In this episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast, host Andrew Lewin discusses the environmental impact of cruise ships, particularly focusing on the use of scrubbers that release toxic chemicals directly into the ocean.
Cruise ships are likened to floating cities, providing travelers with unique experiences while visiting various destinations. However, the pollution generated by these ships is often overlooked. A recent study highlights that many cruise ships, especially those operating in Alaska, utilize a technology called open-loop scrubbers to clean their exhaust. While these systems filter harmful chemicals from emissions, the resulting polluted wastewater is discharged directly into the sea, creating significant environmental concerns.
An incident in Ketchikan, Alaska, where inspectors observed a cloudy discharge on the water's surface, exemplifies the issue. On average, cruise ships using these scrubbers release millions of gallons of polluted water daily. This practice poses a risk to coastal communities and habitats, as the ocean has a limited capacity to absorb such pollutants. Over time, the accumulation of these chemicals can lead to detrimental changes in marine ecosystems, including harmful algal blooms and declines in local wildlife populations.
Lewin emphasizes the need for stricter regulations, such as a nationwide ban on scrubbers, to protect the ocean. He points out that some regions, like Sweden and California, have already implemented bans or stricter fuel requirements for ships. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to consider eco-friendly alternatives when planning vacations and to support companies with strong environmental practices. By making informed choices, travelers can help send a message to the cruise industry about the importance of protecting our oceans.
Article: https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/cruise-ship-pollution-wastewater-scrubbers-sea/
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There is a large community out there that loves to go on cruise ships, right? You see it all the time. You see people are like, "This is the best thing ever. I can get on a boat. I can hop from place to place to place whether it be in the Caribbean, in the Antarctic, in the Arctic." And they get on these massive, massive boats, which are cities, floating cities, essentially, and they get on these boats. They eat all they want. They drink whatever they want. They have a great time. They see the sites. They see different islands. They see different places in different cities, whether they're in Europe or the Caribbean or Alaska. But what we don't really see is some of the pollution that happens in the water. And this is what we're going to be talking about today because there's a new study that talks about scrubbers over on the west coast of Canada and the US that is emitting a lot of toxic chemicals and pollution into the ocean. Now, it's not going to change the entire ocean or the entire Pacific Ocean, but it's going to definitely affect communities over the long run as there are more and more Alaskan cruise ships that are going up to view the beautiful nature of Alaska. So we're going to talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. Let's start the show. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. I am here as a resource to you. My entire company is built based on being a resource for you. And you can get more information at SpeakUpForBlue.com. And if you want stuff to get access to you or get to you right in your inbox, you can sign up for our newsletter, SpeakUpForBlue.com/newsletter. And you can get news, you can get job advertisements, you can get our latest videos and our latest podcasts sent to your inbox Monday to Friday. All right, let's get into the show. Cruise ships, cruise ships are a thing, like it is huge, right? We've seen cruise ships, just that whole community, you know, for the good and the bad. I mean, over the pandemic, it was bad, you know, things, you know, it's a floating city. So things get through this city pretty quickly, just because everybody's in such tight quarters. But these are floating cities. I've been on one cruise ship in my entire life, probably the last time I'll go on that cruise ship. But it's an interesting situation. You, you board this, this massive ship, you know, the one that I went on with like 5,000 people. You start off usually in like say a place like Florida, and then you go on and you go travel to the different places within like the islands, right? So I think I went to Honduras, we went to a place in Mexico, and then we went to the Bahamas, and then we came home. But during that time, you are floating on the water and you are just enjoying the ocean. And sometimes there's like nothing around but your ship. There's nothing on the horizon, it's just water, and it's pretty cool to see. However, the things that you don't see is you don't see the pollution that is caused by these ships. And certain areas have specific regulations that they can only allow ships with, you know, specific technology that's on those boats that say, hey, you can't pollute or you can't do certain things. Now, you got to remember if anybody has been to an island where these, these cruise ships frequent, you're going to see this massive pier that gets built out. That is a disturbance to that, all that ecological sort of communities that are along there, all the habitats and stuff. I've had people on the podcast a number of years ago talk about what's happening in Mexico with these large, you know, piers that are built to accommodate these cruise ships and the destruction that they cause, and you know, the problems that they cause in terms of potential grounding or coral reefs and so forth. But there are regulations that have been set forth even with like discarding garbage and how to where they need to discard garbage, like certain islands just can't take it anymore. There's a lot of things that go on within cruise ships, good and bad, like I don't judge anybody who takes a cruise ship, I understand why they take it. But what we have to do, and we'll talk about this towards the end of the episodes, we have to really think about and do our research on which cruise ships are the best. Just because the biggest and the newest doesn't mean it's the best for the environment. And a lot of the times when you go on a cruise ship, you are going to look at the environment, you're going to look at the water, you're going to different Caribbean or island communities or the Antarctic or the Arctic, and you're going to see something that you probably won't see every day, let's be honest here, and you have to get there by ship. And they're wonderful things, it's nature-based. And so what you want to do is when you do things that are nature-based, you want to be aware of how you are affecting the nature. I went to a conference in Malaysia a number of years ago. Great conference, it was wonderful. And I talked to a couple of people like, oh, you're going diving because they had their diving certificate, and they said, no, we don't want to go diving because we travel a lot, and we don't want to put in too much of a footprint on there. Now, there are some people who did go diving, now there's who didn't, but I get it, right? When we travel, when we do something, we want to make sure that we have the smallest imprint and footprint on that community, and in a positive way, if we do it, not in a negative way, right? So there's a lot of things that you have to consider when you are taking these ships. And we'll talk a little bit more about it towards the end of the episode because there's a resource that I have from this website where I got it called the Cool Down, where I got this article. They were talking about what's happening, you know, with these cruise ships that are going to Alaska, and a detailed report that was put out by Alaska Public Media has said many cruise ships use a technology called Scrubbers to clean their exhaust. These systems flush out harmful chemicals from ship pollution, but there's a catch. That pollution is dumped directly into the sea. So they filter out from the emissions, but then it gets dumped into the sea. So it's not really taken care of, it's just displaced in a different way. So for example, in June, an inspector at the Ketchikan, Alaska, in Ketchikan, Alaska spotted a cloudy discharge creating a shimmery film on the water's surface. It's not an isolated incident. Most cruise ships visiting Alaska now use these open loop scrubbers discharging millions of gallons of polluted wastewater daily on average. According to the report that is linked in this article, which I'll link in the show notes or in the description depending on where you're watching this on YouTube, or if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app. This is one of these hidden problems of the cruise ship industry. Something we don't normally see. You may see it if you are on, you know, topside on the cruise ship and you're looking out the window or you're looking like past the stern. You may or may not see this shimmery kind of filter. Or shine on the ocean's surface. And you kind of wonder, like, this is a massive cruise ship. It's going to emit some things. And to be able to make sure it's diluted, that's key, right? The old, I was actually talking to some friends of mine last night. We were out to dinner and I mentioned, I said, you know, the engineering model for a lot of people is the solution to pollution is dilution. So the fact is, if you're discharging chemicals into the ocean or discharging wastewater into an ocean, you would think that it would just get diluted pretty quickly. But there is a carrying capacity of this ocean, meaning that the ocean can only take so much before changes start to happen or before it starts to get to the wrong area. These cruise ships don't always go out to just in the offshore where you can't see land. A lot of times, these cruise ships are traveling up the coastline. Water comes in towards the coastline. So there could be chances where this pollution gets to coastal communities and coastal habitats destroying those habitats. If these cruise ships increase their time or the amount of times that they're in these areas and these scrubbers are continuing to discharge this wastewater and these pollutants, then over time, these habitats are not going to be able to buffer or be resilient against fighting these chemicals. And so they're going to change over time. And by the time they change, it's going to be too late. Then we get into restoration practices or even identifying and this happens all the time. We start to see a problem. We're like, hey, we need to fix this. And then the companies are like, you know what? We don't really need to fix this because it's going to cost us a lot of money and we're not seeing any kind of damages. So we'll do studies and we'll show that there's no damages and we'll just continue to do this. And they'll continue and continue and they might even increase the amount of boats that go or the frequency of boats that go past these specific communities. And then eventually what's going to happen is the amount of chemicals are going to go, the habitats aren't going to be able to buffer against it. It's going to flip into a bad scenario where you'll start to see algo growth or you'll start to see these filter feeding organisms like oyster spots or mussels or these corals or whatever is whatever is on these coastlines and there's deep sea corals and sponges that are along the west coast of Canada and the US where these ships go along. And you're going to start to see a change in those communities. And then you're going to start to see a decrease in the amount of animals that are around those communities, the communities are going to just basically just disappear slowly. And then by that time, by the time we identify it, then we have to go to the government and say, hey, you know what, this isn't actually a good idea. We've told you this before, but they said there was no changes. Now we're starting to see changes. And then by the time it goes towards doing an action, the community is already in disrepair and it's very difficult to get them back to a healthy spot. Then you're spending more and more money on restoration. You're trying to get the companies to pay for that. But then the company's like, you know what, we're not going to travel around that way. We'll find a different way and we're not going to do it than you have to sue them. And then it's just a whole thing. This happens all the time, like all the time. And we wanted to stop that right from the get-go. So there are technologies out there that can have scrubbers that are better, right? In specific areas, even within the US and across the world, they have banned scrubber discharges. So for instance, some nations like Sweden and Denmark have banned it. California requires ships to use cleaner burning fuel along its coast. And dozens of environmental groups are calling for the US Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, to implement a nationwide ban on scrubbers. That will stop this action from happening and then we don't have to worry about it. The cruise ship industry will be able to figure out different ways and using technologies to figure out different ways of getting rid of these chemicals. But we won't have to worry about them being in the waters along the coastline. The coastline are those beautiful places that we like to travel to, wherever you are along North America or anywhere in the world, that we take pictures of. And that we remember and we get paintings of coastlines and the people who live around them. And God forbid, those beautiful pristine coastlines are looking like green and smelly. And they don't give you that beautiful scenery that we love to see and that we have that blue mine for. We can save those just by taking away scrubbers, right? Just taking away just banning scrubbers. That would be great. Now, I mentioned the EPA would be in charge of banning these scrubbers and making the travel industry, the cruise ship industry responsible for taking away those. But let's be honest, the EPA, the US EPA is in the target of the Republican Party, right? The last time the Republican Party was in president and had more power, they were, they really, I guess, decreased the amount of power the EPA had. They took away a lot of the regulations in the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. So people who are from the US, which is a lot of the audience members in here, this is where you talk about getting people to vote for better structure, better environmental practices from politicians who are going into power. And I'm talking about this now because there is an election in about 15 days, maybe a little bit more, a major US election for the next presidency, plus a lot of governorships, a lot of Senate, there's some Senate races, there's some congressional races. And you need to make that decision on what party is going to actually put forward and say, hey, you know what, we need to, we need to protect the departments, right? Like the US, the US EPA, you know, NOAA, all the departments that protect our environment and ensure that cruise ships as well as other industries follow the regulations and adhere to the regulations that they are protecting the American people. They are protecting their oceans. They are protecting our oceans here in Canada that get affected by cruise ships going up to Alaska. We're all in together and we need to take more pride in our coastlines to make sure that they are okay because they are not okay in a lot of places. And we need to make sure that we do that. We love coastlines. We love seeing blue. We love seeing that difference, that change from land to water. That is the place where we see the most, especially when we go on vacation. That's what we want to see. No matter where you're from the Caribbean, if you're in North America, if you're in Europe, we want to go down to the coastline and be able to view the beautiful change of scenery and see that coastline. It's magical and it's something that we need to protect and have more pride in ourselves. For Canada, it is the largest coastline in the world. And I'm damn proud to have that in my country. And I know that's something that I take pride in to make sure that that is okay. But other things you can do as individual travelers, you can make a difference as well. According to this article, when you're planning your next vacation, consider the eco-friendly alternatives to large cruise ships. Look for smaller, more sustainable tour operators. Some of those are very based on education. You get more out of the trip as well, and they prioritize environmental protection. So if you choose a cruise, research the company's environmental practices, they should have it on their website or go to reviews or so forth. And opt for those that have the best track record. Look for something that hasn't been in the court for environmental practices that are not good for the oceans. That's really what you're looking for. And so by making more informed decisions and supporting sustainable and responsible tourism, we can send a clear message to those companies who are not adhering to these practices and be like, hey, you know what? We need to do better. You need to do better if you want us to pay for your services and enjoy your luxury cruises or your massive cruise ships. Maybe mass cruise ships is not the way to go. Maybe it's better to do those smaller cruises and be able to have a more intimate and more, I guess, enjoyable practice. I know like when I'm on a small tour group, like I went to Italy with my family and we were part of a small tour group and the guide that was really into preserving that we went to the Colosseum. We went to all these different tour spots with these, you know, these structures that are like thousands of years old. And we learned a lot because he knew he had the degrees in ancient Roman history and ancient Egyptian history and he talked a lot about the different histories, the good and the bad and we learned so, so much and it was a smaller tour but I found it was the better tour because I got the most out of it. We could ask more questions and we can get more involved in the local areas that we were in and sort of the structures and you can do the same thing with cruise ships, smaller cruise ships because they know they interact more with a lot of the smaller venues, a lot of the smaller vendors that are along the stops at where they stop and you can get more out of your trip. So consider using these smaller places when you do so because that is going to be really special and it's going to make your trip a lot better. So there's a lot of benefits to looking at not using these larger cruise ships to have your trip, to have your next trip. So I highly recommend that but I'd love to hear what you do when you go on your vacation. I want to hear like how you look at and do you look at environmental practices? Are you going to start looking at environmental practices? That's something that you can do any day and any time. So I'd love to hear from you. Just go and put your comments in the comments section in YouTube or you can just comment on the Spotify if you're listening from Spotify or you can send me a DM at how to protect the ocean. That's at how to protect the ocean. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Angelou and have a great day. I'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.
