Cruise Ships

An average cruise ship travelling in BC waters carries 3,000 passengers and crew, making each ship virtually a floating town — complete with all the waste, sewage, and pollution that any town produces.

Each year, about 300 cruise ship trips travel between BC and Alaska, carrying about a million people and over 12,000 crewmembers. Cruise ships ply the waters of Georgia Strait and the Inside Passage with their emissions and discharges largely unmonitored and their wastewater virtually untreated.

This industry has grown quickly. Its environmental impacts are already significant, and they will continue to worsen unless stronger regulations are enacted.

Photo by John Buchanan

Learn more:

Issues

• Crusing for Pollution
• Laws Needed for Cruise Ships in BC
• Cruise Ships: Economic Realities

News

• A Win for Clean Water - June 2004
• Cruise Ship Sewage Dump Raises Alarm - May 2003

Submissions

• Environmental Guidelines for Cruise Ships in Canadian Waters: a submission to the federal government - March 2003

Reports and publications:

• Getting a Grip on Cruise Ship Pollution, Ross A. Klein, PhD (Friends of the Earth, December 2009) - PDF
• Ripple Effects: The Need to Assess the Impacts of Cruise Ships in Victoria BC (Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group, 2003) - PDF
• Cruising - Out of Control: The Cruise Industry, the Environment, Workers and the Maritimes (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2003) - PDF
• Cruise Control: A Report on How Cruise Ships Affect the Marine Environment (The Ocean Conservancy, 2002) - PDF
• Cruise Control: Regulating Cruise Ship Pollution on the West Coast of Canada (West Coast Environmental Law, 2001) - PDF

Useful links:

• Friends of the Earth
• Bluewater Network
• Oceana
• Vancouver Port Authority
• Greater Victoria Harbour Authority