ACT NOW! We must stop Crystal Cruises from adding Spanish Wells, Bahamas as a port of call and anchoring its ship at Egg Island.

Crystal Cruises has announced plans to add Spanish Wells as a port of call beginning in July 2021.  The Crystal Serenity ship carries between ship 900 – 1000 people. Spanish Wells has a population of fewer than 2000 people, it is only 2 miles long by a half-mile wide and is a quaint fishing town. It’s a quiet, safe, and clean island. It is unlikely the Spanish Wells’ infrastructure can handle such a sudden increase in stress.

Over the last few years, Spanish Wells has created a strong and unique tourist brand and related products. Most who come to Spanish wells, rent houses, take excursions, and make very significant contributions to the local economy.  Recently, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) disclosed in findings published by a local newspaper that it takes 28 cruise tourists to spend as much as a SINGLE land-based stayover tourist. In other words, the stayover tourists who visit Spanish Wells spend 2,800% more than would a typical cruise tourist.  Experience informs us that people choose to visit Spanish Wells exactly because it is not a mass tourist destination. A High-volume, low-spend model of tourism is adverse to the Spanish Wells brand and would pose significant economic, social, and environmental risks to the small community.

Worse still, Crystal plans to anchor its ship at Egg Island, an uninhabited and undeveloped island near Spanish Wells. The island is an important part of Spanish Wells heritage and the surrounding waters are revered by locals and visitors alike. Egg Island's natural beauty has been enjoyed by generations and is of great ecological significance, to not only the communities of North Eleuthera and Spanish Wells but to the Bahamas as a whole. Egg Island boasts several healthy ecosystems including mangroves, coral reefs, salt ponds, rocky shoreline, and beach. Egg Island is known for having a sustainable grouper spawning aggregation, of which there are few left in the Bahamas. Endangered sea turtles are well known to nest on Egg Island beach, endangered shorebirds nest there, and the juvenile conch are maturing in safety. This fragile environment would be put at unnecessary risk by the numerous undesirable impacts of cruise ship operation, including pollution and direct damage from the anchorage. Notably, of the 18 cruise lines reviewed by Friends of the Earth in its influential “Cruise Ship Report Card”, Crystal Cruises was ranked dead last in 2020 in all four measured categories with a shameful overall grade of “F”.

Sadly, the community was not consulted by Crystal Cruises or by the Government We, as concerned residents and visitors from around the world must fight to stop this and we must act NOW! There is no upside to losing what has taken generations to build here. The peace, safety, sense of real community will all be in great peril if Spanish Wells becomes a cruise stop.

This is NOT in the best interest of Spanish Wells! Our existing, sustainable model of tourism is far superior to what has been proposed behind our backs. Let the Bahamian Government and Crystal hear our voices. 

We say NO to Crystal!