Cruise ships using Caribbean Sea as dump

The cruise industry has sailed along relatively free of scrutiny. It's nice to see that they are garnering the attention they deserve.

Here's a great 2003 report - Cruising out of control - that reviews the industry's record on the environment and on workers.

When I went to Alaska on my first cruise in 2003, I helped some locals at one of the more natural stops on the circuit, develop a campaign to counter the big cruise lines that were heavily lobbying civic and state governments to have a deep-water pier built on the town's beautiful waterfront. Anchoring in the bay was such an inconvenience for the cruiselines and cut into tourists' souvenir-buying shoreleave, don't you know.

I do not appreaciate comments of this nature being made against one of our GEs, who is a GE for a reason; if you have a complaint private message me as this is not the way to express your anger about it.

look at this link

Global Shipping Lanes 2008

it shows 2 maps, one the global shippng activity and the other a human impact map to our oceans.

Thanks for the informative story.  I'm going to the Caribbean, on a cruise, in a few weeks.  I'll be sure to grill the captain and crew on what they are doing to the environment and report back.  I'll include a little about the food and fun too.  Good report to get people thinking.

Blue, I hate to be pedantic but these paragraphs, which are outside the highlight boxes, are also from the original piece: 

The UN created the ban to protect areas that are vulnerable because of heavy ship traffic or sensitive ecology. It has already taken effect in the Antarctic, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Persian Gulf and is due to come into force in the Mediterranean in May.

And:

Under current Caribbean regulations, ships can dump garbage, including metal, glass and paper, five kilometres from shore as long as it's ground to less than 2.5 centimetres.  Almost anything but plastic can be dumped beyond 40 kilometres.  If approved, the ban would outlaw discharging of any solid waste at any distance except for food, which could be dumped five kilometres from shore. 

Could they be moved to the highlight boxes also? Thanks.

Actually, it was just the first sentence, GD, but I'll change it up and add links. 

I think eco-tourism is a more realistic approach to teach people, as people just won't want to keep tourism local as well.

There is a new development for this, a technology that an acquaintance of mine is backing financially that treats waste before disposing of it.

I also think that he told me that dumping, as it has been done, will be illegal soon.

This comment smacks of arbitrarily decided site content control and pulling rank by those who have been here a while longer than others.

I do not appreciate this comment. At all.

Please do not try that on a post of mine.

Thanks.

This is bad for tourism. The Caribbean cannot afford to ignore this.

Why I hate tourists and especially tourist organizations.

Thanks for the story Blue Crush. Very informative.

Thanks for this. The cruise industry is a huge environmental problem. You just can't have that many people floating around on the ocean, consuming, eating, drinking, etc., without having a huge impact.

If we're aiming to produce and eat local, why not keep tourism local too?

This is a problem in Georgia Strait (Canada) too.  There are regulations requiring holding tanks for boats in some areas, but much of the Strait is fair game for sewage and garbage dumping. 

Good story Blue Crush - thank you.

One wonders if the sewage from these ocean liners could have far reaching effects on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and other precious coral reefs in the Coral Sea.  I know that it couldn't be the main culprit - since global warming and the changing acidity of the seas and oceans have already been identified as the cause.

But still .....
      ~ Swan

I never thought about this before; I've never been on a cruise, but I don't think I'll be going to one.

GD, please stop being pedantic. You could have said this in a more subtle manner.

Yours,

Opinion writer fed up with being called-to-order on my own pages by the unofficial Site Thought Police...

Though the cruise ship industry ultimately gave us Siegfried and Roy, it just isn't my thing. 

This calls for more attention. Protection of the environment should be paramount. And I am sure that the authorities, cruise providers and environmental agencies are doing whatever is in their power to ensure that the Caribbean remain a natural beauty, which attracts millions of tourists every year. 

I enjoyed a Caribbean Cruise in September 2007 with my Aunt and Sister. At the time a student of photography and had so much fun photographing everything. The ship was great inside and out. I believe this shot was in the Cayman Islands wear the water was aqua color. If you get a chance take a cruise it's great an experience you will remember.. 2009 I'm taking a cruise as a professional photographer to the Bahamas on the same cruise line as before..I know I'll get my moneys worth.

Gina

ExpressIt Photography has contributed a photo to this story.

Is this a joke? This is a half finished story, at best. This is a story based on mostly hearsay, and the author has not spoken to any of the cruise lines and asked their comment on this. That makes this a very little credible story when it is just advocating one sides views.

Dumping of garbage has for many years been a big problem with cruise ships, but new and modern wessels are much more enviromentally sane and this might not be true to the whole fleet. There are many sides and points not heard or mentioned in this article, which makes me reccomend this to be read with some reservations as to the credibility.

AlexB has contributed a photo to this story.

Very enlightening report, especially about the taxes and the workers.  Thanks for adding it.

Thank you Kuuva, for adding this link, it shows the larger picture.

No joke. But well worth the read, if only to get people thinking. Glad you commented.

These cruise ships were taken at nassau in the bahamas.

johnwillis1000 has contributed a photo to this story.

I did not appreciate her comment Amyjudd, and you do not appreciate mine. That's ok.

I had no complaint to make to moderators, or GE's, but I did comment what she wrote. Can't people do that here? Can't we say that we do not agree? There was no personal content to my comments.

Fine. I shall write you on PM as asked, and I stand by what I put up.

Thanks, Blue Crush, for this informative piece.  These ships should be heavily fined for polluting the sea and natural habitat. 

NCL's Norwegian Majesty anchored offshore of NCL private island.

V-rider has contributed a photo to this story.