U.S. law allows cruise ships to dump raw sewage in the ocean once a ship is more than three miles off U.S. shores. Ships can dump treated sewage anywhere in the ocean except in Alaskan waters, where companies must comply with higher state standards.
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Under the current Caribbean regulations, ships can begin dumping garbage , including metal, glass and paper, 3 miles from shore as long as it is ground to less than an inch. Almost anything but plastic can be dumped beyond 25 miles.Mar 1, 2009
That’s really gross. Depressing what we do to the poor oceans.
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Reminds me of my days on the f-i-l’s hog farm.
An international ban on cruise ships would be great. I’m not holding out hope for that, though.
The massive literal herds of cruise passengers spewed onto the streets of Juneau and Skagway—massive in both individual tonnage and aggregate blobbage—calls up one fitting term: The Ugly American. (I know non-Americans do it, too. The term still fits.)
Eyes agog and consumed by fervor to buy, as cheaply as possible, trashy trinkets and trappings of their “journey,” on they shuffled, ever-oblivious to anything but their sole mission: Get something really, really festooned with emblazoned declarations of “I WAS THERE!”, even though said items were stamped We Were Made Elsewhere!
They might even spring for a slightly pricier “authentic ulu knife set”…yes, made in China. I was gifted one after I watered one neighboring couple’s houseplants when they went on an Alaska cruise. The pathetic part is that the husband told my husband and me that we “should go on a cruise.” I guess I never told him I had sea kayaked (without outfitter) a third of the Inside Passage. Instead, we just said, “Doesn’t appeal to us at all. Glad you enjoyed your trip, though.”
Wish I’d taken a photo of the fur bikini that one souvenir store displayed. Real fur, I might add, the only real aspect of the whole ghastly caricature that tsunamis of grossly obese shoppers constitute.
When we had finished our kayaking trip and awaited the first ferry leg back, a fellow kayaker from B.C. leaned into my ear and whispered, “Are ALL Americans so FAT?!?”
I first went to Key West on a last minute assignment to photograph the Hennessey Cup races many, many years ago. Subsequent to that I returned many times to scuba dive off of Big Pine Key and a couple of times on cross country motorcycle trips. There were no cruise ships in Key West at the time and I found it a true tropical paradise with friendly people. I considered retiring to the Keys some day.
A couple of years ago I went on a Paddle Florida Keys trip from Marathon to Key West and stayed a couple of days on Stock Island, just north of Key West. Loved the trip, but regarding Key West I was horrified! Vast armies of self entitled bumpkins jamming once friendly neighborhood bars and cheap import souvenir junk shops. The cruise ships dwarf the town. Although business owners are probably happy, the cruise ships have ruined the Keys for me That plus the horrible traffic changed my view forever. Hurricanes the last few years didn’t help either.
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I used to periodically spend a week on Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, renting a small villa. One huge plus for Gorda is that the reefs and shallow harbor preclude cruise ships, and the Rockefeller Resorts Little Dix Bay hotel complex controlled the tiny dirt strip airport. There was nothing on the island over 3 stories and most of the residences are individual homes and smaller inns. Unfortunately, the wealthy increasingly discovered the place and the family from whom we rented over the decades finally got an offer they couldn’t refuse and sold their prime hilltop property and two homes to some rich creep who built a McMansion on the large naturalized lot. I have not been back since 2012 so I don’t know how much else has changed but I think at least they are still spared the cruise ships by their location, reefs and steep shorelines. Most beautiful white sand coral beaches, snorkeling, diving and sailing you can imagine.
On the other hand, St. Croix in the USVI and Tortola in the BVI both have cruise ship harbors and you can see and feel the difference that creates in the local economy and culture and even crime rates. We visited St. Croix the winter of 2008-09 in the midst of the Recession – nobody was traveling so we got a condo suite in a spectacular resort for 30% the normal rate and were sharing the place with only about 10 other travelers. We took a day trip to Fredericktown at the west end of the island which has the major cruise ship dock . No ships were sailing that season and the entire town, which is 90% tourist tchatchke shops, was almost a ghost town. Quite eerie to walk through, but it was clear that cruise ships were the entire economy of the place.
I know many people love them, but I view large cruise ships as a pox on the sea and land. If the pandemic crushes that industry you will see no tears from me.
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Some stores in small towns might even open up ONLY during cruiseship invasions. We tried to get a few supplies at one such place in Wrangell.
Sort of like in Sturgis. Most of the bars are holes in the wall for the locals, but during Bike Week they open up an area the size of a convention center. Some businesses are only open for that event and a huge amount of the town’s income is likewise made that period. Sturgis has a year round population of about 7,000 people and close to half a million people attend the rally generating over 800.million dollars in revenue.
Of course, the locals only have to deal with the crowds for less than two weeks a year.
And speaking of COVID outbreaks…
Sturgis and all the other places the participants went…gee, thanks for the extra cases of COVID, guys. You could’ve at least worn masks while visiting our small towns which previously had decent hospital bed vacancies.
Reportedly there may have been as many as 700,000 yahoos that decided to descend on Sturgis. And now the upper Midwest, particularly the Dakotas, has some of the most precipitous infection and hospitalization rates in the country in the weeks since. Uh… d’oh.
And no effective way to track those who returned from that giant Petri dish of spit sharing so all of the partyers potentially brought back the virus to towns and cities and family members across the country.
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Let’s keep it tidy, per the FAQ. This is about cruise ships being banned from the Keys, not Covid or bikers.
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I’ve enjoyed the cruises I’ve taken. You’re definitely on their time schedule (boarding times). I have no doubt that port towns suffer both negative and positive consequences. I am one of the many obese Americans who has had a snapshot visit of different tropical islands.
I’m not into the shopping or gambling but for many it is central to their cruise experience. My money usually goes to taxi drivers. I usually plan my own port excursions and sometimes just hire a taxi driver for the entire day. With a group it becomes economical to do that.
Some day I’ll take a paddling cruise and plan a short paddle at each island even if only for just a few hours. Usually I enjoy snorkeling, hiking, sight seeing, or a deserted beach. I totally get how hordes of people can change your experience. My last trip to Yellowstone in July 2019, included traffic, road construction, and just didn’t feel very relaxing.
I had no idea cruise ships dumped there garbage like that. Silly me I thought they would dispose of garbage like SANE people. Wow disgusting. Good thing the Keys banned them. With all the money involved no way to get them removed from then oceans. How about a law if they dump garbage at sea there not welcome in your country. Yea I know good luck with that as all politicians are bought and paid for. Plus the small countries cant afford to lose the money they generate for the locals. Guess were all screwed.
Yes, it is a vile practice even when done within legal limits.
One of the last nights on our Inside Passage trip, we were camped along a cruise ship route that funneled them to Skagway. In the darkest part of the short nights, I awoke gagging to the stench of raw sewage. It was no low tide funk; first of all, it wasn’t low tide time, AND it happened during a stretch of very HIGH high tide levels. Plus it stank of human sht—far worse than low tide funk odor.
A short distance off in the channel sat one of the behemoth Las Vegas-lit blazing emblems of Ugly American, probably illegally dumping. I doubt it was even one mile off shore.
In addition to the obviously harmful dumping, many cruise ships emblazon every single square inch with ultrabright light. It is bright enough to wake you from a sound sleep. When we lived in WA, some of the small cruise ships blasted so much light that the slowly moving swaths of brightness would wake me up when I saw them projected on a WALL in the room.
So besides sewage dumping, in-water effects on sea life from such huge things simply moving through the water, and fuel consumption, they exhibit unfettered enjoyment of destroying the dark beauty of wild country at night. All for passenger pleasure (and owner profit), nothing else. That anount of light just isn’t necessary for safety reasons.
Nice post. I still hate cruise ships, but your post is well-stated.
Getting slightly off topic, but I wonder how the smaller vessels used as river cruise ships dispose of their biological waste. There are some with passenger counts “only” in the three figure range, which still generates a lot of sewage. But these vessels go along major navigable riverways and thus could access disposal facilities, if they were available. In the US at least, they pass by cities at closer intervals than Alaskan and Canadian cruises.
If I ever went to Europe, I’d be interested in renting a “narrow boat” for independent water travel between villages. But I wonder how THEY dispose of their waste, too.
@PcomStealsYourData
I have done two river cruises, one Rhine and one Danube. I never saw any indication of a raw dump and frankly the European countries are stiffer about enforcing regs than in the US. Found this online from a best practices guide, lines up with what I didn’t actually see. Note that river cruising has been exploding in Europe up to CoVid, so if anything they have gotten more strict.
The ships generally reposition at night during the trip. But the end points of each 7 or 14 day cruise are used in common by all the lines. It there is a cleaning out of the tanks, it could happen there. The ships are essentially out of commission for up to 10 hours between discharging one set of passengers and getting the next. And yes, aside from the rare ones like the Magna cruiser from AMA Waterways, max count for a river cruiser is 197 passengers (Viking). Smaller passenger counts as you look at other cruise lines or move to very shallow rivers like the Douro.
“2. River cruise ships, just as with any inland waterway vessel, must comply with legislation on
inland waterways. National and/or regional legislation may mandate the segregation of
wastewater streams, use of holding tanks, disposal via port facilities and parameters for
wastewater discharge into waterways (see section 3.10 legal frameworks). Additionally,
compliance with EU regulations is required, such as those that stipulate that ships must be
equipped with treatment devices to prevent the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated
wastewater.”
One caution of the narrow boat trips, which often include barges. Be very alert to what you get and space available on the boat. I have a relative who did one and found it overly claustrophobic and not much fun, she learned she would have been happier with the access to better tours and the room to relax on the regular river cruisers.
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Thanks for the info, Celia. I suspect the group river cruises would never happen with me because the nature of sedentary group trips isn’t appealing. But it’s another option for someone who might only know about the gigantic floating cities on the oceans.
The narrow boat trips do sound interesting as long as it is doable by one or two people per boat, which I have read it is. AND as long as there are frequent stops to get out to explore the land on foot and bicycle. Sort of like taking a road trip focused on hiking and biking involved daily.
@PcomStealsYourData
It is not correct to describe river cruises as sedentary. They can be for people who take no advantage of the excursions but that is not true for the majority of those who choose this type of trip. Granted though the excursions that involve anything resembling a difficult hike are not the majority, and probably only about 10 to 15% of the passengers opt for the more challenging bike trips. Europe is extremely bike friendly especially on river ways. The drinking is also not a focus, an issue on the big ships.
Understandable that people who have not done one of these get the river cruise crowd confounded with the bigger ships. But it is not the same bunch, very little crossover between the two.
The availability of stops is something that you need to check carefully. It really depends on the specific waterway. The small canal boats usually run along stop almost anywhere waterways, likely the category of boats you have been looking at. That said, these waterways may also be a distance from some of the more popular cultural sites.
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