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Cruise Ships and Ocean Pollution: The Hidden Impact of Scrubber Technology · How To Protect The Ocean

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  There is a large community out there that loves to go on cruise ships,
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  right? You see it all the time. You see people are like, this is the best thing
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  ever. I can get on a boat. I can hop from place to place to place, whether it
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  be in the Caribbean, in the Antarctic, in the Arctic. And
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  they get on these massive, massive boats, which are cities, floating
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  cities, essentially. And they get on these boats. They eat all they want.
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  They drink whatever they want. They have a great time. They see. the
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  sites, they see different islands, they see different places in
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  different cities, whether they're in Europe or the Caribbean or Alaska.
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  But what we don't really see is some of the pollution that
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  happens in the water. And this is what we're going to be talking about
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  today because there's a new study that talks about scrubbers over on
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  the west coast of Canada and the US that
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  is emitting a lot of toxic chemicals and pollution. into
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  the ocean. Now it's not going to change the entire ocean or the entire Pacific
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  Ocean, but it's going to definitely affect communities over the long run as there
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  are more and more Alaskan cruise ships that are going up to
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  view the beautiful nature of Alaska. So we're going to talk about that on
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  today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show.
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  Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with
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  the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for
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  a better ocean by taking action. I am here as
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  a resource to you. My entire company is built based on
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  being a resource for you. And you can get more information at speakupforblue.com. And
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  get our latest videos and our latest podcasts sent to your inbox Monday to
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  Friday. All right, let's get into the show. Look,
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  cruise ships. Cruise ships are a thing. Like, it is huge, right?
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  We've seen cruise ships, just that whole community, uh, you
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  know, for the good and the bad. I mean, over the pandemic, it was bad. You know,
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  things, you know, it's, it's a floating city. So things get
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  through this city pretty quickly just because everybody's in such tight quarters. But
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  these are floating cities. I've, I've been on one cruise ship in my entire life.
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  Probably the last time I'll go on that cruise ship, but it's an interesting Situation
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  you you board this this massive ship, you know, the one that I
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  went out with like 5,000 people You start off usually in
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  like say a place like Florida and then you go on and you go travel
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  to the different places Within like the islands, right?
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  So I think I went to Honduras we went to a place in
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  Mexico and then we went to the Bahamas then we came home and But during that time
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  you are floating on the water and you are just enjoying the ocean and
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  sometimes there's like nothing around but your ship. There's nothing on
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  the horizon, it's just water. And it's pretty cool to see. However,
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  the things that you don't see is you don't see the pollution that
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  is caused by these ships. And certain areas have specific
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  regulations that they can only allow ships with specific technology
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  that's on those boats that say, hey, you can't pollute or you can't do
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  certain things. Now, you've got to remember, if anybody has been to an
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  island where these cruise ships frequent, you're
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  going to see this massive pier that gets built up. That is a disturbance to
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  all that ecological sort of communities that are along there, all the habitats
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  and stuff. I've had people on the podcast a number of years ago talk
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  about what's happening in Mexico with these large piers that
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  are built to accommodate these cruise ships and the destruction that
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  they cause and the problems that they cause in terms of potential
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  grounding or coral reefs and so forth. But
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  there are regulations that have been set forth even with like discarding garbage and
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  how to where they need to discard garbage. Like certain islands just
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  can't take it anymore. There's a lot of things that go on within cruise
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  ships, good and bad. Like I don't judge anybody who
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  takes a cruise ship. I understand why they take it. But what we have
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  to do, and we'll talk about this towards the end of the episodes, we have to really
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  think about and do our research on which cruise ships are
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  the best. Just because the biggest and the newest doesn't mean it's the
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  best for the environment. A lot of the times, when you go on a cruise
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  ship, you are going to look at the environment. You're going to look at
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  the water, you're going to different Caribbean or island communities
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  or the Antarctic or the Arctic, and you're going to see something that you
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  probably won't see every day, let's be honest here, and you have to get there by ship.
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  And they're wonderful things, it's nature-based. And so what you want to
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  do is when you do things that are nature-based, you want to be aware
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  of how you are affecting the nature. I went to
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  a conference in Malaysia a number of years ago, great conference,
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  it was wonderful. And I talked to a couple people like, oh, are you going diving? Because
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  they had their diving certificate. And they said, no, we don't really go diving because we travel
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  a lot and we don't want to put in too much of a footprint on
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  there. Now, there are some people who did go diving and others who didn't, but I get
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  it, right? When we travel, when we do something, we want to make sure that we have
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  the smallest imprint footprint on that community
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  and in a positive way if we do it not in a negative way right
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  so there's a lot of things that you have to consider when you are taking
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  these shifts and we'll talk a little bit more about it uh in the towards the
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  end of the episode because there's a resource that i have from this website where i got it called
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  the cool down where i got this article they were talking about
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  what's happening with these cruise
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  ships that are going to Alaska. And a detailed report that
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  was put out by Alaska Public Media has said, many cruise
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  ships use a technology called scrubbers to clean their exhaust.
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  These systems flush out harmful chemicals from ship pollution, but
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  there's a catch. That pollution is dumped directly into
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  the sea. So they filter out that from the emissions, but
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  then it gets dumped into the sea. So it's not really taken care of.
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  It's just displaced in a different way. So, for example, in
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  June, an inspector in Ketchikan, Alaska
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  spotted a cloudy discharge creating a shimmery film on
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  the water's surface. It's not an isolated incident. Most
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  cruise ships visiting Alaska now use these open-loop scrubbers discharging
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  millions of gallons of polluted wastewater daily. on average,
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  according to the report that is linked in this article, which
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  I'll link in the show notes or in the description, depending on where you're watching this
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  on YouTube, or if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app.
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  This is one of these hidden problems of the
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  cruise ship industry. something we don't normally see you
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  may see it if you are on you know top side on
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  the on the cruise ship and you're looking out the window or you're looking across like
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  past the stern you may or may not see this shimmery kind of
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  filter um or or shine on this on the ocean
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  surface and you kind of wonder like this is a massive cruise ship
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  it's gonna emit some things and to be able to make
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  sure it it's diluted That's key right the
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  the old I was actually talking to some friends of mine last night. We
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  were out to dinner And I mentioned, I said, the
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  engineering motto for a lot of people is the solution to pollution is
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  dilution. So the fact is, if you're discharging chemicals into
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  the ocean or discharging wastewater into an ocean, you would
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  think that it would just get diluted pretty quickly. But there is a
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  carrying capacity of this ocean, meaning that the ocean can
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  only take so much before changes start to happen or before it
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  starts to get to the wrong area. These cruise ships don't always go
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  out to just in the offshore where you can't see land. A
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  lot of times these cruise ships are traveling up the coastline. Water
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  comes in towards the coastline. So there could be chances where
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  this pollution gets to coastal communities and coastal habitats,
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  destroying those habitats. If these cruise ships increase their time or
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  the amount of times that they're in these areas and these scrubbers are
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  continuing to discharge this waste water and
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  these pollutants that over time these habitats are not
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  going to be able to buffer or be resilient against fighting
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  this these chemicals. And so they're going to change over
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  time. And by the time they change, it's going to be too late. Then we get into restoration
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  practices or even identifying. And this is, this happens all the
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  time. We start to see a problem. We're like, Hey, we need to fix this. And
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  then the companies are like, you know what? We don't really need to fix this because it's going
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  to cost us a lot of money and we're not seeing any kind of damages. So
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  we'll do studies and we'll show that there's no damages and we'll just continue to
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  do this. And they'll continue and continue. And they might even increase the amount
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  of boats that go or the frequency of boats that go past these specific communities
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  and then eventually what's going to happen is the amount of chemicals are going to
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  go the habitats aren't going to be able to buffer against it that's going
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  to flip into a bad scenario where you'll start to see algal
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  growth or you'll start to see you know these these filter feeding organisms
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  like oyster spots, or mussels, or these corals,
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  or whatever is on these coastlines. And there's deep sea corals
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  and sponges that are along the west coast of Canada
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  and the US, where these ships go along. And you're going to
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  start to see a change in those communities. And then you're going to start to
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  see a decrease in the amount of animals that are around those communities. the
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  communities are going to just basically just disappear slowly.
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  And then by that time, by the time we identify it, then we have to go to the government and
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  say, hey, you know what? This isn't actually a good idea. We've told
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  you this before, but they said there was no changes. Now we're starting to see changes. And
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  then by the time it goes towards doing action,
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  the community is already in disrepair and it's very difficult to get them back
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  to a healthy spot. Then you're spending more and more money on restoration. You're
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  trying to get the companies to pay for that. But then the company's like, you
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  know what? We're not going to travel around that way. We'll find a different way and
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  we're not going to do it. Then you have to sue them. And it's just a whole thing. This
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  happens all the time, like all the time. And
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  we wanted to stop that right from the get-go. So there are
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  technologies out there that can have scrubbers that are
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  better, right? In specific areas, even
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  within the US and across the world, they have
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  banned scrubber discharges. So for instance, some nations like Sweden and
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  Denmark have banned it. California requires ships to use cleaner
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  fuel, burning fuel along its coast, and dozens of environmental groups
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  are calling for the US Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, to
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  implement a nationwide ban on scrubbers. That will
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  stop this action from happening, and then we don't
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  have to worry about it. The cruise ship industry will be
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  able to figure out different ways, and using technology to figure out different
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  ways of getting rid of these chemicals, but we won't have to worry about
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  them being in the waters along the coastline. The coastline are
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  those beautiful places that we like to travel to wherever you
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  are along North America or anywhere in the world that we take pictures
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  of and that we remember and we put, you know, we get paintings of
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  coastlines and the people who live around them and we just love them and
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  God forbid those beautiful pristine coastlines are
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  looking like green and smelly and they don't give you
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  that beautiful scenery that we love to see and that we have that blue
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  mind for. We can save those just
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  by taking away scrubbers, right? Just banning
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  scrubbers, that would be great. Now, I mentioned the EPA would
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  be in charge of banning these scrubbers and making the travel industry,
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  the cruise ship industry responsible for taking away those. But
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  let's be honest, the EPA, the US EPA is
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  in the targets of the Republican Party. Last
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  time the Republican Party was in president and had more power, they really,
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  I guess, decreased the amount of power the EPA had. They took away a
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  lot of the regulations in the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. So
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  people who are from the US, which is a lot of the audience members in
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  here, This is where you talk about getting people to vote
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  for better structure, better environmental
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  practices from politicians who are going into power. And I'm talking about
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  this now because there is an election in about 15 days,
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  maybe a little bit more. A major U.S. election for the
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  next presidency, plus a lot of governorships, a lot of Senate, there's some Senate races,
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  there's some Congress, congressional races, and you need
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  to make that decision on what party is going to actually put
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  forward and say, hey, you know what? We need
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  to protect the departments, like
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  the US EPA, NOAA, all
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  those departments that protect our environment and ensure that cruise
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  ships, as well as other industries, follow the regulations and
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  adhere to the regulations so that they are protecting the American people.
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  They are protecting their oceans. They are protecting our oceans here in Canada
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  that get affected by cruise ships going up to Alaska. We're
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  all in together and we need to take more pride in our coastlines to
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  make sure that they are okay because they are not okay in a lot of places and
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  we need to make sure that we do that. We love coastlines. We love seeing blue. We
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  love seeing that difference, that change from land to water. That
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  is the place where we see the most. especially when we go on vacation. That's
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  what we want to see. No matter if you're in the Caribbean, if you're in North America, if you're in Europe,
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  we want to go down to the coastline and be able to view the
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  beautiful change of scenery and see that coastline. It's magical and
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  it's something that we need to protect and have more pride in in ourselves. For
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  Canada, it is the largest coastline in the world. And
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  I'm damn proud to have that in my country. And I know that's
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  something that I take pride in to make sure that that is okay.
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  But other things you can do as individual travelers, you can make a difference as
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  well. According to this article, when
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  you're planning your next vacation, consider the eco-friendly alternatives to
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  large cruise ships. Look for smaller, more sustainable tour
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  operators. Some of those are very based on education. You get more out
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  of the trip as well. And they prioritize environmental protection.
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  So if you choose a cruise, research the company's environmental
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  practices. They should have it on their website or go to
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  reviews or so forth. And opt for those that have the best track
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  record. Look for something that hasn't been in the court for environmental practices
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  that are not good for the oceans. That's really what you're looking for.
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  And so by making more informed decisions, supporting a sustainable and responsible tourism,
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  we can send a clear message to those companies who are not adhering
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  to these practices and be like, hey, you know what? We need to do better.
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  You need to do better if you want us to pay for your services. and enjoy
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  your cruises. with
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  my family and we were part of a small tour group and the guy that was really
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  into preserving, we went to the Colosseum, we went to all these different tourist
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  spots with these, you know, these structures that are like thousands
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  of years old and we learned
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  a lot because he knew he had the degrees in
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  ancient Roman history and ancient Egyptian history. And he
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  talked a lot about the different histories, the good and the bad. And we learned so,
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  so much. And it was a smaller tour, but I found it was
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  the better tour because I got the most out of it. We could ask more questions and
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  we can get more involved in local areas that we
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  were in and sort of the structures. And you can do the same thing with cruise ships, smaller
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  cruise ships, because they know they interact more with a lot of the smaller venues,
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  a lot of the smaller vendors that are along the stops
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  at where they stop, and you can get more out of your trip. So
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  consider using these smaller places when you do so,
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  because that is gonna be really special, and
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  it's gonna make your trip a lot better. So there's a lot
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  of benefits to looking at not using these larger cruise ships
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  to have your trip, to have your next trip. So I
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  highly recommend that, but I'd love to hear what you do when you go on your vacation. I
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  wanna hear how you look at, and do you look at environmental practices? Are
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  you going to start looking at environmental practices? That's something that you can do
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  any day and any time. So I'd love to hear from you. Just
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  go and put your comments in the comment section in YouTube. Or
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  you can just comment on Spotify if you're listening from Spotify.
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  Or you can send me a DM at HowToProtectTheOcean. That's at
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  HowToProtectTheOcean. Thank you so much for joining me on
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  today's episode of the How To Protect The Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Ange Lu, and