[Coral-List] Cruise ships

[Alex Brylske]

Not only is the spending from the average cruise passenger modest ($80/passenger from a recent survey in Key West), the funds aren’t shared on anything approaching an equitable basis. Some businesses—often the most influential—capture the lion’s share of the income while most businesses (especially the community-based tourism outfits) see little if anything.


Alex Brylske, Ph.D.
President
2364 SW Valnera St.
Port Saint Lucie, FL 34953
954-701-1966 (phone)
brylske at me.com <mailto:brylske at me.com>
www.oceaneducationinternational.com <http://www.oceaneducationinternational.com/>





> On Dec 13, 2019, at 3:39 PM, Dennis Hubbard via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> 
> Hi Gene:
> 
> Interesting observations re cruise ships. My only experience with the kinds
> of vessels you describe comes from a long period of time in the USVI. St.
> Thomas is probably the best correlative to what you saw. As qa marine
> consultant for years, I worked for the VI Port Authority and had access to
> their visitation statistics. In the "season", there were typically 5 ships
> in the harbor with 2-3 docked in eastern Charlotte Amalie and the remainder
> either anchored 1) offshore with their passengers transferred in by smaller
> boats or 2) berthed at another facility outside of town and brought in by
> taxi. My observation for those ships that were actually tied up to the
> bulkhead is that most passengers opted to walk into town (ca 3/4 mile)
> rather than take a taxi. Once in town, they generally spent less than an
> hour, tended to spend less than $10 each and focused mostly on cheap
> t-shirts with bad puns printed on them. Port Authority and Dept. of Tourism
> data generally supported these observations.
> 
> The main exception was a small (<100 passengers) luxury vessel catering to
> higher-end folks. They typically spent ca $1000, focusing on higher-end
> jewelry (from Europe) and camera (from Japan) shops. The larger vessels
> were typically in port for part of a day while the smaller vessel stayed ca
> 3 days on average. I have no reason to believe that much has changed except
> that the high-end vessel hasn't come into the UVI for at least a decade.
> 
> So.... if I understand the point you were making, my observations do not
> suggest that the money made from cruise passengers offset the negative
> impacts related to bringing in these large vessels. This is not to say that
> there is no profit - otherwise they would not be coming into port. However,
> the profits appear rather modest to me and the presumption that any
> environmental damage is offset by profits to the port seem optimistic. The
> VI is between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Folks interested in the
> financial side (and in the VI those "profits" can include "a little
> something" in the pocket of a local senator or other high-ranking official)
> are less attuned to the absolute magnitude of the  profits than they are to
> the fact that there are "any" profits, however meager.
> 
> Maybe I'm being the "designated skeptic" here, but I spent 22 years in the
> USVI and saw little that really benefitted the average citizen when it came
> to the cruise industry. Well-to-do folk and those in a position to be
> rewarded on the side were a different story.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Denny
> 
> On Fri, Dec 13, 2019 at 12:59 PM Eugene Shinn via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> 
>> Peter and Steve, I share your concern regarding cruise ships. They are
>> like a double edge sword. Last month I was on a 10-day family trip to
>> the Windward Islands. We stopped at 6 different Islands all of which
>> have large facilities for giant cruise ships. There were as many at 3
>> such ships at one stop and ours was not the largest. We only had about
>> 3,000 people in addition to another 800 crew. Eating and drinking along
>> with shopping and shore trips to beaches and coal reefs appeared to be
>> the most common activity. Everyone was friendly and courteous and I saw
>> no garbage, sewage or other trash going overboard such as was common in
>> the past. What struck me was the number of overweight people (some >100
>> lbs.) at the three swimming pools slathering on sunscreens. The pools
>> were salt water that I assume is recirculated to the ocean. Thanks to
>> Steven Miller a computer search revealed 28 million people took cruises
>> in 2018. Nevertheless it is also obvious this industry provides
>> incredible numbers of jobs including the manufacture of the multitudes
>> of components that go into these giant ships not to mention food liquor
>> and toilet paper. The industry is clearly a boon to our economy
>> including the islands and ports they visit. A list of their economic
>> benefits would likely fill several books. That’s the double edge sword.
>> Gene
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> 
>> No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
>> ------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
>> E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
>> University of South Florida
>> College of Marine Science Room 221A
>> 140 Seventh Avenue South
>> St. Petersburg, FL 33701
>> <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
>> Tel 727 553-1158
>> ---------------------------------- -----------------------------------
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coral-List mailing list
>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Dennis Hubbard
> Chair, Dept of Geology-Oberlin College Oberlin OH 44074
> (440) 775-8346
> 
> * "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
> Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list