Healing Our World: Cruise Ship Pollution - A Holiday of Toxins

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Cruise Ship Pollution - A Holiday of Toxins

I hear a voice,
the cry of a wounded animal,
Someone shoots an arrow at the moon,
A small bird has fallen from the nest.
People must be awakened,
Witness must be given,
So that life can be guarded.
-- W.S. Rendra

Each day, whether at sea or in port, a typical cruise ship passenger may generate one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of burnable waste, half a kilogram of food waste and one kilogram of glass and tin - five or six times as much as a person on shore.

On a ship carrying 3,000 passengers, this could be as much as 7,500 kilograms a day (16,500 pounds) of waste, much of which is dumped at sea into fragile marine ecosystems.

The Grand Princess of Princess Cruises has pollution free water-lubricated systems (Photo courtesy Thordon Bearings)

In fact, most international treaties governing cruise ship pollution specifically allow ships to dump waste, including untreated human waste, at sea. Every month, 200 cruises take 400,000 visitors to Caribbean ports alone.

Cruise ship companies have paid substantial fines in the last few years. In 1998, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., the world's second largest cruise line, was fined $9 million for dumping polluted water off the coast of Miami, Florida and Puerto Rico. Last March, the company was fined another $500,000 for dumping off Los Angeles.

In July of 1999, Royal Caribbean agreed to pay $18 million in fines to settle a 21 count felony plea agreement. The company's ships violated federal environmental laws in Miami, New York City, Los Angeles, Anchorage, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Debris from cruise ships (Photo courtesy Center for Marine Conservation)

It is unimaginable that international governmental bodies can claim that any level of open ocean dumping is acceptable. The toll that this waste takes on marine life is staggering. Each year, millions of animals become trapped or poisoned by marine refuse.

Sea turtles will often die from eating plastic bags that they mistake for jellyfish. Sea lions, birds and other sea life become entangled in plastic six-pack holders, nets, and other debris. Their fate is a slow, painful death as they grow into the entanglement. It is estimated that as many as 30,000 Northern fur seals die annually from entanglement in debris.

Slow death for this gull in a six-pack ring (Photo courtesy Center for Marine Conservation)

Cruise ships will also dump bilge water, a blackish liquid that contains oils, fuels, solvents and many other toxic chemicals that gather in the bilges of the ship.

The enforcement problem is magnified since many U.S. ships register their vessels under foreign flags. Even the Disney company’s 2,200 passenger vessel Magic sails under a foreign flag.

The Royal Caribbean company registers its ships in Norway and Liberia, a scheme that saves the company nearly $30 million in U.S. taxes. A U.S. study found that only two out of 111 cases referred to other nations by the U.S. were acted upon.

Sea lion strangled by rope dumped overboard (Photo courtesy Center for Marine Conservation)

There is no such place as - away - on our Earth, and we must work hard to get all people – especially politicians and corporate leaders – to realize that our oceans are all connected and vital to the health of our planet."

The ultimate enforcer of environmental protection is the consumer. If you are planning a cruise, investigate the cruise line to be sure their ships are not polluters. If they are, do not patronize the company. Ask the same of your friends.

If you do take a cruise, take along a video camera and record any dumping or suspicious slicks on the surface. Yes, I know you are there to have fun. But do you want to tell your children that they can’t go near the ocean because tens of thousands of people didn’t care?

The horrors caused by marine debris - all in the name of recreation - must stop. How can there be any other choice?

RESOURCES

1. Visit the Center for Marine Conservation's Marine Debris website to learn what you can do about marine pollution at http://www.cmc-ocean.org/mdio/

2. Learn what you can do about strengthening ocean dumping laws at http://www.cmc-ocean.org/mdio/laws.php3

3. Read a comprehensive report on cruise ship pollution at http://www.guardiannewsltr.com/Subscribers/environews/mar_apr99.htm and at http://www.ourplanet.com/imgversn/103/07_whisp.htm

4. See the National Center for Environmental Health's cruise ship sanitation program at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/programs/sanit/vsp/vsp.htm

5. Visit the Bluewater Network, a project of the Earth Island Institute at http://www.earthisland.org/bw/ for information about an ongoing campaign against cruise ship pollution.

6. Find out who your elected representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them you will not tolerate the environmental and social abuse allowed by huge corporate farming operations. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html or you can search by state at http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html. You can also find your representatives at http://congress.nw.dc.us/innovate/index.html

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and the Environmental Education Programs Manger and the Manager of Discovery Park for the City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation. He can be found in his new home in Seattle, watching the thousands of ships that pass by every day, releasing toxins into the sea. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at www.healingourworld.com}