by DIANE PHILLIPS

The arrest of three foreigners and the seizure of the charter boat they were on in waters off Grand Bahama last week was intended to send a message – fish illegally in the waters of The Bahamas and you will pay the price.

And while the seizure of a sophisticated vessel like the Highly Migratory seems like a serious, even onerous, call for better behaviour and a demand for more respect for the laws of The Bahamas, there’s a deeper issue at play.

What price are we, as Bahamians, paying for others to enjoy the waters that we treasure and the resources we are supposed to husband and steward for generations to come? What are we overlooking as others graze on our fish, conch and crawfish? What laws are different when it comes to labour at the dock from those we must obey on the land where the dock is located?

Please bear with me a moment. I am not in any way suggesting an anti-yachting position or proposing a ban on foreign vessels. Quite the opposite. Like many born elsewhere, including most of our second homeowners and many investors, I came to The Bahamas and fell in love with the country by way of boating. I met my husband at a regatta. We sailed and powerboated for decades, it was our life. Our daughter could run a dinghy with a 15hp by age seven, tie a bowline before she could tie a shoelace. So what I am about to say comes from the voice of someone who appreciates everything that floats from the most basic rowboat with wooden oars to the superyacht with all the toys.

But like others, including businessman Mario Carey who has spoken out about this repeatedly, I am convinced that we have barely scratched the surface of benefits we could derive from yachts and fishing vessels using our waters.

Examine the world of charter boats and recreational yachting as an industry – a highly profitable industry that operates right under our noses, along our shores and traveling throughout our islands. It is a world of enterprise afloat, one most Bahamians will never see. Fishing vessels scoot in from Florida, most hovering around the northern Bahamas, the quick trip to Bimini or the Abacos. The majority of charters run out of Marsh Harbour, Nassau or Exuma. A peek at Palm Cay at the southeastern tip of New Providence shows docks packed to the brim with monohulls and catamarans going out on charter, mostly for week-long experiences to the Exumas, guests renting the number of cabins they need for the excursion, vessels pulling out of and into the bustling marina like traffic outside the gates on a busy morning.

If the world of a Palm Cay, bustling with activity, is the Subaru or Toyota of boat travel, the world of other marinas and private charters that never dock is the Rolls-Royce and Bentley of life afloat.

Yet we have treated them all with the same kid gloves, hands-off approach either for fear of driving the business away or lack of resources and determination to make it fit our needs and benefit our economy as it could.

We have waved the welcome mat and said come on in without requiring yachts to abide by the same laws and policies that govern those on the land adjacent to the docks where they tie up. It’s as if there were two worlds, one for those who can afford to see The Bahamas by yacht or superyacht and another for those who travel by land. I am not in any way wanting to discourage the valuable business of the yachting industry, just asking the question “Would it be so awful to require boats making a living in The Bahamas to engage Bahamians as crew?” What if we set a figure, or percentage, that at least 25 or 50 percent of the crew had to be Bahamian? LJM Maritime Academy graduates are trained and prepared to serve on vessels of every size and manner and while some graduates find work immediately, including luxury yachts, others continue to search for jobs despite the training. And given the range of jobs available from deckhand to stew, engineers, chefs, entertainment right up to captain, why are we afraid to stipulate requirements for work permits for those who spend a given amount of time in The Bahamas?

I hear the plea of some marina operators crying that government fees, including newly-imposed VAT, are driving luxury vessels away. Marinas are large investments, expensive to run and to maintain. I get it, but there are reasons the argument about fees driving away business doesn’t hold as much water as it may appear. The new breed of luxury superyacht is so well-equipped it can drop anchor anywhere. It generates enough power for all its needs and the only reason to pay to tie up is if all the guests want to explore the island, particularly at night, or when the vessel is preparing for a turnover and re-supplying, though most come in fully stocked.

When guests are paying six and seven figures for a private cruise experience, fees do not stop them from wanting to experience the best of everything, including the world’s most beautiful waters. And there are no waters anywhere that compare to those of the Exumas. For those who can afford the price tag of a grand estate to enjoy a week of free-flowing champagne, a saxophonist just for you, all the massages you desire between dips in the sea, four-course meals that stretch on with fine wine for hours, all the bells and whistles of a private luxury-overloaded vacation at sea with every whim and fancy and excursion covered, the fee may raise an eyebrow but in the end is as easily swallowed as the crawfish plunked fresh from Bahamian waters.

At the risk of being repetitive, I love boating. I want others to look at the waters and the sky and the horizon like I do, with wonderment, and to vow, like I do, to protect what they see, to not dump garbage or flush their heads (toilets) overboard, but to use their holding tanks appropriately.

As the most affected, we also have a responsibility. We need to create more pump-out facilities so the vessels that anchor in Montagu Bay or between Balmoral Island and Saunders Beach have a convenient place to tie up and empty their tanks for a reasonable fee. We need additional resources for Fisheries to monitor and stop illegal fishing, both for grouper and crawfish taken in closed season and for overfishing for commercial gain as opposed to legal consumption. We need to add more mooring buoys.

We are a nation of 100,000 miles of open water. The water is our natural highway. It provides sustenance, feeds our bodies and nourishes our souls. It is time that those who use it for recreation and commercial gain in private charters and fishing live by labour laws, tie up to mooring buoys, respect our reefs and marine resources and pay a fair price, just as cruise lines and land-based businesses do, for doing business in The Bahamas. They are, after all, using the largest part of The Bahamas as the foundation for their enterprise. May they enjoy the treasure and treasure the joy as we do, ensuring that it remains as it is today for future generations to experience in its purest form with wonderment and splendour.