A Key West captain’s tale of cruise ship impacts

Re: The real test of whether DeSantis means what he says, Editorial, June 28

(Editor’s note: Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 1194 and dozens of other bills late Tuesday, which invalidates the seaport referendum in Key West).

As the founder and owner of a prominent charter boat business in Key West and as someone who grew up in Key West, I have borne witness to the decline of our reefs, water quality and overcrowding of our historic downtown district.

I have sailed through the constant gray water discharge, similar to sink and shower water, from the massive cruise ships while they are docked in Key West. I also spent years as a dockhand tying up ships, so I witnessed firsthand the amount of silt stirred up every time a massive cruise ship enters or leaves port, leaving a trail along the entire 6.5 miles of the shipping channel.

I thoroughly believe that these large foreign cruise ships are detrimental to the preservation of our marine preserve. The people of Key West voted overwhelmingly to prevent these ever-larger ships, which have poor environmental track records, from visiting our port.

Furthermore, regardless of one’s opinion about the cruise ships, we do not need to set a precedent of big government circumventing home rule and taking away voters’ rights. Surely, Republicans can agree that big government should not become the ones that tell municipalities that they cannot enforce what their own voters have demanded.

Capt. Seth Salzmann, Key West