our website at the following link: https://www.turtlegrassresort.com/blog/director-unlawfully-raised-zombie-sampson-cay-approval-from-the-dead-lawyers-tell-supreme-court

05/10/2026

A nearly 400-foot breakwater proposed for Yntegra’s Rosewood Exuma development was added to revised plans after public consultation closed, attorney Fred Smith, KC, told the Supreme Court on Friday, arguing

01/10/2026

Turtlegrass attorneys told The Bahamas Supreme Court that the Sampson Cay approval was based on a different version of the project from the one Yntegra is now bound to build.

Peter Village, KC, told the court that the plans changed after the environmental assessment was done, including a much longer jetty in North Bay. He argued that the changes were never assessed or put to the public, even though the approval requires Yntegra to build to the revised plans.

Full udpate on our website at the following link: https://www.turtlegrassresort.com/blog/sampson-cay-approval-invalid-because-government-assessed-the-wrong-project-village-kc-tells-court

01/10/2026

Turtlegrass attorneys told The Bahamas Supreme Court that the Director of Environmental Planning and Protection breached her legal duties to the public when she approved Yntegra's Rosewood Exuma development.

The court heard that the public was consulted before the Environmental Management Plan existed. That plan is the document setting out how the developer would reduce environmental harm. Key studies on the North Bay service dock were submitted only after consultation had closed.

Attorneys also said the Director gave no reasons for approving dredging and major marine works in North Bay, the same activities Turtlegrass had been expressly barred from carrying out there. Fred Smith, KC, called the decision "baffling and completely irrational."

Read the full update on our website at the following linkhttps://www.turtlegrassresort.com/blog/environment-director-breached-her-duty-to-the-public-smith-kc-tells-court

30/09/2026

Gash's report is the second in a series of expert reports on Yntegra’s Rosewood Exuma project that we are releasing over the coming weeks.

Mark Gash, Director of Turnstone Ecology Limited and a Full Member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, was instructed to provide an independent review of the two documents at the centre of Yntegra's approvals: the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which is required by the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) to explain how a project will affect the environment, and the Environmental Management Plan (EMP), which is meant to set out how those impacts will be minimised.

He examined the adequacy of the ecological assessment as a whole, with particular focus on the bird surveys, and measured it against two internationally recognised benchmarks.

Gash found that Yntegra’s EIA submitted in support of its Rosewood Exuma project and the survey programme behind it, he writes, are "wholly inadequate for a site of this ecological sensitivity”.

You can read a summary of the report and the full report on our website at the following link: https://www.turtlegrassresort.com/blog/an-expert-found-yntegras-environmental-case-for-sampson-cay-wholly-inadequate

30/09/2026

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Supreme Court’sdecision in the Rosewood Exuma dispute could determine how future developments across The Bahamas are required to comply with the country’s environmental laws, according to former Environment Minister Romauld Ferreira.