Coastguard to manage Stingray City
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Coast Guard has been given the remit to patrol and manage Stingray City to try and address the overcrowding as well as growing reports about the anti-social and sometimes criminal behaviour of boaters and operators at Cayman’s number one tourist attraction.
When the new agency goes live in January it will take on responsibility for enforcement of all laws that apply to the designated Wildlife Interaction Zone, according to Commander Robert Scotland.
Appearing before Finance Committee, Scotland said that the coastguard has committed to provide what cover it can to the area, as he explained the role of this new enforcement agency.
The coastguard will be on patrol to police drunk boat captains, ganja smoking and dangerous behaviour of any kind on the water, as well as policing the borders and supporting search and rescue operations.
During the government’s cruise port meeting on Tuesday evening, Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell said that as well as taking responsibility for patrolling Stingray City, the coastguard will manage the licences issued to operators allowing them into the zone.
But he said government was going to take back control of this attraction and place a moratorium on licences until a review is conducted to address the capacity of the attraction and the best way to manage it in the future. He confirmed that more than 200 licences have been issued.
Speaking at the Cruise Port Referendum public meeting in West Bay this week, local watersports tour operator Troy Leacock, who takes thousands of guests there every year, said the impact of mass tourism on Stingray City was not only driving the rays away but was creating a dangerous situation at the attraction.
The coastguard is expected to have revised legislation and new regulations in place early next year to help it police the popular attraction and enforce the law to prevent the anti-social behaviour being complained of, as well as preventing the abuse of the rays.
Once the coastguard is officially up and running, it is expected to be 21 officers strong, around half of whom will come directly from the joint marine unit of the RCIPS. The police commissioner told Finance Committee that there will be a recruitment drive for the new agency early in the new year for the rest.
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Category: Coast Guard, Crime
Limit access for cruise ship tourists and rather favor overnight tourists. They spend more money, behave more decent and solves the overcrowding problem.
‘When the new agency goes live in January it will take on responsibility for enforcement of all laws that apply to the designated Wildlife Interaction Zone, according to Commander Robert Scotland.’
So what the hell does he think the DOE have been doing if not enforcing the NCL at the WIZ? The police are the negligent ones here for not backing the DOE and dealing with marine offences, (including the NCL) and anti social behaviour. The DOE have no power to deal with party boats or other stupidity unless they do something that breaks the NCL laws or regulations.
Scotland fails to realise that the rules governing commercial boats in the WIZ are licence regulations imposed by the NCC, they therefore don’t apply to private boats unless they breach the NCL. He’d be better off talking to his boss, the COP, and asking why he hadn’t given the resources earlier to ensure this breakdown of order in our waters was not addressed sooner.
Yet another example of the police thinking they can do everything, but not having the resources or interest to cover it.
Oh look, a “No Porter” gives a great Westbay talk on overcrowding to support his ‘no port” argument, and all of a sudden, the next day, CIG is most concerned about Stingray City numbers of visitors, when it has done nothing about it in the last 7 years, but needs your vote next month!! How strange, how could that possibly be?
11:52 am has said
“Caymanians and Expats have united on the port issue and this is why Gov’t is squirming. Historic tactics of creating diversion by dividing the populace based on ethnicity is not as easy as it once was.”
It couldn’t have been said any better.
Ok you have two failed RCIPS officers on over $250,000 a year between them. With no boats and no staff. I will be looking out for them at stingray city in there rowing boat handing out enforcement tickets.
Complete joke the coast guard is years away.
Caymanian coast guard. Just like Caymanian police. Except they smash up boats instead of cars. Better to pay them to stay off the water like they pay the police to stay off the roads.
If Coast Guard is going to be staffed by Jamaicans like our Judiciary, RCIPS, Northward Prison, CAYS Foundation etc please don’t create it. They can’t solve Jamaica’s problems but we expect them to solve ours.
Another heavy handed, ill thought and out of touch solution by the gov. of the day. At the end of the day, self policing is the best approach in any community
How’s that working thus far at Stingray City?
Get them coming of the cruise ships and take their picture , then photo shop them with the stingrays , they can claim they went . charge them five bucks for the pics . Hell do the same for every destination , now the people can hang around G.T and spend money .
Hard to believe That the coast guard will actually be enforcing laws when the police don’t even do that here as a matter of culture. I can’t wait to see the locals reaction to being told they can’t do whatever they want and have to follow the laws. Lots of tickets and hard feelings or they will do as the police do and just chill and collect the paycheck.
Next we’ll have Alden’s Navy doing it, still doesn’t ensure a proper job being done.
Ganja smoking??? They need to go to Smith’s Cove daily as they smoke it in the open there!!
Is the Coast Guard the appropriate body for this?
Is this the position best placed for the Coast Guard?
Whose trips are going to get cancelled – the cruise ship prebookeds or the on-island operators who live here year round?
Im sure it will be the small local operators who actually care about the place, who are mostly struggling to get by who will be banned while the big boats packed with cruise ship tourists will still be there.
As goes with everything on the island. The minute the government/ police\ any form of authority tries to do anything for the betterment of the island everyone gives them shit for it. They have to start somewhere……give it a chance. It will be new so it will take time to get the kinks out but at least they are trying.
You can’t fit a quart into a pint pot – Government needs to place a moratorium on the number of cruise ship passengers entering this island, starting NOW.
Could even increase the cost per head given demand. Wouldn’t that be something. Less visitors, higher return?
oh right.. we have that already – stay over tourists…
Really starting to believe that Alden is the real life Homer Simpson.
I have said it many times, but it keeps falling on deaf ears. The Sand Bar is a gold mine, but the cruise lines are the only ones who have figured out how to mine it. Here are a few suggestions:
1. US$5 per head government tax for every commercial visitor to the Sand Bar. With today’s technology that should not be too hard to collect without anyone having to handle cash.
2. One day of the week, either Saturday or Sunday, the Sand Bar must be free from commercial use. Locals and residents can visit in their own boats free of charge at all times.
3. Designated permanent moorings with no anchoring within half a mile of the Sand Bar. Moorings clearly marked as commercial and “local use only”.
4. Perhaps large floating platforms that visitors can get onto before getting into the water and approaching the sandbar. This could be towed into the Coast Guard stating before any bad weather makes down.
This could easily pay for the Coast Guard and they would have the appropriate number of “reserves” at night to watch out for criminals.
I think these are really good ideas and i would support these, I really like the idea of people walking on platforms. Worth a try on a trial basis I would think anyway, and the perm moorings should just happen.
Apparently, according to the NCL, the Sandbar is meant to be closed to commercial boats from 2pm on a Saturday and Sunday now, and 3pm on a public holiday. But as per usual Caymanians ignore it and the government don’t enforce it.
The Coast Guard/JMU will never be able to effectively police the Sandbar, no more than they do Rum Point or the North Sound on a Sunday or holiday. The JMU already have the authority to police the Sandbar, but when did anyone ever see them out there enforcing the NCL or any other law for that matter?
For a start, they won’t have the manpower or I suspect the inclination to sit on their backsides for several hours a day in the hot sun whilst everyone around ignores them. And how are they meant to fulfil their core tasks of SAR, Border Protection and Marine Safety with only 21 officers on a shift pattern. Consider sickness, vacation and other absences, that probably leaves 5 per shift. How is that an improvement?
There is no way CIG/Tourism will accept boats being turned away full of visitors or operators arrested at the Sandbar, the reputational damage to Caymans tourism industry would be huge. So why deploy a marine paramilitary force to sit and stare at futility.
CIG, don’t try and reinvent the wheel, fund the DoE properly and give them the legislation, support, manpower and equipment they need to do the job effectively.
There you go, making sense again. That will never work 😀
Seriously, I think your ideas are insightful and have true merit, and even more — they have a sense of balance and equality for all of those who vie for time at our natural resources.
I have been in a boat that was nearby, but I have never immersed myself or my family in Stingray City; not because I didn’t want to rub shoulders with visitors, but because I thought the high level of activity there to be unsafe. It is something I would like to do, if it should actually become regulated.
Super easy to complain about this, but at least CIG are making an effort to address an acknowledged problem. There are lots of great ideas, and there is no one single solution. In no order of importance, I’d suggest those in power to take a look at all/any of these:
1. Create small boat days: do not allow boats longer than X Ft or with more than X Passengers to visit Stingray on certain days.
2. Create a 2nd stingray city: its not beyond the realms of possibility to build an artificial raised sand bar elsewhere in the Sound and invite the stingrays over
3. Permanent buoy/moorings: this is a must. Even small boats dropping anchors causes issue, whether its poor boatmanship or choppy waters or whatever.
4. With 3 in place, make it illegal for any boat to drop pax at Stingray unless moored.
5. increase the cost of licences. That will stop the cowboy operators.
6. probably hold back on bringing more cruise passengers here for now until we have the infrastructure on land and sea to cater for them, and the attractions for them to visit, and maybe a beach they can access
9:55 I agree with some of your ideas but absolutely not the idea of the artificial sandbar. We shouldn’t tamper with the environment to make anything new. Bedsides the water movement and currents would erode any artificial sandbar very quickly so would be a waste of money.
Permanent moorings at the sandbar are also impractical as there is nowhere directly on the sandbar to attach them to. You need some for of hard pan or rock and that inst plentiful directly on the sandbar.
Your other points are good though. I think the price should be raised for cruise ship tourists in particular as much of the cost of the trip goes directly into the pocket of the cruise companies.
Actually you can use screw anchors for permanent moorings. They use them in the BVI for vessels up to 40 ft – 60 ft on some moorings. Actually do less damage than blocks, they can be used in a sand bottom well away from living coral, and way easier to install than drilling into rock or dead coral. Given the depths at the sandbar and the limited stay times, no reason they couldnt be used there.
ummm, the sand bar moves. Fixed moorings of any kind cannot work. An area that is shallow one week may be deep the next.
Excellent! This is the kind of brainstorming that the government should be listening to. We don’t always have to do things the way they’ve been done in the past. We are capable of using new ideas, if only the government is receptive to listening.
Just get rid of the Cowboy Operators who are ruining the Stingray experience for everyone.
Won’t work on the island where people are closely related. Coastguard would be #1 bribed or #2 harassed. Nothing will be accomplished.
Wait until you see the Buffoonistan Army!
Or Navy with glass bottom boats🙄
LOL 😂
So, “the government is going to take back control of stingray city”. Does anyone realize what a completely ignorant comment this is?
DOE is a government department, run by Chief Officers and their Minister, John John.
Yes, they should have reinstated the WIZ Officer(s) to remain at the location daily, which made a difference in the past. So unless the Coast Guard plan on keeping static duties there, it will remain the same.
And not sure why Coast Guard should be dealing with the WIZ licenses. What does that have to do with border control?
What is needed, and yet another source of revenue for government, is the registration of all boats. Like Florida and other places. You pay a fee, get your numbers and place on the bow of your boat. All boats. It is important that each boat is identified with an owner, just like automobiles.
And anyone who is running commercial operations on vessels, they should be required to take a rudimentary vessel operators course, along with a first aid course. Not a big ask.
All boats must be certified for passengers safety.
All boats will be certified after there is a major accident with deaths. Then there will be enough political pressure to do something.
You identified the root of the problem when mentioned John John ……..
I go to doe yard a few weeks ago the damn place is full of boats, mostly old crap and unseaworthy. Why aren’t these being repaired and doing there job or why haven’t they bought new ones to do the job properly? There were lots of private boats filling the yard, whose are those? But worst of all the fools who run the yard were working on some private boat and a car and moaning about there bosses. From my view all I see is a badly run organization that tolerates bad managers and lazy staff who use there work vehicles and facilities for there own purpose. Also I’d like to know why so few marine officers and proper boats out on the water, why is that big doe dive boat always in dock and not on Sandbar, where is our money being spent? Doe do a difficult job at Sandbar and around the islands, they are let down by foolishness and greed of some and bad bosses.
According to Auditor General Report, the Coast Guard was to be created to assist Customs and Boarder Control and RCIPS Joint Marine Unit with better boarder control. Our $200,000,000 police and civil defense budget should buy more than sandbar babysitting and anti-poaching – which is already the derelict responsibility of the “by-appointment-only” Department of Environment response team, with their own water toys and budget.
Where did you read that report cledis.
Something seriously needs to be done about both Stingray City and Starfish Point for real!! I’d like to apply for this job!! As a young Caymanian who was raised at both locations as I’m from North Side I’d totally love to get in on this recruitment process come 2020!!!
Why haven’t you joined the police, they have the same powers under the NCL?
I haven’t joined the police force because I’d rather do something to preserve our natural habitats here at home whilst contributing to the rest of the world rather than just driving up and down in a/c doing diddly squat.
Yes the police help the community but that impact on our society would be too small in my eyes.
Helping to preserve natural habitats, protect all different kinds of species of animals and help work towards slowing down global warming is more along the lines of what I’d like to do tbh.
Everything known to man since the beginning of time all plays a special part in our ecosystem. If we continue to kill out everything then we will only be killing ourselves a lot faster than what is happening naturally.
CPR? – VOTE NO!
Fix the dump? – WELL OVERDUE!
Cayman Islands Coast Guard? – I’M READY!! (Even if its just part time for me)
Government Can’t Hurt Us If We Stand Together And Stand Tall!!
REMEMBER….
….United We Stand, Divided We Fall!!
Install designated buoy’s .
Next boats will have wait in line u till one comes available.
Such simple thing would never cross their minds.
6:29 A good idea but not practical I’m afraid. You need rock or hard pan to make mooring strong enough to hold some of the large Cat’s. As the sandbar is just think layers of sand there is no where realistically you could stick a mooring. The sand is too deep. Even if you tried to put one in the sand the drag of the larger boats would pull it clean out.
So your argument is that an anchor into sand is more secure than a sandscrew. Or 2 sand screws? really? Skrew make a sandscrew that hold up to 24 tonnes for a permanent mooring. How long s the average cat on the sand bar for? less than an hour, and with a deck watch at all times.
And when the wind and currents shift, and all the buoys are in the wrong place, what then, captain?
For the whipersnappers, the above is what happened when they tried the OP the first time.
Far too logical for Cayman!
LOL 🥳
What will happen to all the stingrays if C.I.G. contributes to the extinction of endangered coral for it’s planned port development? If only we had a specific “guard” to “manage” the current seats of power.
And we need a patrol at Starfish point because tourists keep taking them out of the water! Or at least have the tour guide or whoever operates the boat to tell them not to pick up the starfish.
The Tour Guides could lose tips if they do not allow the Tourists to take Starfish out of the water… then Work Permit numbers could go down.
Sometimes diligent enforcement is necessary to set a meaningful standard that produces a positive benefit.
Here we go with big Crabs trying to put down the little crabs in the bucket of life. SMDH.
please explain how responsible natural resource management is “crabs in a bucket”
Don’t worry soon there won’t be any crabs
Except at Archies.
I cannot believe that our own DOE was responsible for all the over crowding. I also heard that the licenses went from about 10 to over 200 in just a couple years. Such a shame when they are the ones that should be protecting our environment. Dr. Harvey should be outraged.
Unfortunately if they put a limit on the number of licenses we’d probably have another situation like the former liquor license fiasco. Black market extortion and people buying and renting licenses from individuals. Not sure how you could tell one person they can have a license and another no. Unfortunate situation. Hopefully this will be a step in the right direction.
It’s actually the NCC’s responsibility, not DOE, who only act on their behalf. Read the NCL.
Great move. Much needed. This past Sunday, I took one of the Red Sail catamarans to the sand bar, then to Rum Point. When we got to the sand bar at about 11:00 AM, it was already bustling with 8-10 tourist charter boats and a couple of family boats. Our captain, for some reason, drove the boat directly to the middle of the sand bar to drop anchor! I’ve live here 40 years and I’ve been to the sand bar by charter boat, friend’s boats and my own boats countless times over that 40 year span, and I’ve NEVER seen anyone drop anchor in the middle of a crowded sand bar. The captain was moving at a slow speed, but he was literally forcing people in the water to move out of the way so he could drop anchor right in the middle. Several people onboard commented that that was a first for them too. Just a totally weird event and I wondered aloud, how much experience do these guys have before they’re allowed to take out boatloads of people.
Bad boating practices tend to be what happens when you have ZERO requirements for licencing or training of boaters.
XXXXX boat sliced up a large stingray on Sandbar this week by coming in too shallow and recklessly revving their engines in shallow water. Well done you clowns, destroy the very creatures and place that puts food on your table.
They do that so that the tourists don’t have to swim from the deep area to the sandbar. They can just walk off the boat and on to the sandbar. Not saying it’s right, but it’s why the do it.
It is a violation of the WIZ rules to anchor in the middle of the sand bar.
It’s a violation to anchor in less than 3 feet of water, it’s common sense not to haul a vessel onto the middle of the Sandbar.
Did you know at high tide nowhere on the sandbar is 3 ft…..
I was on an RSS dive boat where the captain chose to ignore the red/green channel markers at Rum Point channel , then cut inside the western red marker to save 1 minute of transit time. WHile the water there is + 12 feet deep, the action demonstrated poor captaining. THey need to have their operations doctrines reviewed.
Did you report it somewhere?
You can report it to the port authority but nothing will be done.
Very few boat operators here are familiar with basic COLREGS or right of way.
…or speed limits!
“Government was going to take back control of this attraction and place a moratorium on licences until a review is conducted to address the capacity of the attraction and the best way to manage it in the future.”
Are you $!%@$@% serious?
Govt has just openly acknowledged that they need to manage the traffic into Sting Ray City as there are too many people visiting, and not respecting the attraction?
Yet, on the other hand Govt is spending millions of dollars in propaganda to build a pier and allow another 500k people into the island a year? To visit the same attraction?
This makes my blood boil.The stupidity of these people knows no bounds.
Please someone.
Anyone with a brain.
Please run for office.
These tyrants need to be taken to account. They are wasting money on bullshit that could be better spent on real infrastructure and Caymanians who have a real need for help!
Be the hero we need 🙂
As much as I would love to run, I only have PR, so all i can do is run to the end of my chain and bark…
But, I do have hope for these beautiful islands I call home.
The people’s voice is getting louder and clearer by the day.
Caymanians and Expats have united on the port issue and this is why Gov’t is squirming. Historic tactics of creating diversion by dividing the populace based on ethnicity is not as easy as it once was.
Gov’t know now, that with a united populace, pointing out their (very real and plainly obvious) flaws, the gig is up and times are a changing. The CPR and port referendum is but one example of what can and will be done in future when we, the people, unite against tyrannical dictators who do as they please and only make decisions that line their own pockets.
There are so many Caymanians whom i have come into contact with that are more than capable of replacing these delinquents. In my heart, I know that they will run for office come next election, challenge the old status quo (of vote rigging by buying fridges / microwaves etc) and get rid of these thieves once and for all.
Onwards and upwards, to a prosperous, free and transparent Cayman!
PPM / CDP – we’ll see if you’re still around in 2021.
Very well said. Please never think that because you aren’t Caymanian that you shouldn’t have a voice in what happens in your home.
this is the only comment that makes sense here
The DOE was supposed to be supervising Stingray city with the NCL powers, hardware, and EPF money allocated to them. The JMU was supposed to be scrutinizing and intercepting vessels entering our territorial marine waters with FLIR and other toys, and occasionally running S&R for lost “fishermen”. The Port Authority is supposed to issue licenses, and keep track of boats coming in and out of Cayman waters and supervise mooring for extended stays outside of the Port Authority mooring zone. None of this seems to happen. If these depts were held to account to perform their duties, we wouldn’t need to replicate these costs and duties. The CIG credo seems to be: why pay once, when you can pay three times.
“The JMU was supposed to be scrutinizing and intercepting vessels entering our territorial marine waters with FLIR and other toys, and occasionally running S&R for lost “fishermen”.”
“Supposed to be”? The JMU does all this and more. How do you think the many drug interdictions in our waters happen, or the many reports of search and rescue operations and vessels being assisted? Also, the JMU is being transitioned into the Coast Guard, it will not continue exist as a separate entity alongside the Coast Guard. So, at least with those two agencies, there will not be a replication of costs and duties.
And they do a fine job of interdiction, that we know of. But they will never be equipped or resourced with enough manpower to take on all their core tasks. They need to concentrate on border protection and search and rescue, not getting involved in a conservation responsibility.
If necessary take the doe enforcement section under the CG, but don’t try to do a task that you are not experienced or equipped to complete.
What about or coast lines, no mention of any patrols, gun runner, drugs , what a joke, only stingray city?.
You do understand that Stingray City will not be their only duty right…
It shouldnt be their job at all that’s not what coast guards do
i thought the coastguard were meant to be policing the police????
No, the coastguard are going to police the fire service, the girl scouts are going to police the police and the coconut sellers are going to police the prison service.
😂😂😂
Stingrays are still dangerous. If one of them ever jab a child or person in the chest, it can be fatal. And who will pay for it?
The child or person “jabbed” in the chest? This is not a Disney ride, snowflake.
The Rays that usually congregate at Stingray city are of a smaller variety than the one that for instance killed Steve Irwin in 2006 but even then his death was the 2nd recorded death in that manner in decades (going back to at least the 40s-50s)
Very unlikely that anyone would be fatally wounded in Cayman, the Rays at Stingray City are also acclimatized to humans & human interaction and thus less likely to react in self defense in the manner that led to the aforementioned death
There are risks with all sorts of attractions, I would be more concerned with the harm to the animals than any potentially minuscule risk to people
People do things like whitewater rafting and skydiving, if they want to pay to spend 3 hours in 3-4 feet of water looking at Rays let them have at it
No one will “pay” for it. Laws do not apply to stingrays.
Stingray jerky.
“And who will pay for it?”
The life insurance provider of the child or person
Crikey!
Having the Coast Guard take over is great news. Dept of Environment has had the responsibility of giving out licenses up to now and they have been very irresponsible, giving out way too many.
This is a great move in the right direction, however, who will be given the preference of use there? I can’t see over 200 licensed boats, on a busy cruise ship and high season hotel day, how this will work out!!! We were not careful to prevent this from the beginning, now there is no medication that will cure the virus. Why don’t the minister have the backbone to stand up to the cruise ships and put a moratorium on the amount of companies that they can operate with, which would leave work for the individual taxi operator? I can put my head on a chopping block that if the cruise ship piers are built, the poor local taxi drivers won’t have much to make as the cruise lines will then control even more of the business by way of prebooked tours!! I am usually not wrong as I assess situations carefully and can think outside of the box. Also, what the hell with the slashing of tires in West Bay? Can we get any more primitive than that? If any elected member was behind this, let us send them back to the caves with the cavemen. Really Cayman, are we going to take that kind of
third world country responses? Let us stand up, those of us who are more civilized and defeat this uncivilized actions. By the way, if I was undecided about the referendum vote, I am definitely convinced now to vote NO. Looking at both sides of the debate, I am convinced that there are more than the peoples interest at heart by the elected members here.
Better late then never.
CIG, the kings of window dressing, all show no go, I guarantee you that no one will lose their licence over any inappropriate behavior
Change the name, do the same? The watersports operators are too well connected for any kind of meaningful regulation to be enforced out there.
Why have the police not enforced the law? Serious question.
don’t ask awkward questions.
btw our police comissioner said law enforcement is not always the answer.
To which the answer should have been; “so why are we paying you again?”
This was DOE Job to enforce and they didn’t.
OK – but take the broader question – except for during specific advertised campaigns by the RCIPS when do you ever see them enforcing the law? There are a whole bunch of laws broken right in front of our eyes every day and not once have I seen someone getting held to account. Traffic violations all day, every day and nothing done. A quiet word because you parked on a double yellow is hardly a deterrent, and it shows every single day in the actions of many. When I see people in new cars driving along without plates and nothing is done so that it becomes prevalent and the new normal I can see the police are not on their game. Cyclists on sidewalks and cycling in the wrong direction? Speeding? Poor and unsafe lane discipline on our increasing number of 2 lane roads? Brake lights? Tint? If the police can’t even be bothered to try and get on top of these things and we let these “little” crimes go without dealing with them then, naturally, DOE and any other enforcement can only be equally toothless.
You do understand that the DoE can only enforce the conservation laws. They have no jurisdiction over other laws. DoE has very few enforcement officers and are in charge of not only.patrolling the waters at SRC and Starfish beach but around the whole island for poachers etc. Not to mention on land.
I wonder if the police know it is a crime for a public servant to fail to perform their duty…
Not here obviously.
Tell that to the DOE guy that spends more time on his own private business with boats and property.