Today – Earth Day – is special because our maritime law firm works in a specialized area of the law. Everything we handle is related to the world’s oceans and seas. Earlier today, our superstar legal intern, Caitlin Burke, wrote an excellent article entitled Earth Day – Spotlight on Cruising – A Dirty Business.
We know that
Caitlin Burke returns as a guest blogger today to discuss environmental issues and the cruise industry. We have written many articles about cruise ships and the problem with pollution.
Black water, gray water, oily bilge water, sewage, bunker fuel, smokestack exhaust . . . all discharging and billowing out of cruise ships and into
The Alaska Senate approved a measure today which will lower Alaska’s head tax on cruise ship passengers by at least $11.50 a passenger – from $46 to $34.50.
Count this one as a big win for Carnival and it subsidiaries – Princess Cruises and Holland America Line – which are the major polluters of Alaska’s waters.
In exchange for
The Charleston City Paper has an interesting headline this morning – "Are Cruise Ship Harmless Fun Or An Environmental Scourge?"
The article raises the issue of how South Carolina will face its future as a state with a major cruise port. Unlike progressive states like Alaska, California and Maine which regulate waste water discharges, the state
On Friday, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) passed a regulation requiring cruise ships, tankers and cargo ships to switch to low-sulfur fuel when they operate within 230 miles of the U.S. and Canada.
As reported in the Houston Chronicle, the new regulations should cut emissions linked to thousands of illnesses and premature deaths each year, according
The cruise industry is preparing to fight against clean air regulations which will protect the U.S. and Canada from the nasty bunker fuels burned by hundreds of cruise ships.
Reuters reports that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is proposing a plan to create a buffer zone around the U.S. and Canada which will require low emissions from cruise ships.
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Earlier this week, I attended the "Cruise Shipping Miami" convention here in Miami and reported on the threats against Alaska’s Governor Parnell leveled by Holland American Lines’ CEO Stein Kruse to pull HAL cruise ships from Alaska. (photo courtesy Travel Agent Central)
As we all know, HAL is wholly owned by Carnival and Kruse reports directly to Carnival CEO and multi-billionaire Mickey
Newspapers in Alaska are reporting that cruise lines are trying to avoid Alaska’s strict waste water laws.
The Juneau Empire reports that the cruise industry is complaining to lawmakers in Alaska that the limits on ammonia are too strict. The cruise industry’s "Alaska Cruise Association" – comprised of Miami based cruise lines – is again posturing to reposition its
There is an interesting article today in the Juneau Empire "Legislators Debate Removal of Cruise Panel Member Cohen – Cruise Ally Defends Removal of Industry Foe."
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The article points out that a Republican legislator, Craig Johnson (photo left), is defending the removal of waste water scientist Gershon Cohen (photo below) from a cruise ship science advisory panel at the insistence of
Newspapers in Alaska are reporting that the cruise industry is behind the sudden removal of a highly qualified green water scientist from an advisory council on cruise ship waste water discharge.
In December 2009, the Alaskan Department of Environmental Conservation ("DEC") invited environmental scientist Gershon Cohen to join the state’s cruise ship waste water treatment science panel. The advisory panel has 11 members, with experts in
A report entitled "Getting a Grip on Cruise Pollution" released today by the Friends of the Earth (FOE) organization concludes that the billions of dollars earned by the cruise industry 
each year comes at a significant cost to our nation’s air and water.
The report was researched and authored by Ross Klein, a Professor
U.K. ‘s Mail Online has an informative article in its Sunday edition today addressing the use of bunker fuels by cruise ships and other large shipping vessels entitled "How 16 Ships Create As Much Pollution As All The Cars In The World."
I wrote about the cruise industry’s use of bunker fuels in a blog
At this moment, the Oasis of the Seas is sailing with newspaper reporters, travel writers, cruise bloggers, and other cruise enthusiasts. They are tweeting their observations on Twitter under the hashtag #oasis.
One of the tweters is @johnnyjet who has a nice travel portal called JohnnyJet.com. He posted a photograph of the Royal
Royal Caribbean’s new "Genesis" class cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas, arrived this morning in Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale, Florida).
It looks big.
Here are two videos. The first by the Miami Herald shows the arrival of the cruise ship in port. The second by CBS News, featuring Peter Greenberg, is an introductory piece.
Prayers for
Over the past week, those of you who read my blog but don’t Twitter missed the remarkable phenomenon of bickering between a small group of travel bloggers invited by Princess Cruises to promote cruising under the hash tag #followmeatsea – and a larger group of green travelers who could not stomach the wow-cruising-is-amazing tone of the tweets.
"Bickering" may be an understatement. The
Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas coming to a port near you . . .
HOLY CRAP!!!
Here’s my take: Monster of the Seas – a Cruise Line Only Gordon Gekko Could Love . . .
Photo credit:
Oasis of the Seas DailyMail.co.uk "Inside the world’s biggest and most expensive ever cruise ship, the £810million Oasis of
This morning I read an interesting article regarding the cruise industry’s nasty practice of dumping raw sewage just three miles offshore and, sometimes, in state waters.
Fox News ran an article entitled "Federal Agencies Raise Alarm About Cruise Dumping." Its "fair and balanced" report included some disturbing facts:
"Raw sewage contains disease pathogens and toxins, impairs the respiratory
I read an interesting articleby a staff writer for the Take Part Blog about nasty discharges by cruise ships. The article is entilted "Cruise Ship Environmental Report Card Grim."
Hamida Kinge was a 2008/09 Environmental Reporting Fellow for the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting and a 2009 Fellow at the Scripps Howard Institute on the
