To hear our city leaders speak, you would think that Key West's entire future depends on keeping cruise ship operators happy. Indeed, whenever concerns are raised about the ships' impact on our environment or our quality of life, most Key West officials have a nasty habit of putting the interests of the cruise ship industry ahead of the public interest.
Consider the last time the subject of cruise ship disembarkation fees came before the City Commission, back in 1999. Mayor Jimmy Weekley, who was then a commissioner, successfully pushed for a ridiculously low $6.50 per passenger fee with a paltry fifty-cent increase each year for three years— keeping Key West's fee lower than that of every Caribbean port. At the time, the disembarkation fee in Jamaica was $18 per passenger and a whopping $60 in Bermuda, which also strictly limits the number of ships allowed to visit and the number of passengers each can bring.
Backing Weekley's proposal were consultants from the firm of Bermillo and Ajamil, which had been hired by the City to conduct a study on disembarkation fees. But unknown (supposedly) to anyone at the time, the firm turned out to be closely connected to the cruise ship industry, a fact that it went great lengths to hide when bidding for the job. Not surprisingly, the study turned out to be incomplete and misleading, comparing Key West to cruise destinations that had little in common with our island.
And as usual, city officials parroted the doomsday scenarios conjured up by the representatives of the cruise ship industry, who turned out in force for the meeting. City Manager Julio Avael warned that milking the sacred cow would kill it, that raising the disembarkation fee would cause cruise ship companies to go elsewhere, depriving the city of a big chunk of its annual budget. But this is sheer nonsense. Cruise ships come to Key West because Key West is where their customers want to go, period. It's just plain silly to suggest that cruise ship operators would abandon Key West just because an increased fee would boost the cost of a multi-thousand-dollar trip by five or ten bucks.
And if we doubled the disembarkation fee, we could lose half of the visitors we now have with no decline in city revenue from the fees— while significantly reducing environmental and other impacts.
But Avael's dramatic presentation had its intended effect, and the commission rejected calls for a more reasonable fee. Now, as the city prepares to reexamine the disembarkation fee structure, the big players are already scrambling to freeze the fee at $8 per passenger. And even as the City Manager warns that serious city budget cuts are inevitable next year, he is once again leading the charge for a low fee, ominously hinting that some Caribbean islands may actually be paying cruise ship companies to bring passengers to their ports— a reverse disembarkation fee, if you will. Like many other city officials that act as cheerleaders for the cruise ship industry, Avael refuses to admit that cruise ships are anything but a godsend to Key West. And the City Commission consistently resists studying the impact of cruise ships on our nearshore waters, our infrastructure and our long-term economic health.
A primary concern is the effects that cruise ships have on other types of tourists, many of whom are put off by the tacky, frenzied atmosphere that accompanies cruise ship activity. On many Caribbean islands, the huge volume of cruise ship passengers, who spend only a few hours and a lot less money on average than other tourists, have driven away long-time visitors who stayed longer and spent more. This has brought about the demise of many old established hotels, restaurants and unique locally-owned small businesses, eroding the charm that brought visitors to these islands in the first place.
City leaders also fail to closely examine just how much the city economically benefits from cruise ships once all the costs are considered. For example, the city has paid out huge sums for cruise ship-centered infrastructure improvements at Mallory Square, a fact that is never mentioned by city officials pushing the cruise ship agenda.
Another cost our city leaders refuse to acknowledge is an environmental one. Professional lobster divers, fishing guides, pleasure boaters and conservationists all have raised concerns about the immense plume of silt stirred up every time a cruise ship arrives or departs. Besides turning the water muddy, the silt blankets critical underwater habitat, smothering corals and other sea life.
You can imagine the impact on days when cruise ships fill all three docks and another is anchored out. And cruise ship operators— like industry giant Royal Caribbean, whose ships are frequent visitors to Key West— have been embarrassed by several highly-publicized garbage and sewage dumping incidents in recent years.
Unlike our Key West government officials, some leaders across the nation are standing up to the cruise ship industry and sticking up for the best interest of all their constituents. Alaska's governor is pushing legislation that would give the state the same regulatory power over cruise ships that it exercises over oil companies and other environmentally-destructive industries. The bill would set strict discharge standards and allow state inspectors to board ships to collect samples.
Key West has reached a critical crossroads in our relationship with the cruise ship industry. It's time to call their bluff and do what is right for the long-term best interests of our island. We have to decide now whether we're going to control the impacts of cruise ships— as Alaska's governor is working to do— or be controlled by them.