By RIEL MAJOR

TRANSPORT and Local Government Renward Wells said yesterday a taskforce has been established to ensure all vessels participating in the tour-boat industry meet the required standards to operate.

Mr Wells told reporters outside Cabinet yesterday the Bahamas Maritime Authority had compiled a report recommending the ministry increase the staff compliment.

He said: “We should increase the staff compliments to be able to go through the Family Islands to ensure that self-built boats and commercial vessels brought from aboard; that they all comport with the requisite specs to be able to be used in the commercial industry.

“And we went ahead and did that.”

The minister said the new unit is going through the Family Islands very systematically, looking at all boats engaged in the commercial and tourism industry to assure operators are meeting the requisite requirements to be licensed in those industries.

According to acting port controller Raymond King last October, the Port Department manpower audit revealed the need for 60 to 70 more people to effectively carry out a mandate that includes ensuring commercial vessels are properly registered and inspected.

His statement came a week after the Bahamas Maritime Authority’s report into the deadly Four C’s Adventures accident in Exuma, which concluded the port’s inadequate resources is crippling its functioning.

The BMC’s report said that in Exuma there are 18 commercial charter boat companies in operation, only six of which are registered with the Port Department while the others have applications pending but continue to operate commercially.

The port is now gearing up for joint operations with the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force to target law-breakers across the country, Mr King said.

“We did an exercise in San Salvador where we recognised it was less than one fifth of the vessels that were registered and so we have operations lined up to reach all these Family Islands, particularly ones that have a high volume of maritime activity,” he added.

“We are going to make sure persons have been compliant with laws and regulations. It is a mammoth task when you realise we have 13,000-plus private vessels in the country, another 8,000 commercial vessels, plus smaller watercraft vessels which total about 500. The port could definitely use an increase in manpower.”