By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) has branded the now-aborted plan to “privatise” boat moorings throughout the Exuma Cays as “unfathomable” given the absence of strong regulatory safeguards.

The national parks manager, in a statement to Tribune Business, voiced relief that the controversial Bahamas Moorings deal is not proceeding given that this nation lacks the necessary supervisory framework to “impose accountability” on private managers and operators of moorings/anchorages throughout the archipelago.

And, backing the Prime Minister’s mid-year Budget announcement that the Government plans to consult widely, and transparently, with all relevant stakeholders over the creation of a “national strategic plan for the management of mooring fields” in the wake of the fiasco, the BNT said it was critical that such facilities benefit both the environment and communities/economies where they are located.

It also hinted that it was aware of the Bahamas Moorings project prior to its public disclosure by Tribune Business and others, but said the “early and numerous concerns” voiced to government officials had only been “partially addressed”. And it called on the Government to use the mooring scheme for Moriah Harbour Cay National Park and Elizabeth Harbour as the model for its proposed national strategy.

Meanwhile Peter Maury, the Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) president, told this newspaper that the body and its members will “100 percent participate” in any public consultation on the development of a national moorings/anchorage strategy given the potential impact for the industry and its boating/yachting clients.

He disclosed that he had applied for a Crown Land seabed lease and other approvals to establish a mooring field off New Providence some four to five years ago and was “turned down flat”. The ABM chief also revealed that discussions were held with the Minnis administration in 2019 about marinas taking over, managing and developing moorings off the islands where they were based but the idea was never advanced,.

Mr Maury also affirmed he and the ABM “absolutely” agree with Prime Minister Philip Davis KC that it is “non-negotiable” visiting boaters, including foreign yacht charters, must pay fees and taxes that help finance conservation of The Bahamas’ marine environment and its protection by the security forces in return for exploiting these nation’s waters for economic benefit.

However, apart from achieving fee and taxation levels that are acceptable to all concerned, the ABM president reiterated that boaters need “a vehicle to make the payment” to the Government. Mr Maury also cited the bureaucratic and cumbersome entry process for boaters to clear into The Bahamas, and the ongoing failure to replace the industry’s now-shuttered SeaZPass online portal with a government-funded replacement.

The BNT, in its statement, said The Bahamas must both establish and enforce a stronger regulatory regime before any deals similar to Bahamas Moorings - which had been granted a now-rescinded 21-year lease over 4,165 seabed acres, comprising 49 mooring sites spread throughout the Exuma Cays - are considered by the Government.

Stating it is “relieved” that both parties “mutually agreed” to cancel the lease, the BNT disclosed: “In addition to the lack of transparency and public consultation regarding the proposed deal, the BNT had voiced early and numerous concerns to government officials which remained partially unaddressed at the time of the project’s public disclosure.....

“Moorings require substantial routine maintenance and oversight. A privatised network could have significant liability and environmental implications in the absence of national regulations to ensure this. As it stands, The Bahamas lacks the regulatory framework to impose accountability for such an undertaking.

“The idea of establishing a mooring network without sufficient regulatory standards in place is unfathomable, and can directly impact the safety of the very areas the moorings are meant to help sustain. The fragile nature of our marine environment demands this gap be addressed as the first step before any proposed mooring network is established.”

Mr Davis, following the Government’s back tracking on the Bahamas Moorings deal, it was not abandoning the general principle of establishing a more robust moorings regulatory regime. “As this matter has been discussed over the last few days, many Bahamians spoke in favour of improving participation in and oversight of the process governing moorings,” the Prime Minister said. 

“That makes a lot of sense. Our waters belong to all of us, and our marine policies can only benefit from broader and deeper public consultation. It is important to me that we have policies which Bahamians can contribute to and trust, which is why we have committed to moving forward with developing a new national strategic plan for the management of moorings.

“Arrangements involving moorings have traditionally been handled ad hoc, and one at a time, within the existing legal and regulatory framework, but as science and technology and the climate are all in flux, we can benefit from updating and more clearly defining and implementing our country’s policies,” he added.

“We intend to move forward quickly to seek advice and input from citizens, local government officials, boaters, fishermen, marina owners, marine conservation experts and others. We have an important opportunity to update our country’s policies, with an openness to new solutions, although of course we will start from the non-negotiable premise that The Bahamas is a sovereign nation, and that if you enter our jurisdiction, you will compensate Bahamians for doing so.”

The BNT, in its statement, acknowledged the environmental and local economy benefits that mooring fields can deliver as it urged the Government to adopt an already-existing model. “Mooring programmes can be a great way to support local communities, local government and protected areas,” it said.

“In 2023, the BNT and the Elizabeth Harbour Conservation Partnership (EHCP) implemented a joint mooring programme for Moriah Harbour Cay National Park (MHCNP) and Elizabeth Harbour in Great Exuma. Proper approvals and stakeholder engagement were a key part of this project in its early phases, and continue to be an important part of park management decision-making.

“In fact, the mooring programmes in MHCNP and Elizabeth Harbour are sustainable models that use environmentally-friendly moorings to ensure the protection of critical habitats, such as seagrass and coral reefs. By working together and with relevant government agencies, partnership between the BNT and the EHCP will in the long term support the operations of pump out services to eliminate the vexing issues of waste management in these high boat traffic areas,” the BNT added.

“It is not known if a privatised mooring programme would have the capacity to do this or be compelled to support such services. It is critical that any mooring programme that may be implemented in the future gives due care and consideration to such impacts, and takes extensive measures to duplicate our sustainable efforts.”

Calling on the Government and wider Bahamas to learn the lessons from the aborted Bahamas Moorings deal, the BNT said it “understands the environmental benefits of strategically placed, sustainably implemented, and properly maintained moorings, and we support their installation where necessary, practical and regulated, especially where local communities’ benefit.

“BNT hopes that, ultimately, the questions raised by the now-abandoned moorings deal including the necessity of the endeavour, the design of the mooring system, and the potential negative impact on sustainable revenue streams for national park operations and on local economies will result in the implementation of national regulations and oversight of privatised mooring programmes.”

Mr Maury, meanwhile, recalled how his moorings proposal was rejected in contrast to Bahamas Moorings. “I had applied for Crown Land and a mooring field because the boats were breaking loose in the marina all the time, and I was flat turned down,” he revealed. “It was in Nassau about four to five years ago. I sat with the Port director and everyone else.”

And, disclosing a bigger industry-wide moorings push when the ABM was discussing the SeaZPass portal and collecting boating-related fees on the Government’s behalf, Mr Maury said: “One of the things we talked about was, for each island, every individual marina or marina group on that particular island would have some oversight of mooring fields and navigation aids because we can do it at far greater speed than the Government. 

“That was in 2019. I guess they hijacked the idea. It goes into the Prime Minister’s Office and everyone gets their hands on it.” Mr Maury reiterated that a portion of the cruising permit and yacht charter fees collected via SeaZPass were supposed to be reinvested in navigational aids, mooring facilities and other marine infrastructure to support the industry, but this never happened.

“We proposed in the discussions at the time a kind of a mooring system to get to the different Family Islands where we provided safe routes that were lighted and everything else,” he added. “All the money we collected at no cost to the Government, we got nothing back.”

As for the Prime Minister’s stance that foreign boaters must contribute to the upkeep of Bahamian waters and the marine environment, Mr Maury added: ‘We have no problem with that. The boats have been paying.  It’s the vehicle and way they pay that’s faulty. We can show it to you, prove it to you. The problem is there’s no vehicle to make the payment” online in an efficient, swift and user-friendly manner.

The ABM president reiterated that the Government had yet to provide a replacement for SeaZPass some three years after the private sector was told to shut the portal down. This was despite issuing a contract to DigieSoft Technologies and allocating the required $3.55m financing in the 2024-2025 Budget.