BIGGER is better as far as the cruise ship industry is concerned. And if Bermuda wants to keep enjoying the economic benefits of cruise visitors, then the island has little choice other than to do what is necessary to accommodate huge new ships.

The average size of ships being built by cruise lines is growing by the year. Royal Caribbean, for example, one of the lines that calls in here, will launch a 158,000-ton vessel that accommodates 3,600 passengers, in June this year.

Carnival has ordered 12 new ships to be built through 2009, all of them far bigger than the less than 700-foot ships that currently dock in at Hamilton and St. George's. Some reports say Carnival is planning a 200,000-ton monster that would transport 5,000 passengers.

The cruise lines have told the Ministry of Transport and Tourism that the smaller ships that have served Bermuda will be out of service within three or four years. The new "megaships" will be too big to navigate either the Town Cut, to reach St. George's, or Two Rock Passage in Hamilton harbour.

Bermuda faces a stark choice ? whether to take the uncomfortable steps necessary to allow in the megaships, or to lose the hundreds of thousands of visitors who boost the local economy to the tune of tens of millions of dollars every year.

The Bermuda National Trust has been invited by Government to have an input in the planning process. This week, the Trust has welcomed two environmental experts to the island to help them make sure they cover all of the likely environmental impacts.

Dr. Andrew Price, of Warwick University in the UK, and Michael Donlan, of Massachusetts company Industrial Economics Inc., have been on a whirlwind, five-day, fact-finding mission. They have met with representatives of the Ministry of Tourism and Transport, Marine & Ports, the Corporation of Hamilton, the Corporation of St. George, Wedco, and the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, as well as speaking at a public meeting on Wednesday night.

Mid-Ocean News reporter JONATHAN KENT met with the two men for a chat about their work here.

The Bermuda National Trust has asked us to come to help them provide information for the megaship planning process. Our focus is on trying to promote a full discussion on all the issues early in the process, rather than letting plans go forward and momentum build in a certain way before realising that there are some important environmental implications that were not talked about beforehand.

There are actual environmental impacts and not all plans are created equally in terms of what they might do to sensitive environmental resources.

It's about making sure that people fully understand the trade-off they may be signing up for if these plans happen.We're not here to give answers. We're here to provide information and to promote a core discussion.

Q: What are the major points you've become aware of so far?

MD: The large carrying capacity of these ships has an impact that I'm sure people on the island can identify with, such as traffic congestion and crowded beaches. People may be happy to make those trade-offs, but make sure we talk about them beforehand.That's right. We take a multi-disciplinary approach, partly because there may be impacts that may not be obvious at first glance that have important implications for the island's resources.

We showed up last weekend and we leave on Thursday (yesterday) evening. It's given us a chance to meet with many stakeholders and to see the island for ourselves.

Yes, there are several plans. But whichever plan is chosen, it's clear that Bermuda has to deal with a unique set of issues that you wouldn't have to deal with elsewhere, given its small size and its unique coral habitat. These are sensitive systems and we don't have hectares upon hectares left. What's left is very precious.

It's not all doom and gloom. Some options may be able to deal with these trade-offs better than others. It's about making people aware of the full set of circumstances that might arise from any one of these plans.

These are the kind of decisions Bermuda is going to have to live with and it would be hard to reverse them once a course of action has been taken.

We have to try and get this done in as open a manner as possible and everyone we've met is very amenable to that.Well, first you're going to have to make us leave! That will be the hard part! Assuming you get us on the plane to go, then ultimately we will generate a report to highlight the issues and concerns to come out of these discussions.

The report is certainly not going to be a recommendation on the way to go forward. It will help to give people information that they can digest and add to the discussion and hopefully highlight issues that may not be there in people's minds now.

I understand there are important economic and development issues, but we want to help people focus on the fact that it will have implications. And a lot of information is already available in Bermuda.

In our report we want to focus on what the issues are and where there might be data gaps.

Both of us have worked in similar situations across the world. I have worked primarily in the Indian Ocean and also in different locations in the Caribbean. Although Bermuda is obviously distinctive, one does find commonality with other parts of the world.Unfortunately a lot of the work we get involved with is after the fact, like oil spills or waste releases. It's actually nice to be in a place where people are thinking about it in advance, as opposed to making a hurried phone call when there is a big ship sitting on a reef somewhere.

We have a holistic approach, as we're not just looking at cruise ships, we're looking at all transport issues and anything that might affect the coast here. The environment does not care about the source of harm.

Q: Is this the first time you've been here?

MD: It is, for us both.Lots of impressions and, like I said, it will be difficult to make us leave! One obvious thing is that there is almost nowhere that is smaller and more densely populated. Seeing that with your own eyes adds an element of understanding. Space is very constrained and anything that can impact on resources is going to be an important issue. It's been helpful to see this for ourselves to put it in context.

Q: Have you ever looked at the specific issue of accommodating larger cruise ships in a different country? It's rare that we get asked. Some locations really are not so concerned about what the impact will be. The attitude is often that they will do whatever it takes to bring in the bigger ships.

Also we often work with environmental protection agencies rather than governments, so we are not normally involved in the actual planning. What's happening in Bermuda is different from what is happening in other places.

It's good that Bermuda has the forethought and the interest in pursuing issues that will have a great effect on the island.

Q: In a nutshell, what are the major issues you have identified so far?

MD: We have some initial impressions but we're not in a position yet where we have definitive answers.

But in terms of carrying capacity issues, it's clear that there are some stresses that cruise ship passengers place on the island, given its small size. How people are transported and how that will impact on people's daily lives is important.

Also, what impact will it have on the beaches and on recreation, people's homes, properties and boats?

It's about quality of life, not just how this can be done best.

Q: What about the ecological impact?

AP: The coral reefs are resources of particular concern. Besides providing fish food and biodiversity, they are also very important for coastal protection. In fact, the reefs are Bermuda's primary natural defence systems.

The amazing thing is that even though coral reefs can survive hurricanes, sedimentation can cripple them. And sedimentation is one of the issues of concern that can potentially arise from the cruise ships.

Q: And what other issues?

AP: We've also been talking about waste water. The new megaships have pretty advanced waste treatment facilities, so they can actually handle their own sewage and generate their own fresh water.

But there is a trade-off ? the fact is, if one of those things ends up on a reef it's very bad news.

And it goes beyond the mechanical breaking of the reefs, it's also about the anti-fouling paints that ships have on the underneath, which is extremely toxic.

This raises another set of issues. Basically, there are obvious impacts and less obvious ones.

MD: There is plenty of evidence to show that the newer ships are more advanced in waste treatment, generating their own fresh water and dealing with their own trash and that's an important thing to document.

But those ships are longer and wider and does that mean they will have a more difficult job transiting the channels? You have to look at the broader picture.

Q: Is there a deadline for this report to be completed?

MD: The general timeframe is in the coming weeks. We have to pore through some of the information we have and reflect on it.

The deadline will also depend on when we can see simulations that are being prepared on the mechanical effects of the new ships.