About two weeks ago, I posted the following question on our Cruise Law News Facebook page and received comments (and replies) from 364 people.
What do you believe is an appropriate sanction against Carnival Corp. for violating probation for pollution?
A. Imprison Carnival’s senior executives.
B. Bar Carnival Corp’s ships from U.S. ports.
C. A
The Friends of the Earth (FOE) non-profit organization just released its "Cruise Ship Report Card" for 2014. In a press release, the FOE states that "cruise ships dumped more than a billion gallons of sewage in the ocean this year, much of it raw or poorly treated . . "
The amount of raw
Yesterday the Friends of the Earth (FOE) filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington D.C. against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an effort to force the federal agency to regulate sewage discharges from cruise ships and other vessels in U.S. waters.
As the Palm Beach Post points out, cruise ships alone dumped more than one
A reader of Cruise News in Brazil sent us an article from a Brazilian newspaper indicating that swimmers (including children) at a public beach near Búzios City, Brazil reported to the hospital with irritated eyes, difficulty breathing, and gastrointestinal problems.
The beach is called Praia da Tartaruga (Turtle Beach).
According to the newspaper Globo, public environmental officials
CNN reports this morning that passengers aboard the Dream contacted the news channel, stating that there are power outages and overflowing toilets on the cruise ship which is in port at Philipsburg, St. Maarten, in the eastern Caribbean. The ship was supposed to leave port yesterday at 5:00 PM.
CNN quotes a passenger from North
In 2006, Alaskan citizens sent a clear message to the cruise industry that cruise ships could not treat the beautiful waters of Alaska like a toilet.
Seven years ago Alaskan voters approved legislation that prohibited cruise ships from discharging "untreated sewage, treated sewage, graywater or other wastewaters in a manner that violates any applicable
The "environmental report card" for the cruise industry is out and the grades for some of the major cruise lines are ugly.
Costa, Crystal and P&O Cruises all received failed grades on the report card prepared by the highly respected environmental group Friends of the Earth ("FOE"). The non-profit organization analysis the cruise lines’ environmental
The Palm Beach Post News / WPTV reports that ten passengers aboard the Bahamas Celebration cruise ship experienced a cruise they will never forget.
Raw sewage was coming out of sinks and overflowing from the shower drains. The mess leached out into the bathroom floors and into the hallway. One young woman said: "It was
The San Jose Mercury News reports that the Obama administration will enforce a California law designed to prohibit cruise ships from dumping any kind of sewage — even highly filtered wastewater — along California’s coast out to three miles from shore.
California will now have among the strictest laws in the nation limiting pollution from large ships.
Preparation for a trial delayed our "Top 10 Reasons Not To Cruise." But here we go again with the reasons why you should think twice before spending your hard earned vacation dollars on a family cruise. Here’s reason no. 8:
BLACKWATER!
That nasty raw sewage which cruise lines can freely dump – completely untreated – just twelve miles from shore. Yes
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 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
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.
A headline in the NoroBlog intrigued me – "Cruise Ships Causing Norovirus Outbreaks in Ports?" – indicating that norovirus is "often associated with cruise ship sickness." The article also raises the question whether cruise ships can infect the local port communities.
The cruise industry’s PR people have been fighting the connection between norovirus and "cruise ship sickness" for
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
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
