CARIBBEAN MARINE ASSOCIATION

6th September, 2018 - The Caribbean Marine Association (CMA) was set up in 2005 to join together all the Marine Associations from the various islands in the Eastern Caribbean, and it was very effective in responding to the APIS crisis of 2007/08.  

It subsequently, was partly responsible along with CCLEC (Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council) and the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) for setting up the online yacht clearance system, SailClear.com.  In fact, it was the CMA which initially registered the web name and passed it to the CCLEC.  SailClear is gradually expanding its reach throughout the Caribbean but still has issues with certain islands, specifically the French and US, where they are reluctant to share data.

The CMA was also responsible for tackling the continued sale of TBT based paints in the Caribbean which had been banned from sale in the US but not in the Caribbean.  Although difficult to monitor, TBT no longer appears for sale in most chandleries and marine paint shops.

More recently and perhaps tenuously, the CMA backed up the founding of the British Caribbean Pensioners Association, an organisation set up to fight the U.K. government over the way it freezes the pensions of British pensioners who have moved to mainly former British colonies in the Caribbean.  Why did the CMA get involved?  Not only is it an unjust and grossly unfair practise but the CMA is interested because many of these pensioners originally arrived in the Caribbean on yachts and have worked in and/or supported the Caribbean marine industry.

Unfortunately, lack of funds means that the CMA has become a re-active organisation rather than pro-active. It re-acts to problems rather than seeks out ways to improve the yachting and marine industry in the Caribbean.  Sustainable funding would be of considerable benefit but seems to be unattainable.