And while the community is coming together to assist Ella's Cool Spot, their local taskforce is also working on ridding the beaches of the dreaded sargassum plague. Back in May, we showed you what it looked like down in Hopkins, with mounds of sargassum and aggressive erosion. It was enough to alarm anyone who was used to seeing the pristine Hopkins beach.
But a month later, the situation has gotten a lot better. Courtney Menzies spoke with the chairman today and has this update.
A month ago, Hopkins was a paradise in peril; the seashore was swarming with sargassum and the sand was being swallowed by the sea.
But now, things are looking up for this tiny tourist destination. The sargassum is slowly clearing up and the sand is returning, just as the chairman had predicted. But today, he told us that they are still very proactive in the village.
Macario Augustine, Chairman, Hopkins Village
"It's a natural… procedure whereby the sargassum is going to move itself due to like climate change, and, actually the weather, usually a southeast is going to help the sargassum to disappear, in other words."
"We have already been in collaboration with BTB whereby we're going to purchase some tools. Like I previously said, we have already created our sargassum taskforce that's going to take effect coming up this Monday so we can see what we can do to complete this sargassum situation that we're facing."
"The council is already partnering with some entities to try and at least stop the sargassum before it reaches our seashore, we have already doing some planning to stop the sargassum before it get to our seashore."
And they're also planning on tackling the erosion so that next time around, it's not as dramatic as this year.
Macario Augustine, Chairman, Hopkins Village
"I think it's much better now than a couple weeks before, I mean the sand has already been building up itself due to climate change and the weather."
"Trees are made for Hopkins, so we will plant some trees to try and strengthen as well, the seaside, the seashore, so we can try to stop or limit erosion."
And they have to work fast, or their main income earner will be in danger.
Macario Augustine, Chairman, Hopkins Village
"It will always hinder the tourism industry due to the fact that our visitors and our tourists come to see our beach and come to relax on the beach because this is one of our primary resource, our income generating resource, the beach."
