Most of the sewage in the Caribbean islands is either not treated or only undergoing primary treatment. In coastal areas near such harbors and population centers as Kingston, Jamaica, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Havana, Cuba, this leads to poor water qualit y and aesthetic assault on bathing beaches. Some respondents in the Virgin Islands complained about people taking their dogs to the beach early in the morning and considered that the major problem under "Other Problems" category in our 1995 questionnaire . Port of Spain, Trinidad, releases it sewage in ponds close to the Caroni Mangrove Swamp, where, if all goes well, the filtering action of the wetlands would constitute commendable natural recycling.
Some scientists (Officer & Ryther, 1977) even deny the need for advanced sewage effluent treatment which is going to be disposed into the sea. Whereas many oceanographers disagree with the U.S. Congress' outlawing of ocean dumping of sewage sludge (Oostda m, 1983, Segar, 1996, in press). On more effluent islands, waste dumps and derelict cars and refrigerators have become a problem and the solution to incorporate them into artificial reefs looks appealing. Islands close to shipping lanes, e.g. Anguilla, e xperience solid waste strandings, and many complaints about waste disposal at sea by cruise vessels have led to more stringent regulations and recent (1995) combined efforts by IMO and The World Bank to set up appropriate reception facilities for ship's w astes (World Bank, 1995).
The importance which public perception accords to the sewage and waste disposal problem is clear in that it rated highest (3.1 on a scale of 1-5, see Fig. 5) of the ten hazards and problems in our 1995 survey.
