Bermuda National Trust has named the green experts that will help it draw up a study on the potentially harmful effects of mega-cruise ships visiting the Island. Trust officials recently contacted several academic and environmental institutions to assess the impact Panamax and post-Panamax boats might have on Bermuda seas. And the conservation group today confirmed it had secured the services of Industrial Economics Incorporated (IEc), based in Massachusetts. The economic and environmental consulting firm has studied green issues in the US and other countries for more than 20 years.

It has mainly provided services for governmental clients, such as the US Government Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and did natural resource damage work in the US Virgin Islands.

Dr. Andrew Price, biological sciences lecturer at the University of Warwick, in the UK, will be involved with the study that will ?identify and evaluate the capacity of Bermuda?s land-based recreational resources?.

IEc will also look at the potential to increase the smaller-sized cruise ship market currently serving Bermuda and also asses the risks to sensitive ecosystems from any port and harbour upgrades.

The Trust has called on Government to undertake a wide-ranging green assessment on the changes needed to house larger cruise ships, and said it hoped its independent project would contribute to this process.

Trust vice president Bill Holmes has already said such studies were vital. He added: ?We cannot be too careful when making a decision that will shape the future of the Island and have enduring consequences.?

Reports about the arrival of large cruise ships ? called Panamax vessels ? to the Island have stirred public debate on the topic.

Mr. Holmes said widening Town Cut, St. George?s, would inevitably alter the dynamics of the town?s harbour and make it more exposed in stormy weather.

And he the Trust believes the suitability of Dockyard as a proposed mega-ship hub was still clouded in social and environmental doubt.

Environmental questions such as to how much sediment would spread at Dockyard and how much coral would die should have been answered, Mr. Holmes added, long before a decision was made to build a mega-ship facility in Dockyard.