New daily anchoring fees for Exuma Land and Sea Park

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by alansmith

Can you blame them for foreigners coming into their waters and they want to make a living and feed their families? You think this is the only place that will be doing this? Or do you think that they are an aberration in their request to pay as you use their pristine waters?

I am always amazed at how entitled we become when we use other country's resources and then get all butt hurt when they say they would like compensation for it. Just because you got a free ticket for the last couple of decades (or years) doesn't mean we should get offended that they now want compensation for it. You are crapping in their waters and fishing...and whatever.

This is the real world nowadays. Forget what you got away with for free in bygone days. Sense of entitlement doesn't play well ...and seriously...just be grateful that you got it for free for so many years. Cruising permit is one thing.

Look at the Florida Keyes...those days are long gone also and will never be back what they were in the 70's. All prime time cruising areas will go that way eventually as gov't look for revenue to protect resources and manpower to protect what is rightfully theirs.

I don't think I'm being illogical or unfair to our creed as cruisers. It is just the way it is and not unfair of the Bahamians to do it. My only surprise is why did it take them so long to do it?

You do realize they charge $300 for cruising permit....??

[Rorzech]

Poor run down equipment low wages infrastructure falling apart , just means the big boys are keeping the profits and reinvesting nothing back into their cash cow. Just politics and greed.The world is a big place. Exumas need us we don't need Exumas. We'll see how how cruisers respond when the next big hurricane bulldozes its way through the Exumas. I would rather go where I'm welcome ,like in the hurricane ravaged countries and islands that got wiped out by Urma. Thats where i feel that my few cruiser dollars would be of better use.
I just stroked Exumas off my itinerary check list .

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by DotDun

You do realize they charge $300 for cruising permit....??

Maybe they're trying to discourage you.. and its not been working..

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Maybe they're trying to discourage you.. and its not been working..

That might be it!!!

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Maybe they're trying to discourage you.. and its not been working..

I’m more inclined to believe that they are thing “Hey they pay this and keep coming back so they will also pay this!”

[Vasco]

You obviously don't understand what the situation is in the Bahamas. The Park is now run by political appointees. The revenue does not filter down to folks that "want to make a living and feed their families" .

There has not been a "free ticket" for years. When I first went there in 1991 there was no charge but since then there's been a cruising fee and mooring charges in the Park.

The cruisers were the main volunteers in cleaning up the Park and maintaining it. Do some research and I hope you will better understand the situation. Read some of Pavlidis' writings on the Park.

[Vasco]

The above is directed at alansmith's uninformed post.

[svigue]

Wow!! You whiners complaining about fees shouldn't consider going elsewhere- you SHOULD just go Please!! Go to a park in the Caribbean and see what you pay. Go to a national park in the States and see what you pay. It's a small fee. Deal with it or go somewhere else!

[Voyager37]

Originally Posted by alansmith

I am always amazed at how entitled we become when we use other country's resources and then get all butt hurt when they say they would like compensation for it. Just because you got a free ticket for the last couple of decades (or years) doesn't mean we should get offended that they now want compensation for it. You are crapping in their waters and fishing...and whatever.

What resources exactly is an anchored boat consuming? They already charge $300 for a fishing and cruising permit which would cover entry paperwork, any fish you might catch, and still leave some profit for the bigwigs in Nassau (and most of the time that just means $300 less that ends up being spent at local businesses). Heres a genius idea: if they dont want people crapping in the ocean, maybe install pumpout stations and charge people to use them?

The Exuma Land and Sea Park was set up as a no take zone, to counteract the effects of overfishing and serve as a nursery to replinish local waters. Millions of dollars of conch (a declining resource) gets exported outside of the country every year. How many millions does the fishing industry and export bring in? How about taxing the commercial fishing industry that benefits from the longterm health of the fisheries population, and created the need for a no take zone in the first place? Nah, those guys have too much pull in Nassau, easier to tax and restrict the right of navigation of tourists who have little say in the matter.

They have gotten by without anchoring fees for over 50 years. Apparently they get 175,000 per year from mooring fees, but somehow they claim it now costs them 600,000 to run said mooring field. Looks like bad management, and an ever expanding bureaucracy to me. I doubt their total revenue will go up much, might even go down. Likely they'll be getting more money per boat, but have less boats.

[Voyager37]

Originally Posted by svigue

Go to a national park in the States and see what you pay.!

I've read the Everglades National Park charges exactly $0 for anchoring in the park.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by svigue

Wow!! You whiners complaining about fees shouldn't consider going elsewhere- you SHOULD just go Please!! Go to a park in the Caribbean and see what you pay. Go to a national park in the States and see what you pay. It's a small fee. Deal with it or go somewhere else!

Do explain the fees in a US National Park.

Not whining....paid for several mooring balls in Exuma Park. Not sure I agree with anchoring fees. Not enough reason to pay to anchor inside the park if you have to pay.

[alansmith]

I am informed my friends. U may not like my point of view. What is it u don't understand about it is their country not yours ? Yes I understand a entrance fee is charged. I remember years ago when it went up and people were like your posts today?

If we were to judge how much money filters down to regular folks as our guideline as to whether it is appropriate it or not... u can guess where that debate would go. Your sense of entitlement is thinly veiled.

If Bahamians want to charge more for revenue... and u don't want to go... because u believe some fat cat is skimming off the top or sucking it down to the last swill then write a letter to the gov't of the Bahamas and plead your case. If you want to sail to other venues I am delighted to see less boats crapping in their waters. Me, 'I'll render unto Ceasar what is his."

My whole point is simple. It is their country so deal with their laws or stay away. If you think coastlines ... especially pristine ones... are going to be less regulated over the next couple of decades... I'll sell u a bridge I own in Lake Havasu for cheap.

[406Columbia]

Originally Posted by alansmith

I am informed my friends. U may not like my point of view. What is it u don't understand about it is their country not yours ? Yes I understand a entrance fee is charged. I remember years ago when it went up and people were like your posts today?

If we were to judge how much money filters down to regular folks as our guideline as to whether it is appropriate it or not... u can guess where that debate would go. Your sense of entitlement is thinly veiled.

If Bahamians want to charge more for revenue... and u don't want to go... because u believe some fat cat is skimming off the top or sucking it down to the last swill then write a letter to the gov't of the Bahamas and plead your case. If you want to sail to other venues I am delighted to see less boats crapping in their waters. Me, 'I'll render unto Ceasar what is his."

My whole point is simple. It is their country so deal with their laws or stay away. If you think coastlines ... especially pristine ones... are going to be less regulated over the next couple of decades... I'll sell u a bridge I own in Lake Havasu for cheap.

You clearly don't like other points of view here either. Which is perfectly fine, the beauty of all this is the ultimate vote occurs with the dollars. I also wouldn't consider it a sense of entitlement (getting something for nothing), the cruising fee already is 300 dollars. The additional daily rate for no additional services seems to me a bit silly, but too easy I just wouldn't go. No big deal right? But the same mentality you speak of (entitlement) might be that they provide nothing more at all yet believe they are entitled to more of your money, does that sound right?

What I do think is funny though is that someone here tried to compare the prices to using a park in the U.S. Not even close anywhere I have ever been. Yosemite, Yellowstone nor Glacier charge those sorts of fees. But the modest fees you do pay provide real infrastructure. They offer tables, trash service, wells and fountains, clean bathrooms, maintained roads, fire pits, walkways, etc.

But to be honest this isn't a new story. Governments aren't exactly known for the most efficient management of resources and the worlds history is replete with examples.

But like you said, we don't have to go and its there country so they are welcome to manage it as they see fit.

[Delancey]

The park is operated by the Bahamian National Trust, which is a non-profit organization charged with maintaining some 25 different parks throughout the Bahamas.

From what I have seen in the past they have at best piss-poor resources. Given that the new marina on Norman's Cay will be opening soon enough I am all for the anchoring fee if it means they will actually have some park wardens on the water enforcing rules.

Dickheads who the ignore rules and drive their motorized dinks up the southern creeks on Shroud don't exactly enhance the experience of anyone on a paddle board hoping to get back to nature. The new marina on Normans will only make this worse.

Of course poaching is a problem in the Bahamas in general and I think in the park in particular. Yeah, you cruisers who take from the park know who you are. Maybe you would be less likely if you thought there was a chance you could get busted.

Also, nice to see that the Mega yachts will finally start to at least pay something for spoiling the skyline. It makes no sense to me that they pay the same $300 cruising permits everyone else. You ever see them send crew to shore to set up tents and lounge chairs and tiki bars on the beach? You think those foreign yacht crews working on Bahamian soil have work permits?

Again, maybe if the park actually had the staff required to discourage these types of activities there might not be so much of it.

Time will tell how this actually plays out. Rules are one thing, enforcement another. If I had the kind of limited resources the park has I would spend a lot more time chasing down +$100 power boaters than I would spend chasing down -$20 sailors.

The cheapskates will go elsewhere, fine by me.

[DotDun]

Every night I’ve stayed in the park has been on a mooring ball for $30/night. I found value so I paid. I don’t find as much value in using their sand to place my ground tackle when I can sail past the park in 3 hours and anchor on the outside.

I’m really curious how they are going to collect the money. Put more collection boxes like at Cambridge? Or is the park warden boat going to stop at every anchored boat, I’ve watched him stop at boats on mooring balls if he doesn’t find your $$ in the box at Cambridge. Online is non-existent inside the park.