As some of you know, I am the Hope Spot Champion for Mission Blue in Bocas del Toro and have been for the last 6 years. Mission Blue approached me about being a speaker on a cruise ship (with Bocas on the itinerary) on behalf of their organization and to represent Bocas. Mission Blue recently formed a partnership with MSC Foundation. The MSC cruise line would like to focus on becoming more sustainable and agreed to start the foundation that gives money to restoration efforts.
I had a hard time saying yes. Large cruise ship travel has never been my thing, and especially with what I’ve been doing in the ocean for the last five years, the conservationist in me said I couldn’t do it. I thought on it, talk to friends, and eventually I had conversations with two different people at Mission Blue. I wanted to understand why they formed this partnership within this industry that is notoriously damaging to the ocean. One of them said, “we realized as an organization we hadn’t made the headway we had hoped after all these years by sitting back and criticizing industry. The industry isn’t going away. So if we can form a partnership and have our advice heard and acted on, we have a better chance at making a difference.”
That response was what made me say yes. The ship was coming to Bocas with or without me. If I could stand in front of them and talk about sustainable tourism and how to interact with the environment in my home, there could be positive outcomes.
 
While my talks about coral reefs did not fill the ballroom, I was also asked to join the Destination Expert on stage when she was talking about Bocas, having never been here before. He talks aways filled the room. In all three of stints on stage, I asked the passengers to take advantage of the nice reusable water bottles the ship had gifted all of us, instead of buying plastic bottles. Bocas is a small area with a new recycling program that can’t keep up with current demand. If 800 people disgard plastic water bottles, it would cripple that program. A friend of mine is the one who organizes all of the small boat tours for cruise ships. I spoke with her the day after the ship was at port. She said, “out of 176 people on our tours yesterday, only ONE brought a plastic bottle. We’ve never seen that before.”
I am not taking credit for this. It could be that the ship providing the bottles was what moved the needle. But what I said couldn’t have hurt. 🙂
