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Cruise money goes to marine sanctuary visitor center
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
keysnews.com
KEY WEST -- A
$200,000 grant has guaranteed a cruise line that its name will be
displayed inside the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's new
environmental center on Key West's harbor.
Royal
Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has donated $600,000 to 11 marine conservation
organizations, including the $200,000 for the Nancy Foster Florida Keys
Eco-Discovery Center, Richard D. Fain, Royal Caribbean's board chairman,
announced Monday.
Not everyone
welcomed the donation.
"It clearly
shows that it's not about the cause, but about advertising," said Ross
Klein, author of "Cruise Ship Blues" and several studies on the cruise
industry. "It's the epitome of tacky."
The funding
from Royal Caribbean for construction of the Nancy Foster center will
give the company name recognition inside the building, said Lori
Arguelles executive director of the National Marine Sanctuary
Foundation. The private foundation raises money for the Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary and 12 other U.S. sanctuaries established by
the federal government to protect the marine environment.
The Nancy
Foster center also will house Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
offices.
Royal
Caribbean spokeswoman Lynn Martenstein said that having the company's
name inside the center played a key role in the decision to donate money
from the company's Royal Ocean Fund.
"It was a
chance to have naming opportunity and we did not want to miss out on the
window of opportunity," Martenstein said. "There are many good
organizations applying for funding and it's difficult to choose."
While many
groups raise money through naming rights, the donation raised criticism
from a local environmentalist who cited the millions of dollars in fines
the cruise ship industry has paid for illegally dumping oily bilge water
and sewage into the ocean.
"It's in an
incredible bargain, considering that nothing was named for them when
they were fined $27 million for systematically dumping oil at sea and
lying about it to the Coast Guard," said Elliot Baron, a Last Stand
board member.
Royal
Caribbean was fined $9 million in 1998 and $18 million in 1999 as part
of criminal settlements with the Department of Justice. The company paid
the Alaskan government $3.5 million in 2000 for illegal dumping.
Royal
Caribbean also announced Monday it was giving $25,000 to Key Largo-based
Island Dolphin Care, which provides dolphin therapy to children with
critical illnesses and disabilities. Last year, Royal Caribbean gave the
nonprofit group $50,000 for marine science exhibits.
The company
rejected a funding request from Key West-based Reef Relief, which has
been an advocate of tighter regulations on cruise ship waste disposal.
Reef Relief
Executive Director DeeVon Quirolo said Royal Caribbean officials told
her not to apply for funding for Keys-related educational projects
because all the money going to the Keys was going to the sanctuary's
visitor center. She said she was shocked to learn that Island Dolphin
Care was given money.
Quirolo is
trying to raise money for several reef education and school programs the
Key West-based nonprofit group is sponsoring and had applied for funding
for a marine education program in the Caribbean.
At $200,000,
the Nancy Foster center received the largest grant, eclipsing several
research projects.
Royal
Caribbean is giving $25,000 to the Charles Darwin Research Station in
the Galapagos Islands to study the post-larval and juvenile phases of
the red spiny lobster's life cycle and $50,000 to the Conservation Fund
for the Southwest Alaska Salmon Habitat Initiative. The program will
help purchase strategic tracts to protect fisheries of wild salmon.
Royal
Caribbean's Oceans Fund was created in 1996 and the company has given
millions of dollars to various environmental groups around the world.
One group, The Ocean Conservancy, lost funding in the third year of a
three-year grant program after the nonprofit released a report that was
critical of the cruise ship industry.
"In view of
the highly critical nature of 'Cruise Control,' we fully understand that
you probably wish to decline any current or future contributions from
our Ocean Fund," Royal Caribbean president Jack Williams wrote The Ocean
Conservancy just months after the report was published.
tohara@keysnews.com |
