The island of Key West in Florida’s far south, with its turquoise waters and extravagant sunsets, invites slow strolls rather than legal battles. But in recent years, major cruise lines have sowed discord there.
These huge ships bring thousands of tourists to this small town of 26,000 people every day.
Many local businesses depend on their presence, but many residents also say they are fed up with these arrivals, like Arlo Haskell, co-founder of Safer Cleaner Ships.
“These cruise lines are an extractive industry that capitalizes on the beauty of Key West while eroding that beauty and ruining everyone’s experience,” he said.
In 2020, his association pushed for three local referendums: one to limit the size of the boats, another to ensure they can’t disembark more than 1,500 people a day, and a final to give preference to more respectful vessels.
The three proposals were approved by 60-80% of voters and ratified by City Hall, a victory for Mr. Haskell. Or so he thought.
In June 2021, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation suspending the measure. The text asserted that voters could not interfere in maritime trade matters.
Shortly before that, the Miami Herald newspaper reported, companies belonging to the owner of Key West’s Pier B (one of the main beneficiaries of cruise arrivals) had donated nearly $1 million to the Friends of Ron DeSantis, a group formed to raise money are raising funds for the governor whose name is floating around for the 2024 presidential election.
– docks closed –
Safer Cleaner Ships has therefore resumed the fight, relying on unexpected data.
During the pandemic, the suspension of cruises hasn’t hurt local finances. On the contrary, in 2021 the city received 25% more sales taxes than in 2019.
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Hotels and restaurants appear to have benefited as Florida pushed ahead with opening up businesses in the midst of Covid-19, when other states in the country imposed heavy restrictions.
Mr. Haskell’s association then tried to mobilize the population to get the town hall to act.
Because the number of cruise ships can’t be capped, the city government last month approved the closure of two public docks in Key West to such ships.
Now these ships can only dock at the city’s only private pier, Pier B, which docks at one cruise ship per day. Gone are the days when two or three of these boats would arrive every day.
Good news for many, but a blow to some companies.
Because while cruise tourists only spend a few hours in town and mostly eat on board their boat, they’re a source of income for souvenir shops, ice cream parlors and places like the Ernest Hemingway Museum, housed in the home of the American writer who lived there between 1931 and 1939, explains Mayor Teri Johnston.
– “Damage” –
The streets of the city are almost deserted on this weekday morning.
Vanessa Wilder is waiting for passengers from a recently arrived boat to rent bikes.
“We get a lot out of these ships,” says the 25-year-old. “If we didn’t have them, many shops here would have to close.”
Mr Haskell welcomes City Hall’s latest action but insists ships arriving at the private wharf should not exceed the size desired by residents.
These boats “are doing a lot of damage to our ecosystem,” he says.
Scott Atwell, a spokesman for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency in Key West, is upset.
“We don’t have any specific studies[showing]that turbidity due to cruise ships is different than natural turbidity” or say it “reaches our coral reefs in a detrimental way,” he says.
The town hall has nevertheless decided to monitor the quality of the water.
“We don’t want to get rid of the cruise ships,” concludes the mayor. “We want to bring them into a good middle, so that we have good economic conditions, but also a good quality of life for our people.”
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