Two proposals have been received to build marinas in Coral Bay near the shorelines and waters of Virgin Islands National Park and Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument/NPS

While one marina project proposed for a bay that includes waters and shorelines of Virgin Islands National Park has been put on hold due to unanswered questions, a second marina is being proposed for the bay.

The first proposal, by the Summer's End Group, if approved would lead to one of the largest marinas in the Caribbean, according to opponents. Joe Kessler, president of Friends of Virgin Islands National Park, has said the marina would pose a "significant threat" to waters protected by the national park and Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, would eliminate 8 acres of seagrass beds, impact water flows, and "add an unknown amount and number of contaminants to the bay waters from all the vessels and generally lead to severe degradation of water quality."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has been studying the permit request, placed the application on hold pending responses by the developers "to 133 concerns raised by the community," Mr. Kessler said via email late last week. "While we had obviously hoped that they would have folded the tents (or pulled up their anchors) and left, they are apparently working away at responding. This will be a time-consuming and expensive undertaking as some of the responses will require extensive study and analysis."

Some parts of the national park run up to the waters of Coral Bay, and roughly half of the bay is within the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument. The bay, which touches Hurricane Hole and Round Bay in the national monument, is popular with snorkelers and scuba divers drawn to its warm waters and brilliantly hued fisheries and corals. The bay also is popular with sharks, as lemon, black tip, and nurse sharks use it as a nursery, according to a study for the Coral Bay Community Council.

As proposed, the marina could accommodate upwards of 150 vessels.

Going on record as opposing the marina were the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Park Service.

"After reviewing the available data, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency believes that this project will result in significant impacts to aquatic resources of national significance," the EPA wrote in its letter to the Army Corps. "EPA thus strongly recommends the denial of a Department of Army permit for this project."

The agency noted that the bay "serves as a nursery ground and provides habitat for numerous species, such as the green sea turtle, the hawksbill sea turtle, as well as juvenile tarpon, and snook."

In its letter of opposition, the Park Service pointed out that the Hurricane Hole area of the national monument is only a mile as the crow flies from the proposed marina. The waters of the monument, the letter added, provide habitat for a rich variety of marinelife, including Humpback whales, pilot whales, least terns, brown pelicans, and three species of sea turtles.

"The submerged monument lands within Hurricane Hole support the most extensive pristine and well-developed mangrove habitat on St. John," wrote Virgin Islands National Park Superintendent Brion Fitzgerald. "The monument provides spawning stocks and critical developmental habitats that allow for the restoration of depleted fishery resources and enhancement of adjacent fishing grounds. The area offers outstanding opportunities for education and scientific research due to the diversity, complexity and relationship of natural resources and provides a dynamic library for study and learning."

Summer's End Group co-principal Chaliese Summers told the Virgin Islands Daily News that, "We are looking forward to bringing St. John her first marina, providing much needed jobs to the families of St. John, improving the environment of Coral Harbor, and working with generational St. Johnians to restore Coral Bay to the thriving community that she once was."

Meanwhile, another group has applied for a similar permit to establish a 92-slip marina on the northwest side of the bay. The proposed marina would feature a dock covering approximately 40,000 square feet, would include a boat ramp nearly 20 feet wide, and impact a little more than one acre of seagrass beds and less than two-tenths of an acre of mangroves. The developer does propose to mitigate these impacts by planting additional mangroves, removing "abandoned, derelict vessels that have been thrown into the mangroves in past hurricanes and tropical storms," and restoring any seagrass beds damaged during the marina's construction and during its operations.

"We knew this was coming but thought it would be smaller and more mindful of the concerns raised by the larger marina," Mr. Kessler said. "We are beginning the process of determining what our response strategy will be."