Cutting a course of pollution.

• Author: Hardman, Chris
• Position: Upfront - Cruise ship pollution

CRUISE SHIPS INTRODUCE millions of people to exotic places throughout the Americas. As the industry grows, so does the size of the ships. Some carry as many as five thousand passengers and crew. According to a study conducted by analyst G.P. Wild, the number of people taking cruises will reach nearly twenty-one million by 2010. The Caribbean is the principal destination accounting for almost half of all cruise traffic.

The problem--according to Oceana, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.--is that cruise ships are legally able to dump raw sewage into the ocean. To address this issue, Oceana has launched the Stop Cruise Ship Pollution campaign with two goals in mind: create federal legislation in the U.S. to control cruise-ship water pollution and persuade cruise-ship companies to install modern-sewage treatment equipment.

"These boats go to some of the most beautiful places on the planet, places that are already struggling with all kinds of pollution from development," says Jackie Savitz, Oceana pollution program director and senior scientist. "These boats are capitalizing on the glory of the marine environment, and in the meantime they are dumping all kinds of waste."

Each day an average-sized cruise ship hosting three thousand passengers and crew generates 30,000 gallons of sewage. An additional 255,000 gallons of wastewater comes from sinks, dishwashers, and laundry, much of which contains toxic chemicals from industrial cleaning products, dry cleaning, and photo processing. Under current environmental laws, all of this waste can be dumped untreated into the ocean once the ship is more than three miles away from shore.

"Harmful nutrients in sewage like nitrogen and phosphorous are well-known pollutants that cause low-oxygen problems like the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico," explains Savitz. She says that raw sewage contaminates marine ecosystems and contains viruses that can make humans and marine life...