Does anyone think BP really needs these boats or do you think they have identified those that might be most affected by lost business and "buying them off" in advance?
It's clearly a "buy off in advance". (not in regards to just Scubatech, but all boat captains, including fishing charter captains).
BP would end up paying them for lost business anyway, so why not pay them up front and keep the boat captains/owners from rioting on TV and bashing BP.
but I can't really blame captains/owners for taking the check when there are no customers there.... (seeing how the oil spill scared half the customers off anyway).
(the way they are figuring paying them is showing bookings for that day/week for the past three years and paying averages for that time period over the past three years).
a month ago, before this spill, you were on the beach you'd you'd see 200 fishing boats over the course of a day. this past week, you'd be lucky to see 3 to 5 a day and most of them smaller non-charter boats.
most any boat that was big enough to be a charter boat, stayed in port. You go down to the Harbor, and the marinas were full of boats sitting there. Much easier and more profitable to "take the check" and not have to work for it.
Just frustrating for anyone who's paid to come on vacation and to see boat captains rather wanting to "get my BP check" instead of taking customers out.
This is still killing business along the coast regardless. Even though the beaches are clear, people are canceling vacation rentals, canceling weddings planned on the beach etc.
but the big problem is that even though some people are still coming, the phones have stopped ringing at the reservation desks for trips later in the year. People just aren't calling/reserving future trips. it's going to kill the local economies down there that depend on the travel dollar.
