The Dangers of Cruisin’

Welcome back to another post on ‘things that go wrong when tourism pollutes waters’! In our previous posts about Phi Phi Island, it was mentioned that a significant amount of water pollution comes from tourist boats arriving on the coast of the island. Well, think of the damage but extrapolated to a larger scale. That is the cruise tourism industry.

What is cruise tourism?

Cruise tourism is basically a mobile resort, with all its amenities and accommodation available on a large ship, that travels from one country or region to another. It is also common for cruise ships to stop by several other tourist destinations along the way for tourists to explore before continuing their journey on the ship. Also, when I say that cruise ships are travelling resorts, I am really not joking! Most of these massive ships have amenities that include restaurants, casinos, and swimming pools and slides big enough to be a water park.

A peek into the inside of Royal Caribbean cruise ship (Source: Vintagepix/Shutterstock)

While there is no doubt cruise ships would be an enjoyable and unforgettable experience for tourists and guests, its negative impact on the environment cannot be ignored.

Due to the mobile nature of the industry and its relocation to new host environments, cruise ships tend to concentrate their activity on coastal areas and ports of many countries. This means that the pollution problem from cruise ships occurs not just at sea but at the ports and coasts off tourist destinations. While cruise ships contribute to a ton of environmental and pollution problems, such as air and water pollution, we’ll be focusing on the water aspect of this post. If you would like to read a more comprehensive analysis on the environmental impact of cruise ships (because we never stop learning, do we?), you can do so here.

Some bad things cruise ships do to the environment 

Firstly, given the massiveness of just one cruise ship, you can imagine the amount of organic and inorganic waste is generated. In 2008, estimates of waste from cruise ships vary from 2.6 to 3.5 kg/person/day, and I am sure the numbers have increased since the industry has grown as well. The waste from cruise ships usually consists of organic and inorganic compounds and some hazardous substances from cleaners and paints etc. 

A cruise ship docked at Venice, Italy (Source: Reuters)

An example is how a Carnival cruise ship spilled thousands of gallons of food waste in the delicate Great Barrier Reef, polluting the UNESCO World Heritage Site and causing a huge threat to the environment, biodiversity and public health in the area. However, this is just one of the lucky times we are able to track the pollution from a cruise ship. Due to the mobility of these ships, it is difficult to regulate and monitor the waste disposal and  pollution generated from these ships. Making it all the more a sticky problem.

Another ecological impact of tourist ships is the impact on marine wildlife and biodiversity. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has identified tourist ships as one of the principal pollution sources of marine ecosystems. As mentioned before on this blog, even small pieces of marine debris disposed of by cruise ships can cause immense harm to marine wildlife that mistake these debris for food. An even more undetectable problem is that plastic debris in the ocean absorb persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Then when marine animals ingest these debris, the POPs will enter and bioaccumulate in the food and become a threat to human health, especially to those who consume these marine wildlife. 

Bioaccumulation is defined as the net accumulation of a contaminant in or on an organism from all sources including water, air, and diet.

Ballast water 

What sets the environmental impact of these large tourist cruise ships apart from other tourist boats is ballast water. It ensures the safe operation of ships by making sure that the ship is weighted enough to keep it stable and to maneuver properly. When a ship is departing a port, water and any sediment that may be stirred up, is loaded into the ballast tanks and unloaded again when it takes on cargo at the next port. Although ballast water is essential for the safe running of cruise ships, the loading and unloading process of untreated ballast water is a concerning one for the environment and public health. This is because the ballast water impacts the transfer of organisms between ecosystems from one host environment, or part of the world, to another.

How exactly does ballast water transfer organisms, you may ask?

The loading of ballast water into a ship introduces many microscopic organisms and sediments into the ship’s ballast tanks. Many of these organisms are able to survive the trip from one destination to another. They are eventually released into the new host environment when the ship docks at a new port where the ballast water is discharged. If the conditions of the new environment are suitable for these organisms, they can thrive and reproduce, becoming invasive species that disrupt the delicate ecosystem of that environment. Sometimes, these invasive species even become the dominant species. This leads to a whole bout of other environmental and social problems for the area, such as the extinction of native species and threats to both public health and any fisheries present. Economic problems may arise if people living near the ports are dependent on fisheries for their livelihoods. 

If you would like to read more about the harms of ballast water as well as examples of alien species introduced to new environments due to ballast water, you can do so in the link here

Prior to writing this post, I knew cruise ships must be huge polluters of water but I did not realize just how much they can affect water quality. What I hope from this point is that there will be stringent checks and pollution monitoring of cruise companies and ships.

Along with all the other polluters generated from cruise ships, we better deal with the improper handling of ballast water or the Earth will blast us for the damage we are doing to it! (bad pun, I know)

 

References

‘Ballast Water Impacts’, n.d., webpage, Hans Bach Marine, viewed on 12 September 2020, https://hansbuch.dk/marine/news/ballast-water-impacts

Caric, H, & Mackelworth, P 2014, ‘Cruise tourism environmental impacts – The perspective from the Adriatic Sea’, Ocean and Coastal Management, viewed on 11 September 2020, https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1016%2Fj.ocecoaman.2014.09.008

Hoffower, H 2018, ‘We compared the prices and amenities of standard rooms on Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Carnival cruise lines — here’s the one with the best bang for your buck’, online image, Business Insider, viewed on 11 September 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com/cruise-line-prices-amenities-royal-caribbean-norwegian-carnival-compared-2018-8

Lakritz, T 2020, ‘7 places being ruined by cruise ships’, Insider, viewed on 11 September 2020, https://www.insider.com/cruise-ships-environmental-impact-tourism-2019-9

Newman and Unger 2003, definition of bioaccumulation, webpage, ScienceDirect, viewed on 11 September 2020, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/bioaccumulation

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