By SAM SMITH, Guardian Staff Reporter

samsmith@nasguard.com

The biggest of cruise boats have said farewell to The Bahamas until 2009 at the earliest, and both the governing FNM party and the Opposition PLP have been quick to assign blame to the other for the loss of hundreds of thousands of cruise passengers over the next two years.

The tonnage and length of cruise boats have been growing in the last decade, with Royal Caribbean placing an order in February for a 1,181-foot behemoth, the Associated Press reported - a full 90 feet longer than nuclear aircraft carriers that shuttle 90 war planes around the world - and the cruise ships have outgrown the capacity of Nassau Harbour.

FNM Minister of Labour and Maritime Affairs, Senator Dion Foulkes, followed Minister of Tourism and Aviation Neko Grant's recent accusation that the PLP "did nothing" to keep the bigger cruise ships coming to Nassau with a Senatorial display of documents yesterday that Foulkes suggested proves the now-dissolved Ministry of Transport and Aviation knew of the impending withdraw of large cruise ships and did nothing to stop it.

The documents partially outline a dialogue between the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (a lobby group for 13 different cruise lines) and the Port Department regarding navigability of Nassau Harbour. "On behalf of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association member lines, we advise that, as you know, most of the lines are building bigger ships," President of the FCCA Michelle Paige wrote to Hanna-Martin in late 2005.

"Accordingly, if the existing turning basin in the Nassau Harbour is not adequate for these ships, you may be excluding a group of vessels from calling that you may not be able to handle," the letter continued. "Therefore, we ask if the turning basin can be enlarged; and if so, how much?"

Senator Foulkes used this letter, in combination with an offer from Kerzner International to dredge part of Nassau Harbour free of charge, in exchange for use of the silt on Atlantis' Phase 3 development, to allege that the PLP had an option available but failed to capitalize on the opportunity.

Opposition leader Perry Christie and former-Cabinet minister of Transport and Aviation Glenys Hanna-Martin teamed-up at a press conference yesterday to address insinuations that the blame for the boats' departure rests squarely on the shoulders of the PLP.

"The government of the Bahamas has been preparing for the dredging of Nassau Harbour for more than two years," Hanna-Martin said. "The FNM truly had done nothing to address the issue of berthing at Nassau Harbour."

In the recent debates for the 2007/2008, the Ministry of Works recommended $8 million for dredging Nassau Harbour, which Hanna-Martin said the FNM struck out.

Hanna-Martin and Christie said they were both personally involved in the dialogue with Kerzner for the dredging of Nassau Harbour but the Atlantis developers deemed the cost of dredging the cruise path around Arawak Cay to Prince George Dock and relocating the silt to Paradise Island too high.

Alternatively, Christie said, they reached an agreement that Kerzner would clear a deeper channel along the eastern stretch of the harbor as part of the long-term plan to redevelop Bay Street from Arawak Cay to Fort Montague.

Hanna-Martin also accused Tourism Minister Grant of "seeking to obtain cheap political gain at national expense" with his recent inclusion of Royal Caribbean's decision to send fewer ships to Nassau.

"It is most unfortunate that this FNM government has decided to draw Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines into a domestic political row. Royal Caribbean has been a major player in the cruise industry in this country over the years, and it is wrong that this particular minister is using it to create political mischief or to create misperceptions or innuendoes or to create dishonesty for partisan political reasons."

Cruise lines have been trending not only out of The Bahamas, but out of the Caribbean entirely, Christie said at yesterday's press conference. Growth in the Mediterranean cruise market is posing challenges for the entire region, the Opposition leader said.

The Associated Press reported in January, for example, "this summer marks the first time that a Disney cruise will hit European ports when the Magic ship launches a series of Mediterranean trips."

Vicki Freed, senior vice president for sales and marketing for Carnival Cruise Lines, said Carnival is also "seeing continued growth in the number of families taking our European cruises," the AP reported in that same article about the growing interest among families for cruises.

Trouble with the Prince George Docks, however, goes back further than the past five years of the PLP administration, Hanna-Martin said.

When the PLP took over government in 2002, the former Transportation Minister said she fielded complaints from cruise lines of tractor tires acting as bumpers for the mammoth cruise ships insufficient mooring. She called the state of the docks at the time "primitive" and said her ministry spent "in excess" of $3 or $4 million for upgrades to the docks.