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Business World |
March 2015
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tions for mooring piles and floating docks.
The Department also helps to resolve dis-
putes involving individuals and their boats
and moorings.
Currently, the Department has roughly
5,000 moorings they are in charge of in-
specting and licensing. They also have more
than 7,000 small boats on their register, 100
charter boats and about 200 rental vessels.
“We’re expecting that the charter boat fleet
will increase drastically because of the Amer-
ica’s Cup in 2017,” Russell reports. “That’s
going to be a challenge, and we’re gearing up
to meet it.”
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS
The Department of Marine and Ports Ser-
vices employs roughly 170 people and has an
exceptionally low turnover rate. Many peo-
ple join the Department when they’re young
and stay there until they retire. According to
Russell, that loyalty is partially a result of the
pride they take in their work.
“Bermuda is relatively small, it’s 65,000 peo-
ple,” he says. “For a government department
to employ 170 of them, it has to be quite sig-
nificant.”
The Department is also significant in terms
of equipment, Russell adds. They own a sub-