Cruise Ship Blues

By Teri Shore

Despite cruise industry efforts to ban him from the airwaves, Cruise Ship Blues author Ross Klein is speaking out about the underside of the cruise industry across North America. Bluewater Network coordinated his San Francisco trip, booking him on major radio stations including KQED's FORUM and KCBS and important venues such as The Commonwealth Club. A cruise ship lobbyist tried to bully producers into canceling Klein's appearances to prevent him from broadcasting the industry's shortfalls. But it didn't work. Klein went live, outlining the cruise industry's felony convictions for dumping oil and hazardous wastes into coastal waters and careless regard for the environment. Cruise lovers, travel agents, environmentalists, and the general public turned out in force to hear his message. His website, www.cruisejunkie.com, documents in detail the cruise line's dark history on environmental, social justice, public health, and customer service.

Since Cruise Ship Blues was released in mid-November, Klein has been on the road, criss-crossing North America from Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska, to British Columbia and Toronto, Canada. In February, he'll be touring the East Coast before making a swing through Southern California. Europe is next. The book is already in its second printing by New Society publishers.

Klein is an encyclopedia of facts and figures about the cruise industry. To start with, he notes that the cruise industry has experienced massive growth in the past two decades, dramatically increasing its footprint on our oceans. In North America, the number of people taking a cruise doubled between 1990 and 2000. But this growth has come at a price to the environment, as these ships travel some of the most pristine waters of the world, dumping sewage, graywater, garbage, and pulverized foodstuffs all along the way.

The cruise industry has tried to portray itself as environmentally friendly. But Klein points out that while touting its "Save the Waves" campaign beginning in 1992, Royal Caribbean has dumped oil and hazardous chemicals into the sea. In 1999, the company pled guilty to illegal dumping - it paid in total $33 million in fines. And such deeds are not old news. Just last summer, Holland America discharged about 40,000 gallons of sewage sludge directly into Juneau harbor. The violation has not yet been settled. In mid-January 2003, a Carnival Cruise ship dumped graywater into the port at Channel Islands, a no-discharge zone.

"Most of the waste generated by cruise ships is dumped into the oceans, both legally and illegally," said Klein.

But while he is a critic of the industry, he is not opposed to it. In fact, he is a self-described cruise junkie who has taken more than 30 cruises. An Associate Professor of Social Work at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, Klein started out as a typical cruise passenger seeking a relaxing holiday at sea. He and his wife started with the mass market cruises, and slowly worked up to the luxury vacations as they became unhappy with the food and service on various lines. Klein started befriending crews and learning about hidden problems above and below deck. Many of his experiences are told in the book.

"The violations of the cruise industry are widespread; not one cruise company can boast a clean record," said Klein. "As a whole, the industry, with its consolidated corporate power, has displayed arrogance and a disregard for customers, workers, the sea that they sail on and the life it supports, and the planet as a whole." By exposing the cruise industry's flaws, Klein hopes to move it toward more sustainable practices.

He would like to see the cruise industry support laws that prevent all dumping of wastewater and require use of low-sulfur fuels. Currently, cruise lines claim voluntary compliance with environmental standards set by the International Council of Cruise Lines. Ships are not supposed to dump anything within 12 miles of shore, for example. However, no monitoring, enforcement, or penalties are associated with the so-called mandatory program.

Klein cites the case of a cruise ship that off-loaded a barrel of hazardous waste in Tampa, FL, without notifying port authorities of its contents. When the error was discovered, the cruise line was not penalized. Another ship dumped 400,000 gallons of graywater into Los Angeles harbor in 2001 violating the ICCL's guidelines without penalty. The list goes on and on.

The record on air quality is more difficult to quantify, as cruise ships are not held to any air pollution standards. But the problem, and possible solutions, is not hard to identify.

When cruising to Bermuda one year, Klein noticed that the black soot coming out of the smokestack and drifting onto the deck stopped when the ship approached the island. While in port, the visible smoke disappeared entirely. It wasn't until steaming back out to sea that the dirty exhaust became visible again. He learned from a crew member that Bermuda requires use of cleaner low-sulfur fuel in port and that it was not a problem for ships to comply because the different fuels were held in separate tanks.

In San Francisco, Bluewater Network has been working with neighborhood groups to strengthen the environmental requirements for the proposed new cruise ship terminal at Pier 30 - 32. The Port has taken the lead by prohibiting all wastewater discharges, including ballast water, into the Bay by cruise ships using the new terminal. It has also committed to adopting a solid plan to reduce the significant air emissions of the project.

Ross Klein testified at a public hearing on the project's environmental document while in town, urging the board of supervisors to mandate strong enforcement and monitoring of the wastewater prohibition. He also suggested that they require use of low-sulfur fuels in the Bay as the Port of Los Angeles and Seattle are already doing. This fuel helps reduce cancer-causing particulate matter generated by large marine diesel engines. Klein also recommended more full examination of the use of shoreside electrical hookups so vessels can shut down these engines while in port.

The supervisors certified the environmental review, but promised to strengthen the environmental measures in the Port's lease agreement with the terminal developer.

In Cruise Ship Blues, Klein documents not only the environmental problems in the cruise industry, but also labor, public health, safety, and other issues. Among the revelations in the book is the little-known fact that more than 60 percent of cruise ships are registered in the Bahamas, Panama, or Liberia, even though they are headquartered in the United States and are owned by American interests. By flying these "flags of convenience" (the flag of a country other than the country of ownership), cruise lines are able to avoid many of the laws in North America. Their ships operate virtually free of U.S. labor laws and many other regulations. As "foreign" corporations (albeit with primarily American passengers), they also avoid virtually all U.S. taxes. "Flags of convenience" are easy to purchase: Liberia offers its registry through International Registries in Reston, Virginia, and Panama's fleet-safety and registration operation is based in Manhattan.

Most of the crew who work on board cruise ships come from developing nations and are forced to work long hours for low pay. The jobs are rarely secure, as Klein found out on a cruise when 33 people were suddenly terminated without notice and put ashore when a new cruise manager came on board who wanted to hire his own crew.

Currently, four cruise companies, sailing under a number of "brand names," control almost 90 percent of all berths on cruise ships. These four major players, in order of size, are Carnival Corporation (which consists of six cruise lines: Carnival Cruise, Holland America, Costa, Windstar, Seabourn, and Cunard); Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited (Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises); P&O Princess (P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Swan Hellenic, Aida, Seetours, and P&O Cruises Australia); and Malaysia-based Star Cruises (which includes Norwegian Cruise Line, Star Cruises, and Orient Line).

Carnival Corporation is now merging with P&O Princess, a fact that horrified two cruise passengers from the Princess Aurora who I met on the trolley line along the Embarcadero in San Francisco. The English couple has cruised for years on Princess and was very concerned about Carnival taking over because of its poor environmental record.

Cruise Ship Blues also:

· exposes the huge hidden costs of cruise vacations;

· details accidents at sea, on-board illnesses and other passenger safety issues;

· reveals the horrible working conditions in these "sweatshops at sea"; and

· illustrates the industry's systemic unresponsiveness to customer concerns.