Cruise ship row 'strangling' Falkland Islands While 17 of 22 scheduled ships have visited Port Stanley this season, most are expedition ships with fewer than 100 on board. Hattie Kilmartin, who runs the Sea Cabbage Cafe, a museum and a penguin tour at Bluff Cove Lagoon, said the islands have already lost 80 per cent of projected income this season. "For a large ship, such as Veendam, we have a team of 50 people ready, including 20 Land Rover drivers," she said. Ours is one of many small businesses being destroyed by these bullying tactics and many Islanders are affected - a quarter of the working population is directly involved in cruise ship tourism. She estimated her income is down two-thirds from this time last season, with drivers, musicians, jetty staff, shop owners and restaurant workers also losing out. The cruise ships generate an estimated £10m for the islands. There are 81 scheduled cruise ship visits to Port Stanley this season, which lasts until April, with a total of 60,000 passengers. But the outlook is bleak, with the Veendam due to make 10 trips to the Falklands - a quarter of all cruise passengers to the islands. Two ships owned by Prestige have also cancelled for February. Officially, Holland America has blamed bad weather for the cancellations - although it was fine on the islands. However, the German operator acknowledged that it steered clear "due to the political situation." The Foreign Office last week summoned Alicia Castro, the Argentinian ambassador to Britain, and accused her country of looking to "strangle" the economy of the Falklands. It also issued a strongly-worded statement attacking the action against cruise lines. "It is shameful that elements within a large country like Argentina should seek to strangle the economy of a small group of Islands," it said. We have made this very clear to the government of Argentina. We will take every necessary measure to support the Falkland Islanders.