BIMINI, Bahamas -- Minister of Tourism the Hon. Obie Wilchcombe was in Alice Town, Bimini February 9 for the arrival of the fast ferry M/V Maverick, out of the Port of Miami.

The 124 feet vessel brought 89 passengers, who were met at the Government Dock with the sounds of Junkanoo music.

(BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

NASSAU, Bahamas -- Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes receives a gift from visiting students from the Louise McDonald School, Bimini, during a courtesy call at Government House February 1.

(BIS Photo/Letisha Henderson)

ALICE TOWN, Bimini — The Bimini Big Game Club Resort & Marina announced plans Monday for a unique one-day guaranteed shark encounter experience that will also help fund regional shark tagging and conservation efforts through a partnership with the Shark-Free Marinas initiative.

The Bimini Bull Run is a first for the global shark diving industry, providing divers and non-divers with an up-close and personal adrenaline packed thrill of shark encounters from the safety of specially designed cage systems attached directly to the docks at The Big Game Club Marina. The system will employ a unique “Hooka’ air system, allowing non-certified divers to experience the opportunity in addition to those certified divers who would prefer to SCUBA.

“You can fly from South Florida, check into your hotel room and be in a Shark Cage all in less than an hour,” said Michael Weber, Big Game Club General Manager.

For those who prefer to stay firmly on dry land, the Bimini Big Game Club is also constructing a new bar at Bimini Bull Run to allow those interested in an educational look at these wonderful sharks from behind safety rails.  Bimini Big Game Club also conducts other types of dive expeditions in Bimini, a tiny, but historically significant Bahamas out-island less than 30 minutes flight-time from Southeast Florida.  The 51-room resort and marina offers various wreck and reef dives, thrilling offshore shark dives, and world-class offshore big game fishing trips and well as a variety of family-friendly watersport activities.

Weber said the Bimini Bull Run operation will feature safe encounters with a variety of sharks, including Bull, Tiger and Lemon sharks.

ALICE TOWN, Bimini -- The Bimini Big Game Club Resort & Marina has announced that there will be a Hemingway fishing in their Wahoo Smackdown II tournament scheduled for February 21-23rd.

John Hemingway, grandson of the world-renowned author Ernest Hemingway, will be trolling the same Gulf Stream waters next month as his famous grandfather, whose fishing exploits aboard his beloved “Pilar” helped put this tiny Bahamas out island on the global map in the 1930s.

Ernest Hemingway was an early apostle to the Bimini experience in the 1930s, where he drank, brawled and wrote his way through several fishing seasons, traveling back and forth between home in Key West and his beloved “Island in the Stream.”  

His creative workshop was the Compleat Angler and his characterisations came from a world populated by giant blue marlin, bluefin tuna and schools of sharks almost too large to count.  With his literary acclaim and sporting prowess, Hemingway, together with countless other kindred spirits, established Bimini as the 'Big Game Fishing Capital of the World' — home today to some 50 world record catches and counting.

NASSAU, The Bahamas - The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, is pleased to report that the homes damaged or destroyed during the passage of Hurricane Irene in 2011 are completed and occupied.

On August 24, 2011, Hurricane Irene, a Category 3 storm with 120 mph winds, passed through The Bahamas directly hitting the islands of Mayaguana, Crooked Island, Acklins, Cat Island, Long Island, Exuma, Rum Cay, San Salvador, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera, and Moore's Island and Sweeting's Cay.

In the aftermath of the storm, about 3,353 structures were assessed on 11 islands and two cays and more than 75 percent sought some degree of assistance from the Government of The Bahamas.

NEMA through its Repair and Reconstruction Programme managed the repairs and reconstruction throughout the islands through providing materials, employing local repair teams and awarding of contracts for major repairs and reconstruction of homes that were deemed unusable or destroyed.

A number of residents moved into newly constructed houses for the Christmas 2012 and New Year, 2013 - two in Rum Cay, two in Cat Island, one in Long Island, 12 in Acklins, one in San Salvador and three in Abaco. The houses are one, two or three bedroom homes of a value between $50,000 – $75,000 each, including labour and materials.

Captain Stephen Russell, Director of NEMA thanked the many sponsors and donors for their contributions toward the Hurricane Irene relief, repair and reconstruction efforts.

KEMP'S BAY, South Andros -- The newly appointed South Andros Local Government Junior Council poses with local government council members and stakeholders, during the Swearing-In Ceremony for the new South Andros Local Government Junior Council, at the school in Kemp's Bay, South Andros, on January 21, 2013.  

(BIS Photo Gallery / Eric Rose)

EXUMA, Bahamas -- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works and Urban Development the Hon. Philip Davis (centre) greets Senior Deputy Administrator Theophilus Cox, as Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Local Government the Hon. Anthony Moss looks on, as he arrived in George Town, Exuma, for his recent tour of infrastructural works, with senior Department of Works officials and other stakeholders.  (BIS Photo / Eric Rose)