Cruise ship pollution is unfortunately one of the worst examples of the old saying "of out of sight out of mind". After all, only a handful of us live along the coast and even fewer actually see a cruise ship in ports or at sea. Floating out of sight, many cruise ships have been ignorantly dumping disgusting amounts of waste into our oceans for years. Diesel exhaust from one cruise ship alone produces more diesel pollution then created by 1000 trucks per day. On average, a week long cruise produces approximately 50 tons of garbage, 4.5 million liters of gray water (wastewater from sinks, showers, kitchens and laundry) and nearly a million liters of sewage. As is if that isn’t bad enough, a week trip also averages about 150 000 liters of oil-contaminated water, toxic chemicals form dry cleaning, photo processing, paint and garbage.

The good news is since the early 90’s, after realizing how much pollution these floating cities were dumping, many were brought to court. Nearly 200 foreign flagged cruise ships were charged in from 1993-1998. Since 2000, top cruise lines such as Norwegian Cruise Lines, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean were fined nearly 50 million. In 2004 Royal Caribbean agreed to install advanced waste water system treatment technology on all of its ships and any future ones. The bad news is the laws that cruise ships have to follow are still extremely weak. The only federal laws in the states for ship sewage discharges is that it they have to use approved marine sanitation devices within 3 miles of shore. Canada has no standards for gray water or sewage waste, allowing them to become a dumping ground for American cruise ships traveling to Alaska.

The downside to many current marine sanitation devices is they use chemicals like chlorine, ammonia, or formaldehyde, that can present threaten marine life. The human waste and chemical pollution cruise ships are dumping are contaminating our water, damaging corals, depleting the oxygen supply in the ocean, and harming marine life. Studies has proved that coral diseases can be linked to human sewage like the sewage dumped from ships. This explains why 90% of Florida’s coral reefs are already believed to be dead or dying. Nutrients in sewage can also cause “eutrophication” a disease where excessive growth of algae depletes oxygen and can cause fish and other organisms to die.

Although cruise ships are floating cities, they are not required to have discharge permits like cities. They are responsible for 25% of what is dumped into the ocean, and most likely the numbers are much higher then we will ever know. Forcing cruise ships to get the same discharge permits would guarantee proper sewage treatment is in effect and allow us to know how much pollution is being released. For more information check out Oceana or Bluewater Network’s homepage. They have both been fighting this battle for years and continue to constantly push for stricter laws and regulations to protect our oceans and marine life.