A fight is brewing over cruiseships calling on Florida's Key West amid the chaos created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
On one side is the Key West Committee for Safer, Cleaner Ships, which successfully pushed for three ballot initiatives to curtail the cruise industry's calls on the city, which lies at the end of the Florida Keys.
On the other side are the city's four port pilots, who last week sued in the Southern District of Florida federal court to keep the vote from going forward.
"The impact of the initiatives would be the effective end of cruiseships coming to Key West," the lawsuit alleges.
"The four highly-trained harbor pilots have spent significant sums [of money] and time on their training and are weathering the Covid-19 storm as best they can.
"However, the pilots are suffering continuing losses and pecuniary harm, given the uncertainty over the initiatives", and will continue to do so until election day on 3 November when voters decide on federal, state and local matters.
Should the initiatives pass, cruiseships calling at Key West would be limited to 1,300 people, and only 1,500 passengers a day would be allowed to disembark. Priority would be given to companies with the lowest numbers of environmental violations, penalties and fines, along with the best scores on health inspections and reports issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Key West Committee for Safer, Cleaner Ships said more than 390 vessels with 1.2m passengers arrived there last year, but represented just 8% of all spending in the city's $1bn tourist industry.
Its treasurer, Arlo Haskell, said the issue has been a popular one in the small city, with the committee securing 2,500 signatures in two weeks on a petition to win the inclusion of the initiatives on the ballot — 1,000 more than necessary.
Covid-19 response
He said the proposals were prompted by the cruise lines' poor response to the Covid-19 outbreak. Key West's one small hospital would not be able to handle a ship like the 115,900-gt Diamond Princess (built 2004), which was held offshore Japan while the respiratory illness ran rampant.
The pandemic has hit the sector hard, with cruise lines having to cancel all sailings until the autumn, leaving them scrambling for liquidity as their share prices cratered, on top of legal challenges from passengers and shareholders.
"[The port pilots] are trying to shut down the vote of 15,000 registered voters in the city. It's selfish, it's shameless. It's infuriating," Haskell said.
"Fundamentally, it's an effort by four guys who make big money from big ships trying to stop 15,000 people from voting."
Rift in regulation
But the port pilots argue that even if the initiatives pass, they would be unlawful, as municipalities are superseded by state and federal governments on maritime regulation.
Their complaint said that if they wait to see whether the initiatives pass, they would suffer significant financial harm as the matter works its way through the courts.
Neither the Cruise Line Industry Association nor Royal Caribbean Cruises, which Haskell said had a brand reach out to the committee, responded to requests for comment.
He said it was difficult to discern public opinion on the issue. The local Keys Weekly newspaper quoted business owners concerned about the proposed regulations.
Haskell said some of the signatories to the petition said they might not vote for the initiatives, but said they wanted a vote.
"We're not seeking to ban cruiseships," he said. "A lot of ports really depend on cruising for their economy, and that's not the case in Key West.
"It's kind of a high-impact, low-yield kind of proposition. You just want to be able to manage the public health risk with those limited benefits in mind."
