Cruise Ships

Cruise ship traffic in Hawaiian waters is expanding at a rapid rate. Alarmingly, cruise ships are being allowed to operate without regulations necessary to protect our oceans.

Each cruise ship carries an average of 3,000 people and produces as much sewage and waste as a mid-sized city. Tons of raw sewage, garbage and even hazardous waste are produced and disposed of each day by a single ship. This constant discharge of waste into our oceans is multiplied by dozens of ships operating every day in our precious oceans.

Cruise ships do not have to comply with environmental and water quality protection laws that are required for municipalities. They are allowed to dump sewage and garbage directly into our oceans—and they do!

Incredibly, the most common practice of cruise ships is to dump waste at sea, usually at night. While they are not supposed to release raw sewage or other solid waste into state waters (3 nautical miles from shore), ocean currents can return discharged sewage, polluted waters and garbage to our shores. Fish do not know boundaries.

Cruise liners also impact air quality. Diesel engines spew out diesel exhaust equivalent to 10,000 cars each day per ship and are kept idling, even when in port.

Hawai‘i’s precious marine ecosystems, including important fishing grounds, coral reefs, beaches, and surf sites are being impacted by this expanding and unregulated industry.

The cruise industry has a history of breaking the law and has accumulated scores of federal pollution violations. The industry is regularly fined millions of dollars for illegally dumping raw sewage, garbage, and oily bilge water into state waters. They have falsified reports, disconnected pollution control technology and in some instances they have lied to inspectors.

The cumulative or combined impacts of the rapidly increasing number of cruise ships releasing effluent, garbage, and diesel exhaust into our air and waters is a very serious problem that must be addressed.

KAHEA is working with other organizations and with concerned citizens to secure adequate regulations to minimize the impacts from cruise ship pollution.

Download KAHEA's new brochure on Cruise Ship Impacts in Hawai'i (300k PDF)

How You Can Help

Sign on to our open letter to Gov. Lingle. urging her support of cruise ship regulations.

Ocean Users! Report Mucky Water: We Must Be The Eyes

Call KAHEA (808) 524-8220 to receive a free copy of our new DVD/VHS Endangered Waters: The Cruise Ship Industry in Hawai'i.

Clean Cruise Ship Act

The Clean Cruise Ship Act is an example of strong legislation that if passed could radically change the way the cruise industry operates in Hawai‘i’s waters. The bill, introduced by Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois and Congressman Sam Farr of California already has bipartisan backing but more congress members need to support S.793/H.R. 1636 for it to pass. Now without federal regulations, cruise ships are allowed to dump sewage three miles from shore and can dump their other waste virtually anywhere else in the ocean. There are already federal standards governing graywater expulsion in Alaska and the Great Lakes, but the Clean Cruise Ship Act takes a strong stance on prohibiting cruise ship waste dumping near shorelines throughout the US.

The new Act would:

• Allow no dumping of sewage, graywater, oily bilge within 12 miles of any shore
• Empower the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency to determine standards for sewage and graywater discharged beyond the 12 mile-point and charges the Coast Guard and EPA with enforcing the standards
• Allows for cruise ships to have their pollution control equipment inspected
• Protects cruise ship employees who report polluting activities onboard vessels
• Allows citizens to launch civil action against any vessel or carrier in violation of the Act.

You can help the Clean Cruise Ship Act make its way through Congress. Last year, the bill gained the support of over 50 members of Congress. It needs more support this year to pass. Contact Congressmen Case and Abercrombie and Senators Akaka and Inouye and ask them to co-sponsor the Clean Cruise Ship Act -- the more co-sponsors the bill has, the better chance it has of passing.

Oceana’s fact sheet on the Clean Cruise Ship Act of 2005

Links

Ross Klein, author of Cruise Ship Blues, and a renowned expert on many aspects of cruise industry: http://www.cruisejunkie.com/

Oceana’s website on cruise ship issues: http://www.stopcruisepollution.com/

Campaign to Safeguard America’s Waters
Alaska activist and water quality expert Gershon Cohen: Earthisland.org/c-saw

Bluewater Network’s cruise ship pollution campaign: http://www.bluewaternetwork.org/


Articles, Fact Sheets and Recent Reports

Kailua Bay cruise ship discharge
Hilo activist responds to cruise discharge incident (48k PDF)
LA Times: California Cruise ship law (84k PDF)

California passes strong regulations for cruise ships
Press Release from Bluewater Network (22k PDF)
Full bill text:
AB 2093
AB 2672
AB 471

California gets new curbs on pollution from cruise ships
USA Today, September 29, 2004
Cruise Line Jobs Not What Some Thought
Honolulu Advertiser, April 18, 2004
Cruise Lines Admit Pollution Violations (97k PDF)
Honolulu Advertiser, December 12, 2003
List of 16 violations in seven months (11/02 to 5/03)
Article in Star Bulletin, October 18, 2003
Editorial in Honolulu Advertiser, October 16, 2003
Hawaii Island Journal: "Hawai'i Needs Cruise Ship Regulations Now" (32k PDF)

By Dr. Ross Klein, a new report released recently, Charting a Course: The Cruise Industry, the Government of Canada and Purposeful Development, is the first study to lay out the issues a port city needs to consider in developing cruise ship tourism.

Charting a Course: The Cruise Industry, the Government of Canada and Purposeful Development (240k PDF)

Executive Summary (20k PDF)

Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 8, 2003
Valerie and Kevin Sheppard, of Ontario, Canada- cruise line passengers who witnessed polluting activities in Hawai‘i: http://starbulletin.com/2003/03/08/news/index6.html

Honolulu Star Bulletin, May 6, 2003
Article by Russ Lynch, addressing the growth of cruise industry in Hawai‘i: http://starbulletin.com/2003/05/06/business/story2.html

Monterey, CA. Bans Cruiseline for dumping in Sanctuary (8k PDF)

Cruise Ship Blues: review of Ross Klein’s book about the cruise industry (184k PDF)

Earthjustice Fact Sheet on cruise industry considerations in Hawai‘i (151k PDF)

Oceana Briefing Book (144k PDF)

Ross Klein’s new report: Cruising Out of Control (204k PDF)

The Ocean Conservancy, Cruise Control (548k PDF)

Blowing the Whistle: Case for Cruise Certification Oceans Blue Foundation (228k PDF)