The statistics of recent years show that the popularity of cruising is growing and growing. In 2017, 25.8 million holidaymakers took to the high seas on cruise ships, with the total from 2018 projected to be 27.2 million. With US$ 35.5bn changing hands annually as a result of the cruise industry, the popularity also demands immense consumption of resources, and the need to offload waste and excess from port to port. How this is done (or rather not done) is just one of the many confronting issues facing the future of the cruise industry today.
Storm Clouds on the Horizon
The pollution caused by cruise ships is something that has come under greater pressure in recent years, but it has been an issue with a long history. When the world’s first purpose-built cruise ship, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise, set sail from the port of Hamburg, Germany in 1900, the world had not yet formed the strong international community seen today following the global cataclysm of World War II.
Despite the complex web of different legal layers, and also the difficulty of pursuing solutions through the international arena, there have been victories against cruise companies caught in the act of wrongdoing. In 2016 Princess Cruise Lines Ltd broke a record no cruise liner would wish to hold, getting hit with a record US$ 40mn fine after it emerged that the crew aboard its Caribbean Princess had deliberately dumped waste off the coast of England in 2013. The use of a ‘magic pipe’ to discard waste was revealed by a British engineer who became a whistleblower following the discovery of the crime of deliberate pollution.
The Inadequacy of International Law
Even if a crime is discovered, the reality is that, for many years, much pollution was not always the result of deliberate intent, but of mistakes and recklessness. A 2000 report by the United States Government Accountability Office found only 15% of discharges by cruise ships in international waters were done with intent by ship personnel. A whopping 85% occurred via accident, or an undetermined cause.
By no means does this excuse the cruise ships — many nations around the world have clear-cut criminal penalties for negligence, the same as they do for acts of intent — but international law has long lagged well behind the ideal. Even nations that have looked to create stronger environmental laws have often encountered trouble tackling the issue of cruise liner pollution, given the difficulty of investigating and enforcing behaviour on the high seas.
While the years since have seen a greater urgency applied to reform in this space, the cruise industry is informed by the same politics as the global climate change debate. Put simply, though cruise liner pollution may be a global concern, individual nations will apply their own sense of urgency (or lack of) to improving operational practice.
Shape Up or Ship Out
There is unquestionably self-interest in this space, not only for the cruise liners in maintaining their reputation, but also in the health of their crew and passengers. Following the measurement of air quality aboard four major cruise liners, America’s John Hopkins University published findings in January of this year that claimed the particulate matter (PM) on cruise ships is at times comparable to the poor air quality of a major city like Beijing in China. The PM was defined as airborne particles such as small solids or liquid droplets suspended in the air. Though the ability of cruise liners to finesse their way through and finagle local laws is well known, American law, under the Shipping Act of 1984, holds that cruise liners owe their customers a duty of care.
And what’s more, that duty of care is heightened comparative to other shipping vessels. Specifically, the Act mandates that cruise providers have a duty to ensure that all passengers arrive safely. So what would happen if it were to emerge that passengers have apparently contracted lung diseases and other respiratory illnesses as a result of a ship’s air pollution?
Were it to be proven that a cruise liner had breached a duty of care consistent with local law of the port that a cruise ship calls home, suddenly a cruise liner’s bottom line could be hit awfully hard by claim after claim for civil damages and restitution. This, even more so given that not only passengers and crew can be impacted by cruise ship pollution, but even residents of any port a cruise ship sails into. The estimate in early 2018 that 10% of the air pollution in Marseille, France was a result of cruise ships that dock in the world famous port, serves as an example.
The Depth of the Problem
As well as pollution, the cruise ship industry has long been a candidate for reform when it comes to its wider operating standards and practices. This is seen most vividly whenever a death by other than natural causes is believed to have occurred on board a cruise liner at sea.
While cruise liners have an understandable preference to keep quiet the news of any death, lest it discourage future tourists, this approach has resulted in roadblocks being placed in the path of investigations; also, evidence of industry-wide issues such as sexual abuse and human trafficking occurring, and going largely unaddressed, due to the industry’s clandestine nature. With the cruise industry growing, and our world becoming more economically borderless, no longer can a cruise liner which makes its home in one corner of the world arrogantly dismiss the damage it may do (whether by intent or negligence) in another corner of the planet.
Alongside the capacity for media outlets to cover in real time any scandals as they emerge, the ubiquity of smartphones and user review tourism websites mean it isn’t just in the positive interest of cruise liners to change; a failure to do so means they’re only ever one scandal and smartphone away from massive reputational damage.
All Hands on Deck
Nobody, in critiquing the industry, seeks to suggest it is all bad. The cruise industry brings immense joy to millions and is a great source of economic profitability for ships and the ports they visit. While the past has seen many issues, the future can be different. But as the cruise industry expands, and its profits soar, expectations grow too that new resources will be utilised to address old problems. After all, it’s always best to sail with the wind, and not against it.
