Executive Director of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), Eric Carey, extended his sincere apologies to all boaters that visit The Bahamas year after year today.

During the Exuma Business Outlook forum Director Carey answered a question from the floor that painted annual boaters in a less than flattering light. He and the BNT Executive team acknowledge that comments such as those should not have been made considering that the yachting; sailing and small craft boaters who visit the islands have a significant impact and role in the Bahamian economy, tourism and environmental longevity.

Since its inception in 1958 the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park has been a premier anchoring location for boaters who visit The Bahamas. Recently the BNT introduced anchorage fees due to the increased annual operational cost of repairs and upkeep of the Bahamas’ oldest National park. In Mr. Carey’s passion to defend his organization’s need to increase income to support the Park’s operations, he suggested that the residents of Elizabeth Harbour install moorings to help with their efforts to clean up and restore their harbor. Some residents made comments to the effect that some boaters were not willing to pay for moorings. Carey unfortunately went on record to support the comments and agreed that some of these boaters do not contribute significantly to the economy.

“The comments which I made at the Exuma Business Outlook Conference are not the views of the Trust,” noted Carey. “We welcome all visitors and most importantly boaters in The Bahamas – not only to the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park but throughout The Bahamas.”

Carey continued “international boaters are significant contributors to our economy and specifically to the more boutique islands which are not visited my mainstream tourists. In addition hundreds are annual supporters of the Trust through membership, valued Support Fleet members, the payment of mooring fees or by donating much needed personal resources to the protection of the marine environment. I offer my heartfelt apologies and hope that all boaters will continue to visit The Bahamas.”

Well the first thing you have to do is put in in the context. We were talking agt the conference about the many problems being caused by anchor damage in many popular moorings. It was following a point I made about our new anchorage fees in the Exuma Park.

Local residents from Exuma were also offering the opinion that the quality of the habitat and the water quality in Elizabeth Harbour is also being negatively impacted by the hundreds(?) of boats that anchor there in the winter months. I did encourage them to follow the example of what we have done in the Exuma Park, and consider putting in more mooring balls and charging boaters to use them as a way of protecting our resource, and also earning money to help the local Elizabeth Harbour NGO in their efforts to clean up and restore the area.

There were comments that many of boaters are too "Cheap" and will not want to pay. I agreed that MANY of the boaters who come to the Bahamas indeed offer very little to the bahamian economy. I did state that MANY of them do spend very little as they come fully provisioned for the winter and indeed eat much of what they catch from our oceans. Social media and the many blogs give us access information we never had before. I'm always intrigued by how many fresh seafood dinners and lunches, conch salads etc are enjoyed by your boating colleagues. Most of it is of course quite legal, but I'd love to see a study that shows what this really valued at.

I would be anxious to hear your data on how much is contributed by the average boater who does not use marinas or purchase fuel, to the economy. This is a figure that will be very useful to quantify as I can tell with full confidence, that the general view prevails that many of these types of boaters get more out the Bahamas than they put back. If anyone has data to counter this this would be useful.

I'm well aware that there are many many responsible boaters who love our country and who do want to contributesignificantly and help us protect our resources so that THEY can continue to enjoy them. But there are bad apples as well. We encounter them all over the Bahamas.

Everytime the Bahamas seeks to implement any policy or increase that will cause boaters to pay more there are these threats to abandon the destination. And yes we lose some everytime. But I will never apologise for any intiative we implement that seeks to help protect our resources. For the "el cheapo smoochers" who don't want to pay anything, we always expect the backlash. But for those who love the Bahamas and understand how much it cost to keep it beautiful, and to keep fish in our oceans, they do get the picture and will be less resistant to these necessary iniatives.

Those who get pissed of and leave vowing never to come back, I'm not sure we should, as a country, worry too much about this "loss".