July 18th, 2008 Posted in Business, News | No Comments »
We at the Caye Caulker Chronicles have absolutely no doubt that the current drama playing out between the Caye Caulker Water Taxi Association and the newly formed Belize Water Taxi Terminal partly owned by a relative of tourism minister Manuel Heredia is partly politically motivated. There is no question that the tiny river mouth of the Haulover Creek, blocked by the very low swing bridge, is already congested. There is just no space there for more boats. While it was congested even while only the Caye Caulker Water Taxi operated there, with two water taxi companies now competing for the tiny sliver of river that is maneuverable, the propensity for accidents will now increase ten-fold.
In a short-sighted and myopic move, rather than recommend that the new water taxi company find a more suitable and less congested area from which to operate, the Port Authority has granted the BWTT a permit to operate a water taxi just two and a half feet from the Caye Caulker Water Taxi Association’s terminal. In order to accommodate Minister Heredia’s relative, the Port Authority has set about displacing hundreds of fishing sailboats that have found safe harbor inside the river mouth for more than a hundred years. What Minister Heredia is saying is that “faamly” and not good sense runs things.
The sailboats of the fishermen who go to the river mouth to seek safe harbor have now been cramped together, disallowing easy ingress and egress from the safe harbor.
We at the Caye Caulker Chronicles find it quite chancy of Minister Heredia to stomp on the heads of all of these people who are only trying to make a living, rather than do the honorable thing and recomment to his “faamly” to go find a more suitable spot from which to operate.
We applaud the Caye Caulker Water Taxi Association, the fishermen, and the terminal taxi association for standing up for their rights in the face of apparent chanciness.
Below is an article that appeared in the online edition of the Amandala newspaper online today:
Belize News - Belize Leading Newspaper | Breaking News - Amandala Online
URL: http://www.amandala.com.bz/index.php?id=7213
Water taxi owners fight over tourism pie
(Posted: 18/07/08)
Members of the Caye Caulker Water Taxi Association, Triple J Water Taxi Service, the Land Taxi Association and fishermen from the nation’s two largest cooperatives, National and Northern Fishermen, demonstrated for an hour this morning on North Front Street and Queen Street near the Swing Bridge in downtown Belize City.
Members of the Caye Caulker Water Taxi Association, Triple J Water Taxi Service, the Land Taxi Association and fishermen from the nation’s two largest cooperatives, National and Northern Fishermen, demonstrated for an hour this morning on North Front Street and Queen Street near the Swing Bridge in downtown Belize City.
CCWTA’s president, Ramon Reyes, says that their competitors next door – the Belize Water Taxi Terminal, established after a split earlier this year between the association and the San Pedro Water Taxi Terminal, BWTT’s San Pedro counterpart, are threatening the health and viability of the water taxi industry in particular, and the tourism industry in general.
The new water taxi service, located at #81 North Front Street in the former home of Regent and RFG Insurance, in a building only about two feet away, is only running service to San Pedro Ambergris Caye for the time being, every 1-½ hours on average in both directions, from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. all week.
But co-owner and terminal manager, Myron Marin, says that plans are in the works to provide “first-class service and better class and comfort” to passengers traveling to both San Pedro and Caye Caulker, likely by the end of the month.
The CCWTA has objected to the Belize Port Authority’s allowing the BWTT to operate in the area, saying that the introduction of a third water taxi operator would tend to further congest the waterfront, where fishermen’s boats, sailboats, sand lighters and water taxis must now co-exist.
Reyes, in a Wednesday afternoon interview by phone, traced the history of his association back to 1996 and the reign of former Tourism Minister Henry Young. At that time, Reyes says, the disorganized water taxis jostled for passengers at the site of the old Texaco gas station opposite Holy Redeemer Primary School on North Front Street, before Young moved them to their current site at the old fire station next to the Swing Bridge.
The CCWTA rented space in the building from the Belize Tourism Industry Association, which held the lease, until they worked out an agreement in December, 2006, to transfer the lease to the CCWTA for a 20-year period.
After a 10-year relationship, BWTT part-owner Giovanni Marin, Myron’s cousin, asked the CCWTA to leave his pier in San Pedro Town with a month’s notice in early June on the pretext of starting his own business, which became the BWTT.
Since then, Reyes says, Marin had been using his political connections (he is a relative of Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia) to frustrate their attempts to find space from which to operate elsewhere on Ambergris Caye, until they eventually found someone willing to put them up – despite reportedly being hassled by Marin.
According to Reyes, Giovanni Marin was briefly a member of the Association for six months before resigning, complaining that he could not work with the Association; Myron Marin has never been a member of the CCWTA, he said.
Not content with that, Reyes told us, employees of the Marins and the Chinese investors backing them have interfered with customers inside the Marine Terminal and coming off the tourist buses, imploring them to ride with the BWTT instead.
And, he claims, they have the apparent support of Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia and Transport Minister Melvin Hulse. Reyes says that despite reportedly being attacked as a “PUP supporter” by Minister Hulse, he is asking Prime Minister Dean Barrow to intervene in the situation, while admitting that there is little they can do to prevent the BWTT from operating.
The CCWTA, according to Reyes, is not afraid of competing with the BWTT, but is afraid that the situation may deteriorate into the open warfare that was present in the industry before the establishment of the Association.
For their part, the BWTT, who say they plan to open in grand style within the next two weeks, are currently parking boats at the pier of Brown Sugar Marketplace, themselves involved in a battle for access to tourism customers with Fort Street Tourism Village.
What saves this situation from looking like the titanic Fort Street versus Brown Sugar battle, according to Myron Marin, is that this time the Port Authority sat down all stakeholders and worked out a solution.
“All we want,” Marin told us last week, “is a break to compete with the more-established services and show we can provide better, first-class service.”
A spokesman for the BWTT today called the Association’s protests “childish” and insisted there is room for everyone.
This morning Amandala spoke to a former associate of the CCWTA, who now runs a boat for the BWTT. According to him, he saw no opportunities to advance within the organization during his time there; more often than not, he says, his needs took second place to those of the Association. With the BWTT, he has shares and a say in operations, he said.
Reyes told us this evening that the Association is part owned by 19 persons, and that they have not been taking as many applications for membership because of current conditions. Reyes heads the 7-member Board of Directors of the Association.
Taxi operators in the area, led by Chester Haylock, have also sided with the CCWTA, insisting that they will not benefit from the aggressive tactics of the BWTT, and adding they would be better off elsewhere. Haylock thinks the dispute may wind up in court.
CCWTA members took several media personnel on a tour of the area, showing us how the sailboats and fishing boats have been re-staked to a shallower area on the Albert Street side of the Swing Bridge, just off the Commercial Center, at the risk of damage from debris in the creek at low tide, they say.
While on the tour we noticed a boat belonging to the Port Authority moving the stakes set in the sea to the area described earlier, a move in the works since last week, according to Ports Commissioner Major (ret) Lloyd Jones.
Amandala spoke with Jones at his office down the street from today’s demonstration, and he confirmed that the BWTT has been granted a permit to operate, under the condition that they have only up to two boats at a time lined up on the dockside, and cannot dock a boat longer than 55 feet at their pier. They were denied permission to construct a wooden dock extension, however, and are using the existing concrete structure.
Jones says the Authority held a meeting this morning with the Belize Fishermen’s Cooperative Association, who, he says, agree in principle to the BPA’s actions, which he says have been planned since September of 2005. After getting the blessing of the Association tomorrow, new permanent markers designating separate points in the creek for the docking of various vessels will be set up and regulated, Jones added.
When asked how the water taxi industry is regulated, Jones’ answer was simple – apparently, it isn’t. Any commercially licensed boat can be certified as a water taxi provided certain conditions are met, he said. He denied being pressured by either Minister Heredia or Transport Minister Melvin Hulse, and said the Authority is trying to “stay clear” of the argument involving competition and political motivations.
Jones closed our discussion by noting the BPA’s “deep concern” over any possible damage to sailing vessels. The BPA will support a recommendation that the area be dredged “soon.”
Meanwhile, Reyes, saying he and his fellows have “proved their point” in today’s demonstration, hopes the relevant government officials, particularly P.M. Barrow and Ministers Heredia and Hulse, will pay attention to the situation.
