Cruise Ships Dumping Garbage In Ocean

Cruise ships are floating norovirus delivery systems yes but they are also floating garbage disposals spewing plastic crap straight into the ocean.

Cruise ships dumping garbage in ocean. During a typical one-week voyage a large cruise ship with 3000 passengers and crew is estimated to generate 210000 US gallons 790000 L of sewage. Ships can dump treated sewage anywhere in the ocean except in Alaskan waters where companies must comply with higher state standards. Every day a cruise ship operates it produces 30000 gallons of sewage and is allowed to dump treated sewage anywhere in the ocean except in Alaska where the laws prevent such actions.

Title I of the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act makes it illegal to transport garbage from the United States for the purpose of dumping it into ocean waters without a permit or to dump material from outside the US. The EPA estimates that single 3000-person cruise ship pumps 150000 gallons of sewageabout 10 backyard swimming pools worthinto the ocean per week. In a long history of plastic waste and oil dumping Carnival Corporation the largest cruise company in the world admitted its subsidiary dumped plastic overboard in the Bahamas.

Carnival reportedly dumped over 500000 gallons of sewage and 11000 gallons of food waste improperly in the year after it admitted to illegally releasing oil. Such at least is the case with the Carnival. Environmental impacts of cruise ships.

We advocate for laws and regulations to stop cruise ships from dumping waste into our oceans polluting our beaches contaminating our coral reefs and destroying our valuable marine ecology. This is because they are constantly on the move making waste management and disposal an added challenge to their day to day operations. An image supposedly showing a cruise ship dumping human waste into the ocean near a coastal city is frequently shared on social media.

Cruise ship discharges of solid waste are governed by two federal laws. According to that 12-mile cut-off cruise ships are allowed to dump human waste in the ocean providing the right conditions are met. It is perfectly legal for cruise ships to dump treated sewage in the.

One vessel in an EPA study produced. Princess Cruises was fined 40 million in 2016 for illegal dumping and Carnival got hit with a 20 million fine in 2019 for disposing of plastic waste in the ocean. Law allows cruise ships to dump raw sewage in the ocean once a ship is more than three miles off US.