Let’s be honest: cruise line commercials are enticing. A deck full of attractive singles laying in the sun drinking pina coladas. Nights spent dancing under the stars glowing off of the ocean. Spas, gyms, pools…you name it. But few passengers may be aware that taking a cruise is impacting the ocean, and the air. Friends of the Earth recently released the Cruise Ship Environmental Report Card, and the poor grades demonstrate that the environment is low on the priority list for many cruise companies.

The grades stack up as follows: No company listed received an “A” average. Among those with “B” or “B-” averages were Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines and Princess Cruises. Royal Caribbean International and Disney Cruise Line scored “F” averages, with Carnival not far behind. The criteria included sewage treatment, air pollution, water compliance and accessibility to environmental information.
Where most cruise ships travel, dirty air follows. They burn a very thick, tarry petroleum sludge called “bunker fuel,” which can be between 1000 to 2000 times dirtier than diesel fuel. Apart from impacts on the natural environment, such as contributing to climate change and acid rain, bunker fuel has been linked to a number of serious cardiovascular problems and premature death in humans. And when the ships dock, their engines often stay running and the *emissions directly impact port communities.

Then there is the more obvious question of: Where do the food and laundry and medical and dry-cleaning and photo lab waste go? Well technically, if the ship is three nautical miles from shore, they are lawfully able to dump in the ocean whatever is flushed down the toilet. So cruise ship sewage can contain not just fecal matter but all sorts of bacteria, pathogens, viruses, hazardous waste and pharmaceuticals.

Last year, in my research on marine debris in the Pacific, I spoke with a boat captain who said that, while headed toward Mexico from California, he has seen cruise ship cooking garbage, cardboard and an “awful, brown bubbly mass, which means they’ve let their holding tanks go.”

*note that some cruise lines are able to run on cleaner fuel while docked at ports