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Cruise liners leave marine pollution in their wake
JEREMY WATSON - Scotland on Sunday
2nd March 2003
THEY sell themselves as floating dream holidays, but according to disturbing new research, are more like giant seaborne sewage farms.
European lawmakers are being urged to crack down on the luxury cruise liners that threaten marine life by pumping pollutants into the open ocean.
Huge new liners that can carry up to 3,000 passengers are regularly discharging thousands of gallons of sewage, oily water, chemicals and rubbish into the sea.
Environmental groups and MEPs claim the discharges risk damaging fragile marine habits and ecosystems at a time when cruising is the fastest-growing holiday market worldwide.
An average-sized cruise liner will produce around 30,000 gallons of sewage per day, according to a report by the US-based Ocean Conservancy pressure group.
In addition, 255,000 gallons of ‘grey’ water from laundries, showers, sinks and dishwashers are also likely to be dumped at sea on a daily basis. Other discharges include 37,000 gallons of oily bilge water and 15 gallons of toxic waste from dry-cleaning, painting and photograph-processing.
The alert has been raised by Struan Stevenson, the Scottish member of the European parliament, who is also president of its fisheries committee.
Stevenson wants rigorous environmental standards to be introduced to protect fragile marine systems.
"I am alarmed that the same rigorous environmental standards which we apply to our towns, cities and industries are not applied to these cruise ships, despite the fact that this is a rapidly expanding sector," Stevenson said. "We need an international set of regulations to bring them under some form of control."
Some of the pollution could have played a part in the worldwide decline of fish stocks, Stevenson suggested. He is now urging the parliament’s powerful environment committee to mount an investigation.
Cruise holidays are the fastest-expanding sector of the leisure market, with UK waters one of the areas being targeted for massive growth.
The number of cruises sold in Britain rose from 193,000 in 1991 to 776,000 in 2001, according to Cunard.
The number sold in the UK is expected to hit the one million mark within the next two years, operators say.
The expansion in cruise holidays has prompted the introduction of ever-bigger ships. Last year Cunard started work on its new £600m flagship, the Queen Mary 2, in the French port of St Nazaire. When completed next year, it will be the largest and most expensive passenger ship ever built, with berths for 2,620 passengers and 1,254 crew.
The Ocean Conservancy study found that the amount of waste generated by each cruise passenger was far greater than that created by a vacation on land. "These cruise holidays are increasingly popular, but the ships are like floating cities without any rules on sewage and waste disposal," said a spokesman.
The industry forecasts that by 2005 there will be around 300 cruise ships carrying more than 10 million passengers to vulnerable marine areas in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the waters of the Arctic and Antarctica and the North Sea.
The pristine waters of the west coast of Scotland are becoming an increasingly popular destination for ever-bigger ships.
The International Council of Cruise Lines says it endorses new guidelines to reduce water and air pollution, but so far these are voluntary.
Caroline Jackson, the British MEP and president of the European parliament’s environment committee, said she had written to environment commissioner Margot Wallstrom asking for specific legislation to curb the dumping of pollutants at sea.
"This is a matter we need to pursue because the industry has plans to expand throughout the world, including around the coastline of Britain," Jackson said. "The sea should not be used as a dump."
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