CRUISING: DESTINATION NOWHERE - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 112

Cruise companies got their exemption by arguing they fell under the category of com-
mercial maritime vessels, like container ships or fishing boats, where “waste discharges are
incidental to the operation of the ship.” In fact, they are floating hotels where waste dis-
charge is essential to their industry. As James Sweeting, the Royal Caribbean environment-
al officer told me, “A cruise ship is not a form of transportation, but a form of vacation that
happens to transport you at the same time.”
Instead, cruise lines say they follow international standards in disposing of their waste
water from toilets, showers and sinks, restaurants, spas and beauty parlors, into the oceans,
or at least 12 nautical miles off the U.S. coastline. Those international standards do list
environmental-safety and pollution-prevention measures, but they lack the authority of na-
tional law and are essentially unenforceable. They are issued by organizations under the
loose umbrella of the United Nations, which has no navy to inspect ships or enforce the
standards. Responsibility for enforcement of standards falls on the flag states like Liberia,
Panama and the Bahamas, and they routinely fail to fulfill that responsibility.
Significantly, cruise lines are not required to monitor or report what they release. As a
result, neither the government nor the public know how much pollution is released at sea.
• • •
International standards were devised to reign in the worst side of maritime shipping when
it underwent a rapid revolution. In the 1960s new construction methods allowed ships to
grow larger to take advantage of scale, which led to the invention of the cargo container.
With the advent of satellite navigation and radio communication, the revolution was com-
plete. Ships became the giants of commerce, carrying 80 percent of the world's freight and
clogging the harbors. The last fifty years brought about more changes in maritime ship-
ping than at any time in history, according to the United Nations' International Maritime
Organization.
With such a dramatic increase in commercial shipping, accidents and disasters at sea
multiplied, especially those involving oil tankers. In 1967 the Torrey Canyon spilled its en-
tire cargo of oil in the sea off the coast of Cornwall, England, sparking the adoption of a
United Nations convention to mitigate pollution from ships spilling oil or chemicals or
discharging sewage and garbage into the ocean. The resulting International Convention
for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, or MARPOL, covers all ships at sea, including
leisure cruises.
In general, MARPOL prohibits the dumping of oil or plastic anywhere at sea. Other-
wise, ships can dump whatever they want in international waters. Once a ship is within
twelve miles of the coast, it must obey local or national laws covering discharges. Only na-
tional navies and coast guards have the authority and wherewithal to enforce antipollution
standards or laws.