And while Shyne Barrow is now batting for Stake Bank - Royal Caribbean told him in a letter on Friday - why they're pitching for Portico.
They say it is because of a navigational necessity for the really huge cruise ships - which would need to widen the channel to get to the other proposed cruise Ports. Here's both sides of that:
In their letter To Shyne Barrow, Royal Caribbean says, quote, "we determined that the Port of Magical Belize is the only project, of the three, that meets our standards for environmental impact and operational viability….Of specific importance, the project will not be impacting the fragile and highly sensitive coral around One Man's Key."
In our research around cruise tourism, we'd heard of this Caye before and the One Man Caye Channel - experts say that the largest cruise ships cannot currently navigate this turn.
In fact, the 2020 ESIA for the Waterloo Project notes, quote, "The present channel has a sharp bend at the point where it intersects with Grennels Channel that will need to be straightened by widening that area. The channel will need to be widened a little to accommodate the international width requirements for Ports access catering to these size vessels and to make the transit through the channel safer for larger vessels."
But, Port Developer Mike Feinstein didn't agree:
Mike Feinstein, Developer - Stake Bank
"Our, our piers are built to handle the biggest ships made."
Jules Vasquez
"Your pier is built, but and I am no expert, but how will such a large vessel get into place? Will it require an additional channel to be created, because an Oasis class is probably 5 times the size of a Voyager."
Mike Feinstein, Developer - Stake Bank
"You know they draw the same amount of water."
Jules Vasquez
"I don't."
Mike Feinstein, Developer - Stake Bank
"I am telling you. But anyway, the biggest ships have already been to Belize, many of them."
Jules Vasquez
"Will you have to dynamite reef structures?"
Mike Feinstein, Developer - Stake Bank
"(laughing) No, no, no, we had the pilots in my office not very long ago just discussing it's called One Man Caye Channel."
Jules Vasquez
"I've heard about it."
Mike Feinstein, Developer - Stake Bank
"That's where all the ships are coming in right now including the biggest ships. If you get like a 40-50 mile an hour wind, I think it would be challenging for them, but that is a manor adjustment on that channel which my equipment can do, but it's the government's job to do that. That's not my job."
Jules Vasquez
"A minor adjustment, you mean you have to blow it up."
Mike Feinstein, Developer - Stake Bank
"No."
Jules Vasquez
"What do you mean? what does a minor adjustment to mother nature."
Mike Feinstein, Developer - Stake Bank
"When you get into the channel, there is a little sand bank on one side. You just need to put it down a little bit, not a big deal."
But, Royal Caribbean says for them it is a big deal, a pivotal and deciding factor.
Jules Vasquez
"But that letter points to a practical reason that they insist on the Port of Magical Belize, because they say and I don't want to speak about things I don't know about and that you don't know about, but they say that navigationally - with, if you use the other ports you will have to traverse the One Man Caye area and it requires too sharp a turn for these large cruise vessels and because of that that, they think that its untenable, because you would have to affect coral structures in that area. So they say that for good and sound reason, environmental reasons they feel they must choose the Port of Magical. Your response to that?"
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"If we're going to go down the environmental pathway, Port Magical is dredging a million cubic meters more than Waterloo and all of the environmentalist including Dr. Williams and the NGOs were up in arms as to the Waterloo project. So why is it that the ramifications for Waterloo which is a million less does not hold with Portico?"
And while we quoted the 2020 ESIA from Waterloo, we note that in the 2022 version of that document, they say that navigation simulations, quote, "examined the manoeuvring of large cruise ships, such as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's Oasis of the Seas...through the planned access route, including…One-Man Cay Channel...The...simulation confirmed that the entire planned route is safely navigable per the current design under all modelled conditions and vessel types." END QUOTE.
