Cruise Ships: Paradise, Profit and Pollution Often called the highways of life, the worlds oceans ar

Cruise Ships: Paradise, Profit and Pollution Often called the highways of life, the worlds oceans are vital to millions of people and sea creatures who depend on them for their survival. Whales, sharks, sea turtles, corals, and plankton depend on the oceans. Oceans support the commercial fisherman, the villager feeding his family, and countries that survive by exporting and importing goods. There are many different types of vessels, which use the oceans; oil tankers, tug boats, container ships, barges, and passenger ships. While a fairly small percentage of the total industry worldwide, the cruise industry provides more than $25 billion in benefits annually disneyland hotel anaheim ca and generates over 295,000 jobs in the U.S. alone ( Cruise Ships 1). Although there are many laws and regulations internationally, domestically disneyland hotel anaheim ca and locally against the dumping of graywater, blackwater, bilge, ballast and garbage into the oceans, cruise lines are still violating the rules and need to be stopped because it is harmful to the marine life, the ecosystem of the oceans and to humans who use the oceans for swimming, fishing and survival. Considering the nature of marine pollution and the fact that once it enters the waterways and knows no boundaries, many regional treaties and conventions local and international, have evolved over time. Standards were developed and established by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) under the International Convention disneyland hotel anaheim ca for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, MARPOL (short for marine pollution) disneyland hotel anaheim ca ( International ). The MARPOL Convention was signed on February 17, 1973. However, it did not come into force until October 2, 1983. This was due to the fact that the convention required disneyland hotel anaheim ca ratification by 15 states, but by 1976 there were only 3 states, which had ratified it. In response to a rash of tanker accidents a conference was held in 1978 on Tanker Safety and Pollution. The measures adopted at this conference were incorporated into the 1973 MARPOL Convention. Now called MARPOL 73/78 it includes six technical annexes and is considered to be extremely important to the cause of protecting the oceans and the ecosystem of the marine environment. According to the IMO website, Its stated objective is: to preserve the marine environment through the complete elimination of pollution by oil and other harmful substances and the minimization of accidental discharge of such substances ( International ). One hundred thirty disneyland hotel anaheim ca six countries had signed on to the Convention as of December 31, 2005. A ship flagged under a country signatory to the MARPOL Convention, must abide by the strict requirements of MARPOL 73/78 no matter disneyland hotel anaheim ca where they sail, with responsibility falling to the member nation for any ship registered under them ( International ). In the early 1970 s, the United disneyland hotel anaheim ca States enacted the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA) that uses a, comprehensive and uniform waste management system to regulate disposal or dumping of all materials into ocean waters (Copeland 2). In 1988 the House and Senate passed the Ocean Dumping disneyland hotel anaheim ca Ban Act (S. 2030), which made it unlawful for any person to dump, or transport for the purpose of dumping, sewage sludge or industrial waste into the ocean waters after December 31, 1991 ( US Environmental ). Under the Ocean Dumping act the following four federal agencies have responsibilities to uphold the regulations: The Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Coast Guard. disneyland hotel anaheim ca Cruise ships carry over 3,000-5,000 passengers and crewmembers. Known as floating cities, they offer every amenity that one can imagine. The types of waste generated, and the harm caused to the oceans by these floating disneyland hotel anaheim ca cities disneyland hotel anaheim ca is measurable. Graywater is the wastewater from sinks, showers, galleys, laundry and dry cleaning facilities. Phosphates from soaps, shampoos and detergents, fluoride in toothpaste, bacteria from personal hygiene, medical waste, oil and grease from the galleys and dry cleaning fluid are all in the graywater that is dumped into the oceans. The toxicity and pollution disneyland hotel anaheim ca from these components, and the oxygen used by these toxins has a negative disneyland hotel anaheim ca effect on the oceans. Corals disneyland hotel anaheim ca and fish cannot survive without oxygen. As noted in a report by Kira Schmidt of the Bluewater Network, a spokesperson disneyland hotel anaheim ca for Royal Caribbean states, that a typical cruise ship can generate up to 1,000,000 disneyland hotel anaheim ca gallons of graywater on a one week voyage (Schmidt 4). Graywater is exempt from U.S. regulations, except in Alaska, and there are no international treaties in force. Blackwater is the sewage generated on ships. Sewage is more concentrated on a ship than what is generated domestically because there is less water used to diffuse disneyland hotel anaheim ca the material. The discharge of raw sewage into the oceans is allowed once the ship is 3 nautical miles from shore, except in Alaska. Ships are required by the U.S. Clean Water Act to install marine sanitation devices (MSD) to treat or hold raw sewage. They are to either treat the sewage with chemicals or by using bacteria but this also causes problems because this foreign material is introduced to the oceans when discharged. disneyland hotel anaheim ca Sewage is harmful to corals and coastlines. Waste has been discharged near shrimp beds or shellfish beds, making them unsafe for human consumption. The fact that raw sewage is dumped in the oceans is also repulsive and has a negative effect for swimmers, boaters, scuba divers and surfers. Many environmentalists charge that state and federal disneyland hotel anaheim ca rules which, regulate cruise-ship wastes are weak and inadequately enforced (Clemmit 2-3). The discharge of blackwater is supposed to be monitored, although most articles and reports state that little monitoring is being done. J. Michael Crye, President of the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL) acknowledges that cruise lines understand the oceans must be clean and pollution free and that they are, actively developing, testing and adopting cutting-edge technologies to foster a healthier marine environment (Clemmit 1). He goes on to state later in the article that the request by environmentalist for new rules and legislation is not needed because the current laws and voluntary industry actions have virtually eliminated pollution problems , and, that its members have embraced the principles in the MARPOL treaty and have comprehensive environmental programs in place (Clemmit 3). Bilge is the oily water that collects at the bottom of the vessel in the hull. Typically, it is full of residual fuel oil, wastewater from the engines and other machinery. It may also contain such materials as paint, cleaning agents, and oily rags. This bilge must be flushed out and pumped dry to help maintain the stability of the vessel. In the CRS Report for Congress, Claudia Copeland writes, Vessels are required to have a separator on board that will extract disneyland hotel anaheim ca the oil from the waste to be re-used, incinerated or stored until it can be legally off-loaded at port (Copeland 12). The Clean Water Act and the Oil Pollution Act have regulations that limits the concentrations of bilge water that can be discharged. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was created to impose serious penalties for the illegal dumping of oil, wastewater, sewage, and other toxic and hazardous substances. Despite the penalties for illegal dumping or discharge, vessels have been found guilty of falsifying records. Norwegian Cruise Lines, cost the new owner, Colin Veitch, approximately $1 million in fines for illegally dumping oily waste into the ocean (Adams 1-2). Veitch found out from the crew that they had lied to the Coast Guard, had altered their books and had been discharging more than the legal limit of pollutants. Veitch agreed to plead guilty to the Justice Department. In a another case reported in the July 31, 2008 Oil Spill Intelligence Report, charges were brought against the operator for GmbH & Co KG (RKS), a ship management company, and the chief engineer aboard the MV MSC Uruguay, operated by RKS, who pled guilty to falsifying the vessel s Oil Record disneyland hotel anaheim ca Book ( Two 4). When the MV MSC Uruguay docked in the Port of Philadelphia it was subject to an inspection by the U.S. Coast Guard. The U.S. Coast Guard found out with help from the crew that the ship had illegally discharged bilge waste directly overboard in December 2007 and again in January 2008. The crew had hooked a hose up to bypass the separator, and then doctored their books showing they had properly processed disneyland hotel anaheim ca the waste. RKS had to pay $1,000,000 in fines and $200,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife foundation, was put on three years probation, and must follow strict environmental laws("Two"4). Ships must take in millions of gallons of ballast water to stabilize the vessel to ensure safe operating conditions. The water is taken on board at the port where the voyage begins. Many local organisms are sucked in with the water. Some may die during the voyage due to heat, or lack of air or food, but others survive and when the vessel discharges its ballast at the next port of call, these organisms are flushed disneyland hotel anaheim ca into the foreign water. According to a report by the MIT Sea Grant Center for Coastal disneyland hotel anaheim ca Resources, many non-native organisms take over and kill the native population causing disruptions in the natural ecosystem, economic troubles, and even carry human diseases ( Marine 1). Called bioinvaders , these populations of foreign species can grow fast because they don t have natural predators. They can and do overtake the native disneyland hotel anaheim ca species by fighting for food and habitat, disneyland hotel anaheim ca even preying on them. Economic damage may occur when a bioinvader displaces species that are harvested for food or other goods ( Marine 1). The anchovy fisheries in Russia and Turkey have all but disappeared due to the introduction of a foreign species, the mnemiopsis leidyl, a comb jelly (similar to a jelly fish) that was likely introduced disneyland hotel anaheim ca via ballast water from New England (USA) into the Black Sea (