Tour operators boycott 'lawless' No Man's Land after bloody brawl

REEF tour operators in Tobago have begun boycotting No Man’s Land following a brawl aboard Cool Runnings glass-bottom boat, which later continued at the popular liming location.

Videos of the incident on social media showed three men severely beating a man aboard the vessel. Another video showed a man with a cutlass fighting with another man in the sand on No Man's Land.

Speaking with Newsday on July 8, Michael Frank, owner of Frankie Tours, said enough is enough as he lamented the lack of security there. In one of the videos, a voice is heard on a speaker calling for all Frankie Tours' clients to get on the vessel immediately to leave No Man's Land.

“We have boycotted No Man's Land – it’s too much. It’s bringing way too much of unnecessary stress and pressure to us, the operators,” Frank said.

He said No Man’s Land was never a part of the initial tour as it was always Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool. He said No Man's Land was added during the covid19 pandemic when there was no snorkelling allowed, so patrons were given a trip to No Man's Land as a bonus.

“What happen now is that No Man's Land has become a free-for-all in that many persons now flock there.”

He said Cool Runnings had nothing to do with the incident as it was just parked in the area. The fight, he said, originated at Nylon Pool, noting that the guys in the fight were related to others who were liming at No Man's Land.

“They jumped out with their cutlass and ran on top of the glass-bottom boat to attack a guy and slapped him with a cutlass. The glass-bottom boat was filled with people – children. You don’t do that, you have to respect the glass-bottom boat.

"So basically, they caused a whole big commotion and a whole set of children crying. We can’t tolerate that. We just find that it was too much disrespect and we as the operators decided that we would boycott this stop.”

He said tour operators continue to unfairly get the blame for incidents at No Man's Land.

“So we are fed up of taking all the blame, so hence our stance, and once we don’t go there, there is no blame to take.”

He said the tour boats visiting No Man's Land generated a lot of revenue there.

“Jobs were created by this added stop...There are now so many vendors across there who do a lot of self-employed stuff from crafts, to arts, to sell drinks, food – there are many vendors on No Man's Land.

"All of them are now out of jobs, literally all of them are on the breadline because if the glass-bottom boats not going there, it means that nobody isn’t going there.

“We are not benefiting from going to No Man's Land. In fact we’re losing because when you go there it takes time away from the trip. I mean, I feel sorry for them as I know some of the guys there personally and they have never done anything wrong and now they’re basically thrown on the breadline.”

He said the actions of some are hurting the tourism product on the island.

"You going in a tourist place – what you doing over there with cutlass and guns? As glass-bottom boat operators, we don’t even have weapons on our boats because of course we’re dealing with tourism. Why they having these items across there?

"Over there is now too out of hand, they are getting too 'biggish' over there, because we were feeding them thousands of dollars by bringing our guests there, so the whole crew of operators said that they would no longer be going to No Man's Land.”

Former chief secretary and political leader of the PNM Tobago Council Ancil Dennis said the incident proves that there is a breakdown of leadership which is costing safety, order and tourism value. The incident, Dennis said, is symptomatic of deep neglect and a dangerous erosion of order in one of Tobago’s most treasured spaces.

“As chief secretary, I t​ook real ac​t​ion to establish order and protect our marine spaces and safeguard publ​ic safety: We piloted and passed the Tobago Marine Parks Bill. This progressive legislation, which was supported even by Farley Augustine in the Assembly, was designed to regulate, preserve, and manage Tobago’s marine and coastal zones.”

He said a plan was launched to revamp operations at the park, eliminate harassment of visitors and stop unsafe practices on vessels and within the park.

He said patrol officers were hired and deployed to work with police and coast guard.

He said those initiatives were neglected and destroyed.

“As a Buccoo boy – someone born and raised right there who still frequents these areas – it pains me deeply to see what our slice of paradise is descending into. The Buccoo Marine Park has become a lawless zone under the current THA administration while (tourism secretary) Tashia (Burris) travels the globe looking cute, and Nathisha (Charles-Pantin, Secretary of Food Security, Natural Resources and the Environment) is busy hosting events for photo ops; despite the clear groundwork and legislative tools already in place to restore and protect it.”

Newsday tried to contact Burris for a response to the incident but calls and messages to her cellphone went unanswered up to publication. Efforts to contact Charles-Pantin were also futile.