Comment history

Ajchan says...

Do you know this to be true or are you speculating? If true were you there?

Ajchan says...

I am frankly surprised that the trustees of the Bahamian National Trust would permit the unsubstantiated bombast of the chairman Eric Carey to stand unchallenged. His comment

....“They come down there they anchor and they pay absolutely nothing and they come fully stocked. Half of the time they don’t even spend $5 in the Bahamas and what do they eat? Our fish,”....

is unsubstantiated and irresponsible. I am a regular visitor to the Bahamas and in addition to the $300 entry fee, I spend thousands of dollars annually on fuel, food and services. To imply that boaters are opportunistic free loaders who do nothing to contribute to the local economy is untrue and inflammatory. Adopting a stance of "pay or go elsewhere" is short sighted and will harm local businesses as many people will actually chose to go elsewhere.

While a dialogue on how to protect the natural beauty of the Bahamas is long over due, to single out boaters as the sole source of environmental stress is naive. Instead of engaging the cruising community as a partner and a resource, Mr. Carey seems to view visitors on boats as a troublesome burden who should be exploited at will.

Eric Carey has done the Bahamas National Trust a disservice with his ham fisted undiplomatic remarks and he should be sanctioned by his trustees for alienating visitors and potential visitors to the Bahamas.