Conclusion and Final Thoughts

So I'm in the final stages of my blogging experience on the cruise ship industry and their impacts on the environment. My first thoughts on the cruising industry were that it's a great way for easy transport and a unique travelling resort. After my first few days of researching the topic I learned that this is actually a terrible thing for the environment and it can devastate ecosystems all over the world! The ballast water is what I found to be the worst part of the problem because sure the chemicals from the smoke stacks were harming the air and killing the ozone layer, and yes they were doing far too much dumping into the waters of their waste, but these can be solved with some general efforts and knowledge. The ballast water problems were taking organisms into foreign waters and no matter what kind of research you do, you can't full understand or predict what kind of results will come from this.

After some more research I learned that there are some companies that are aware of what they are doing to the environment, and they are doing things to help protect it, as well as helping communities that are in need of support.

Something that I found out about the cruise line industry that I did not previously know or that I wrote about was that the largest cruise ship in the world could hold over half of my hometown's population. This just astonishes me that there are vessels this big out there, and that they are able to fill them for nearly every trip.

So in conclusion, I would definitely recommend taking a cruise, but I suggest you do your research before hand and try to choose a cruise liner that is attempting to do their part to offset their carbon footprint, and help preserve the environment, because without this environment, these cruise liners will have no product to market.

Cheers

Why Should We Continue Travelling Via Cruise Ships?

Cruise ships, even though they harm the environment on so many different levels, still cater to our daily needs, without us realizing we are polluting the environment. It's like commuting to work, yes you are polluting the environment, but does the average person stop and think while they're stuck in traffic about the amount of gas they're wasting, or the emissions that are going into the environment because of them? Probably not. These cruise ships are made, and marketed to us so that we don't think about the problems they possess, but rather the problems that they're fixing. For example, if you are single and looking to meet new people, they have a cruise for that. If you are retired and just want to relax, they have a cruise for that. Are you gay/lesbian and want to be around other homosexuals on a boat? They have a cruise for that. If you have a young family where mom and dad want to go on a cruise, but the kids want to go to Disneyland, well they even have a cruise for that!

My point is, they have cruise ships that are themed for virtually everyone, and this includes eco-friendly people as well. Most cruise ship staff, or atleast officers, are educated to be more aware of the environment, what they are doing to harm it, and how to use simple techniques like reusing towels to help save the environment. So instead of just bashing cruise liners (like I have been doing for the past few weeks) we should think about what they are doing that's good for us, because they are doing a lot. The price they pay to offer this service to us, could be a lot higher, and they could give back a lot less than they do, but like every other working man/woman they need to work, and bring something to our economy, it just happens that what they do for society, has a bit more of a reaction to the environment.

To conclude, we cant judge too harshly on what they are doing, unless we, as individuals are doing everything we possibly can, to offset our own carbon footprint.

Cheers

What Are Cruise Liners Doing To Help?

Some cruise line companys are in fact trying to help the environment, despite all the postings in the past, Carnival Cruise Lines are storing their cooking oil and grease and use it in the future as an alternative fuel. As for old furniture that they can no longer use, they donate them to local organisations.

Holland America Lines requires an Environmental Officer on board each ship to oversee shipboard compliance with environmental laws and industry standards. They've also created a program to help preserve whales, which are hugely affected by the cruise industry.

Princess Cruise Lines has a zero solid waste discharge policy, with all solid waste incinerated onboard or ashore, raising the cruise line’s environmental standards.

There are other stories like these profiling various cruise liners and what they're doing, and it can be seen here.

Cheers

Cruise Ships and Smog

Have you ever been walking up a road, and a big truck passes you and as they accelerate, a big black smoke cloud appears from their mufler? Chances are, this truck is using diesel and you can see this smoke linger in the air for a moment before it floats away into the atmosphere or the wind blows it away for someone else to enjoy. Did you know that most cruise ships burn bunker fuel which is 1,000 times dirtier than diesel used in trucks, and they emit more carbon dioxide per passenger mile than train or airplanes (Friends of Earth, 2010).

To relate back to a previous post I've done on how much these cruise liners are paying for their pollution in terms of money and how this is being handled, I've come across an interesting report that states all the fines of cruise ships from 1992-2009.  In the report they state what the infraction was, how much they were fined, and what stage the fine and sentencing is in. This report can be found here.

So these companies are being charged, but it does seem to take awhile for them to get charged and go through the policies to get this done, but is the price that they're paying enough? In my opinion, not even close, not with the amount that they're polluting, and the amount that is going unnoticed.

Cheers

Ballast Tanks, and the Hazards they possess.

Larger vessels are made to travel in the open seas and over greater distances. So with these longer travels come bigger weather issues such as storms, large waves, and heavy amounts of wind and rainfall. These large vessels use ballast tanks to stabilize their ships when weather like this comes along. Ballast tanks are large containers within the vessel that can take on water, or release water all at the touch of a button. They are used to put weight in the middle of the ship to help reduce the rocking so the passengers are more comfortable, and the ship can travel faster. They sound like a great idea, use the water that's all around you, to make travels faster and more comfortable, and when you're done with them, you can just release the water back into the oceans.

What is not mentioned with these ballast tanks are what kind of waters are you bringing onto the ship, and what waters are you releasing it back into?  For example one issue that is of concern right now are the zebra mussels in the Great Lakes.To learn more on the effects of Zebra Mussels in the Great Lakes, click here. Zebra mussels are indigenous to Southeast Russia, but have spread across the globe. The point to me seems obvious, you are taking on water (and whatever is in the water at that point) on one side of the ocean, and then depositing everything in a completely different section of the world. This is going to turn into a catastrophe because no one knows how salt water organisms will react in a fresh water environment. They may live in harmony, or they may spread like wildfire killing everything in its path just to survive.

A solution that I've just come up with while just sitting here is to why not have filters when taking on ballast water and releasing it. It will stop the larger organisms from travelling into foreign waters and devastating the ecosystems there, and it will keep them in their natural environment. This isn't a perfect solution but if I've been able to come up with this idea by just sitting here thinking for 2 minutes, then why can't experts who are more educated and paid to do this, come up with a better idea and start implementing it so invasions like the zebra mussels in the Great Lakes will stop, or at least slow down?

Cheers

Coast Guard and EPA help out

In a news release from February 12 of this year, the coast guard and the Environment Protection Agency signed a memorandum stating that they will coordinate efforts to help stop vessels such as cruise liners, commercial fishery vessels, oil tankers and others from dumping waste into the ocean. This waste includes anything from sewage, to ballast water that's used to stable ships, to even rain run off from the decks.

It's nice to see that the government and other agencies are stepping up and seeing that this is a problem. The difficult part of enforcing this (from what I see) is that if you come across a vessel doing this in open water, then who is the one who punishes them? Is it the nation of the vessel whose dumping? Is is the nation of the Coast Guard who catches them? Is it the nation of the waters that they're currently in, or a combination of all these countries? It's little problems like these that let ships get away with their dumpings, because if they get caught, the price that they pay for it is a lot less than the price they would have to pay to keep their wastes on board. So realistically the ships are getting a good deal if they're dumping their wastes. The penalties need to be higher, and they need to be enforced quicker instead of being stuck in limbo with politics and who charge these polluters.

Cheers

Intro/ How big is this problem?

This is my first time writing a blog, so all of this is new to me.  I'm hoping to learn as I go, with help from roommates, friends, and reading other peoples blogs and seeing how they're using this site, and how it is helping them get their opinions across.  Out of this blogging experience I'm hoping to get more research and knowledge out of this subject, and to get real facts and expert opinions on it.  I chose this subject because I want to gain experience in this tourism market because I want to one day work with a cruise liner industry.

According to the Daily News and Analysis (DNA) in 2009, between 15-18 millions people worldwide went on a cruise, despite the global recession.  So this shows us that the cruise line industry isn't disappearing any time soon.  With that said, how bad is the cruise line industry to the environment?  Is it dumping toxins into the ocean? Where do all the sewage from sinks, showers and toilets go?  In this 6 week blog, I plan on researching some of these questions, and others, and finding the truth about how eco-friendly this growing market really is.

Cheers